ART IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER
If you were expecting a sequel, while set during Christmas, that ramps up everything we love about the Terrifier franchise to a 15/10, then you got it! There are a plethora of kills that will make you turn over in your seat or cover your eyes. So many that I’ll have to dedicate a section of this blog just to the kills. Art’s antics are at an all time high in this and he has legit laugh out loud moments in interactions that we have come to love, in between all the gore and blood. The Christmas setting worked surprisingly well. The setup of that was done well and using the theme to assist in how Art performs his kills was brilliant. Sienna is back and of course traumatized by the events five years prior. She is a perfect final girl and is a star on the rise in my opinion. Hoping the huge success of this film helps catapult her into other projects.
LET’S START WITH THE MONEY MAKER, ART’S KILLS (THE LONG SECTION OF THE BLOG)
I couldn’t be happier that there are kills in this film that rival the big kills in the first and second movie. Art is in his bag in this film. While we don’t see it, we open the damn film with him cutting every limb off a kid while sleeping before hacking his dad and mom the pieces, which we do see and it’s a brutal kickoff for Art’s return to the big screen. It was one of those moments that just was a big “oh fuck here we go” moment for the film. Him eating some milk and cookies after was the icing on top too. Several kids get killed in this too, including those that are killed by a present bomb in the mall. While the killing of kids received a lot of backlash, it’s not unusual in horror. I don’t know why that became such a big complaint to casual horror fans. It was the next step for Art ramping it up and it shows he knows no limits.
Now to the Christmas bump we got from this film. When Art finds legends Daniel Roebuck (dressed as Santa) and Clint Howard hanging in a bar, you know they are just doomed. He uses a gun to kill Clint, which always makes me laugh when a slasher uses a gun just because it’s easiest, and then freezes Santa to death while chopping at him with a hammer before taking his Santa outfit and turning him into a mutilated human Snowman with a carrot in the nose as well. I’d also be ignorant if I didn’t mention that Tom Savini was a bystander in the mall massacre, just love when horror legends have cameos like this.
The poor building inspectors when Art and the Witch were woken back up got brutalized badly. Well Maurice Jackson only caught one stabbing, before the Witch did her own form of stabbing I’d rather not talk about cause it was so grotesque and unnecessary. The other guy however got his wig split literally by Art and a box cutter. He could have stopped there, but instead he bit his fingers off before defacing him from top of skull to neck. It was an unbelievably shocking kill with the man still screaming and one I think that was underrated and will be not remembered as well because of the unnecessary antics by the Witch in that scene.
Now to the Chainsaw. This is how a chainsaw kill is meant to be done. Sometimes movies make chainsaw cuts and slashes look so clean, where really the skin and bone being ripped by the blades in a savage and gross fashion is what Damien went for and succeeded with. The poor girl Mia got what she asked for, close ups with Art. Getting slashed to pieces with a chainsaw while having sex in a small shower stall just feels so old school slasher I loved it. She was slashed to pieces started with the midsection and Cole tried to crawl away before his leg that was cut collapsed. Giving Mia his glasses as she died was a funny touch. Cole however got the worst of it all, been violated by the chainsaw and cut from the groin up through the chest dragged on and was the toughest kill to watch thus far in the film (until the climax). The kill went exactly how you thought and was so detailed it felt like you shouldn’t be watching it, which is exactly what they were going for.
I can’t touch on every kill, but I will have to touch on the one that stirred my brain up the most. The fuckin Rat tube. Arm taking Sienna’s Aunt and hammering a tube down her throat is brutal as fuck alone, and you knew he was doing it for a reason. Only for the Witch to grab rats and start feeding them down to tube as Art used a lighter to force them down her throat. I thought that was the worse of it, until they slit her throat and the rats spilled out. It’s so fucked up they even thought of that let alone executed it as well practically on screen as it did. As a kill it’s bloody brilliant, as a viewer, I’ll never be the same.
SIENNA IS THE BEST FINAL GIRL WE HAVE HAD IN YEARS
The thing that makes Sienna such an amazing final girl is that she is the whole package. Lauren LaVera does an incredible job playing her and continues to develop the character in this movie. The script calls for her to portray her past trauma while Art’s return develops and it’s a great building of layers during the early gory scenes. Her relationship with her brother feels like it grows stronger as he tries to move past the events while she still is tormented daily by the memories. She carried the scene at the dinner table with her dead friend and it truly felt like she was so out in her own world of trauma that nothing else existed. I thought it was a great establishing scene for her in this film.
While she became more developed as a character emotionally, we also get to see her fight back against Art and his chainsaw again and they truly feel equal in those scenes because she is (by the lore) destined to defeat him. I think there is a big reason they are connected and she is the perfect counter to Art. She is able to look like she holds her own physically and not look weak in any sense when fighting Art or the Witch. I couldn’t be more attached to a final girl at the moment and she is perfect in this role. Without her the second and third installments just aren’t the same in my opinion.
FINAL THOUGHTS – WHAT’S TO COME IN TERRIFIER 4
So for Terrifier 4, that Damien is calling the “Final installment” of the franchise. As for now. It’s hard for me to fully imagine they are done completely due to the popularity of Art and the absolute wads of money these movies make. The return is insane on these films. But if this is the last film, here are a few things I believe we can expect.
- Complete backstory on Art. He was once human back in Terrifier 1 before becoming supernatural and I believe there is a lot to delve into there that we will get from Art. And it will play an important part in the overall franchise, and not just be backstory for backstory sake.
- We will understand the complete connection between Sienna and the demon that possesses Art. I’m convinced it’s the demon that has the formed connection with her father and we will see that come full circle.
- Jonathan is actually dead, but Sienna will have to go into Hell to fully defeat Art, and she will rescue Jonathan and Gabbie.
- It will be a step back in gore compared to Terrifier 3. The latest film went 1000x on the gore and killing. While I do believe it will have a ton of gore, I expect closer to Terrifier 2 than the insane amounts of gore and kills we got in Terrifier 3. This isn’t a bad thing, just more focus on the story and plot points to bring the franchise home.
- It will either be a 4th of July style release, like how 3 was in the Christmas spirit, or it will not be centered around a holiday at all. I think the Christmas theme was a ton of fun, but I don’t think the fourth installment needs a holiday theme after we had so much fun with Ole Saint Nicholas in part 3.
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