Art the Clown is currently terrorizing audiences across the country with Terrifier 3 now playing in theaters (and making bank doing so). But despite the abundance of blood and gore present in all three of the films from director Damien Leone, there are some lines that even he won't cross.
Mild spoilers ahead for Terrifier 3
While chatting with Variety recently, Leone revealed the taboo he doesn't want to step over, namely killing children.
But wait! Didn't Art murder kids in Terrifier 3? The clown did indeed kill several children in the third movie. However, all of their deaths were shown off-screen.
The film's opening includes a scene where Art viciously kills an entire family, and one of the victims is a young boy. As gruesome as it is, the audience doesn't actually see Art killing the kid, we can only hear it. Later, Art also brings explosives disguised as presents to a mall Santa meet-and-greet. When they inevitably go off, several children are the victims.
Both incidents crossed the line for some viewers, but Leone says they would never fully show something like that in all its gory glory like they do in, say, the shower scene.
So while he is game to push boundaries and cross lines no one would expect to be crossed, he does have his limits.
"You can absolutely fall into a level of extreme distaste that I’m trying not to do."
As it stands, the Terrifier movies are built to alienate certain viewers. There will always be critics who don't like the extreme gore and how each movie tries to build on top of the previous one to outdo what came before. But Leone is aware that some things would be too alienating. It's a fine line that the majority of horror filmmakers have to contend with at one point or another.
"It’s like you’re trying to shock the audience so much it just becomes desperate. I think it’s my job as an artist to try and walk that line in a more interesting way, in a more responsible way."
And yes, more Terrifier is on the way. A fourth movie in the franchise has already been confirmed, with Leone telling the outlet that Terrifier 4 will be "an epic closure to this Art the Clown saga," suggesting the fourth film will also be the final one in the series, but it seems more likely there will be at least five Terrifier movies in total. In a different interview with Discussing Film, Leone said he couldn't see the franchise going past two more. But you never know!