There's plenty to talk about when it comes to the Terrifier franchise. Whether it be the stomach-churning kills or the origins of Art the Clown, horror connoisseurs and haters alike will never run out of talking points. But I'm not here to go over any of that. I'm here to discuss the REAL star of Terrifier, the heroine often overshadowed by her monochromatic counterpart, the one and only Sienna "Battle Angel" Shaw.
Okay, so, first things first, what is a Final Girl? I doubt that anybody reading this doesn't know what a Final Girl is, but if you don't, here it is: Basically, the term "Final Girl" refers to the last woman standing in a horror movie, and she is usually the one to confront the antagonist, or escape them. She is also usually the main female character. You could probably name an iconic Final Girl right now, because the trope has become so recognizable across all types of media. Different people have different rules and qualifiers when bestowing the title, but all you need to know for this article is that Female Survivor = Final Girl.
There's a lot about Sienna that separates her from other Final Girls. Now, that's not to say I'm dunking on anyone in particular. Trust me, I LOVE a Final Girl. But Sienna offers a refreshing new take on the trope. These differences fluctuate from superficial to literal cosmic proportions, and create a very obvious divide between her and other leading ladies. In fact, I'm willing to argue that Sienna is an entirely brand new type of Final Girl. To back myself up, I'm going to take you through each and every component, big and small, that make up Sienna Shaw.
The first thing that came to mind for me was her autonomy and sexuality. Yes, there's a bit of sideboob action and a nude shower scene, and yes, she wears a sexy costume for Halloween. But the thing is, she got to make that choice for herself. Our first introduction to Sienna is as she's working tirelessly on her outfit. It's a big enough part of her character that other people point it out, with her friend talking about how many months she spent on it, and her mother being frustrated by the fact that she's up finishing details at the early hours of the morning. She put thought and hard work into it, and it was a conscious decision that she herself made. So many Final Girls are sexy, but they're often vulnerable and violated, or they're deciding to get naked in a situation where literally no one would ever do so. Being attacked in the shower, skinny dipping in a lake, nipples being visible through sheer shirts, it's been done to death, and most of the time, they are robbed of choice. But Sienna Shaw gets to be sexy because SHE wants to be.
As a horror lover, I'm pretty accustomed to on-screen violence. I mean, it's expected when watching a slasher, especially one like Terrifier. And if you're a side character in a horror movie, it's almost guaranteed that you're gonna be subjected to that violence, if not killed off entirely. I'm sure every horror fan out there can list at least three side characters they're still salty about kicking the bucket, and I'll willingly admit that I cry to horror movies on the REGULAR. (Looking at you, The Long Walk). All this to say, there will inevitably be a moment when our heroine stumbles across the maimed and mutilated body of her loved one, and usually it'll take her down for just long enough for the villain to gain some ground. You know what I'm talking about, those moments when we're screaming at our screens for her to "GET UP! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" Sienna goes through a fair amount of grief through Terrifier, bearing witness to the deaths of her best friend, her mother, her aunt and uncle, (allegedly) her brother, and losing her little cousin as she falls into the fiery depths of a portal, all while still reeling from the tragic death of her father (more on that later). While she is stricken by each of these, and while Art does get in several good beatings, she always comes back with just as much fury. My point being, Sienna is beaten down again and again, both physically and emotionally, but she keeps going in spite of her grief. When something needs to be done, Sienna Shaw will do it.
In my several rewatches I noticed a few references to phoenix mythology around Sienna. When we first meet Sienna in her room, we get a very blatant shot of a poster on her wall, one that reads "Queen Phoenix"- a fictional in-universe singer portrayed by Damien Leone himself. Additionally, the wings on her costume are meant to be angel wings, but the part when they burn in the fire, leading to Sienna having to get a new pair from the costume store, where she first meets Art in person, also make me think of her as some kind of phoenix. Later when she's suiting up for Halloween, I very much got the vibe that she was "rising from the ashes" and preparing for battle, although she doesn't know this yet. More of the ash metaphor comes in with Terrifier 3, when she retrieves her sword from the carnival, and her hands are covered in ash. Both times we see her interact in any way with ash, it is shortly before she encounters (and gets a good whooping on) Art.
A lot of people might not initially connect the dots on this when thinking of Terrifier, but the franchise is actually very heavily influenced by Christian ideas. This is where we delve into the iceberg. There was always an implication that Art was some kind of demonic enitity, or at least involved with such forces. Damien Leone's very first short featuring Art is called The 9th Circle, this being a reference to the 9th circle of hell, where the devil resides. Most people, including Leone, don't consider the short films to be part of the Terrifier canon, but it's important to note that Art the Clown, and his background, was always made with religious concepts in mind. So...what does this have to do with Sienna? To start off simply, most casual fans are able to ascertain that Sienna is Art's exact counterpart. The shallowest example of this, for instance, would be Art wearing a vertical black and white suit, whereas Sienna wears a sweater with horizontal black and white stripes. This is one of the most basic depictions of the Dark vs. Light/Evil vs. Good conflict. That was the easy stuff. From here, it goes so much deeper. Terrifier lore, which I have explored extensively while writing this article, states that Sienna was actually predetermined to be the Good in her and Art's ongoing battle of Good vs. Evil. An early suggestion of this is when Sienna is getting ready for the club on Halloween. As she puts on her costume, the audience briefly sees a neon sign on her bedroom wall that reads "no escape," this meaning that she was always meant to fight against Art. There is no way she can avoid it or run from it.
According to director Damian Leone's commentary, both Art and Sienna are acting through metaphysical beings; Art's being the evil Entity, and Sienna's being the good Divine. Since both of them were at one point resurrected by their respective beings, they each became supernatural. Sienna's father, Michael Shaw, was for some reason, a vessel for the Divine, and had visions of Art and Sienna's battle, which is why he drew Art, his victims, and Sienna's character. This is also why he gave her the magical sword. At the moment, we don't know all of the details around how or why he got it, and we will probably have to wait until Terrifier 4 to find out. The point is, he knew what was going to happen to Sienna, and this is actually what caused his death: his Divine visions were too much for a human to handle, and it essentially manifested as a tumor in his brain. Sienna's destiny was pretty much set from the beginning but, as Leone also says in his commentary, her dream sequence in the Clown Cafe was what sealed the deal. The dream was a test from the Divine to see if Sienna would choose to fight Art. When she does, the Divine baptizes her sword, and this is why it can't kill her.
Throughout Terrifier 2 and 3, there is quite a bit of heavy-handed Christian imagery, in addition to the obvious angel vs. demon references. Sienna being lashed by Art's scissor whip parallels the flagellation of Jesus Christ. She is also stabbed in the rib (ish) area, and is healed and resurrected from the dead, again, much like Christ. Even as she assembles her Halloween costume, before she knows what's going to happen to her, a certain Bible verse comes to mind. Ephesians 6: 11-16 states, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." She puts on all of these pieces in turn and, if you change the "shield of faith" to her magical sword, the sequence bears a great similarity to the scripture. Most fans would agree that Terrifier 3 is more barefaced in its depictions of Christian iconography, and I tend to agree, but for me, this is the first time we get an idea of just how paramount Sienna will be in Art's fate, and just how powerful she will become, as she dons her armor.
When it was announced that Terrifier 3 was going to be set during Christmas, most fans expected an abundance of Santa-themed gore, which, granted, there was. I'll never see a mall Santa the same way again. ButTerrifier 3 continues to lean into Christian symbolism, actually going even further with it. Sometimes it's subtle, with little clues hidden here and there, and sometimes it's much more obvious and in-your-face. It also ranges from indistinct hinting around good and evil, to much more recognizable portrayals of Jesus Christ. The smaller examples of this include Sienna's present, and the wrapping paper being decorated with angels. There are also several scenes where Sienna is positioned in such a way that makes it look as though she has wings. For instance, in the third act of the film, when she is tied to the chair by Art and forced to watch her aunt's death, the design on the back of the chair gives her the appearance of having wings. The more blatant allusions to Jesus are most conspicuous during the last chunk of the movie. For the last act, she is forced to wear a crown of thorns, which is by far the most obvious reference. When she is tied to the chair and Art smashes her hands with a hammer, this parallels Christ being nailed to the cross. Now, I might be reaching on this last one, but there is a moment when Sienna is trying to pull her cousin up from the hole, and she says, "Oh God, help!" which reminded me of Jesus praying to God in desperation the night before His crucifixion. Turning Sienna into this otherworldly, god-like being leads me to believe that Art has finally met his match, and that she's going to be laying the smackdown on him come the final movie.
In addition to the plot's overarching references to Christ, Sienna's struggle reminded me of another Bible tale: the story of Job. To sum it up, Job is tested by God through extreme suffering. He loses his health, his children, his wealth. Through all of it, he retains his piety and faith in God. Sienna, though perhaps not being tested by God Himself, is definitely dealing with some kind of miraculous forces. She carries on through the deaths of her family, her friends, her normal life. Even when she realizes that Art is somehow still alive, she buckles down and does what she needs to do. When he escapes at the end of the movie, and when her cousin falls into the hell portal, rather than being incapacitated by grief, she vows to save her cousin and kill Art. Although it's never stated outright, Sienna clearly retains faith in her belief that evil can be defeated.
Although Sienna is the one with whom Art has brawled the most, she actually is not the first one to catch on to her purpose. It takes a letter written to Sienna by Jonathan sometime between the events of the second and third movies, saying, "If a demon enters this world in the flesh, a counterpart must be appointed to stop it from becoming too powerful. It's you, Sienna. As long as you're alive, they're vulnerable, and they know it." Present-day Jonathan is reluctant to discuss Art, wanting to live as normal a life as possible, but Sienna takes the note to heart and accepts her duty. If there was any room left for doubt, the point is hammered home when Sienna has a vision: in a fiery landscape she sees a demon-like creature forging her sword. The rest of her armor sits on the blacksmith's bench, already done, and a moving statue of the Virgin Mary stands over the creature, binding it in chains and keeping it in check. Honestly, I'm still not sure what relevance, if any, the demon has with the sword, or how Michael Shaw got his hands on it, but this scene is another piece of evidence that Sienna's fate was cosmically set in stone long before she knew Art.
Let's wrap things up. Does Sienna Shaw belong among the Final Girls? With the most basic definition of the trope in mind, yes, absolutely. She meets all the criteria, in my opinion. My argument is just that, while she meets all the expectations of the Final Girl, she also surpasses them so dramatically that it would make more sense to put her on an entirely different level. I mean, can you name any other Final Girl who, within the same series continuity and canon, has been resurrected and baptized to become a supernatural being in order to defeat the embodiment of evil? All this to say, Sienna Shaw is in my personal Top 3 when it comes to Final Girls, and deserves just as much love- if not more- as Art the Clown.