Terrifier 2′s lead Laura LaVera is not having a bar of the fan criticisms about the lack of female nudity in the sequel, with her going on a Twitter rant about the topic.
2016’s Terrifier featured very prominent and rather distasteful female nudity as Art the Clown tortured two women in one of the most shocking moments in the film, but its sequel went away with the torture erotica angle of the first. Celebrating her movie’s release on video on demand, LaVera responded to one of the most insane bits of criticism the film may ever see: there wasn’t enough nudity
Given the film’s premise follows a sadistic killer. and already saw its finished product result in audience members fainting and vomiting, this is a bizarre hill to die on. LaVera doesn’t suffer fools lightly, and called out the Twitter user at one point for wanting to see her on-screen character (a teenage girl) nude. She later deleted the tweet, but still a strong point to make. It should be noted LaVera herself is 28 years-old.
Why would your main reaction to a film as confronting as Terrifier 2 be “hmm, would be better if there was nudity?”
LaVera also pointed out the double standards of such a comment: there is some nudity in Terrifier 2 as a man’s penis gets brutalized in a vivid and disgusting way. The star feels some men just seem to get joy out of a woman getting brutalized on screen, and it’s absolutely nothing to do with artistic value.
She later deleted several more tweets from the debate, citing it made her feel uncomfortable as it dragged on and saw more people get involved. There’s something interesting in how the world views female nudity in horror in particular, with horror often featuring scantily clad women getting horrible deaths, but why?
Is having a female star nude really crucial to a story or plot? In some films like Friday the 13th and X, there’s definite subtext around sex, promiscuity, and sexuality itself. But not in Terrifier. The films follow a sadistic clown who kills on a whim, never because of anything related to sex.
Credit to LaVera, who gave her absolute all in Terrifier 2 and is a star on the up. Looking to become a 2020s scream queen icon, she’ll likely pop up in Terrifier 3.