Horror offers so much content on such a regular basis that’s impossible to predict what the genre’s next sensation is going to be, meaning it would be fair to state that anyone who caught 2013 anthology All Hallows’ Eve would never have been able to guess that Terrifier antagonist Art the Clown would go on to become an icon.
Writer and director Damien Leone took the concept and ran with it, delivering a well-received chiller on a minuscule budget of just $35,000 that captured attention and imaginations everywhere. Utilizing some of the gnarliest practical effects you’re ever likely to see, Terrifier maximized its resources to find huge popularity among horror diehards, but that was only the beginning.
This year’s sequel upped the ante in every conceivable way, and it’s become an immensely profitable box office smash hit after bringing in over $11 million from theaters on production costs of only $250,000. Terrifier 2 may have been almost 10 times costlier than its predecessor, but you can be damned sure the risk was worth the reward.
Such is the way Art’s misadventures have seized the zeitgeist by the throat, producers Bloody Disgusting have even submitted it for Oscars consideration, for the sole purpose of subjecting members of the Academy to its… unique charms. A threequel is on the way, but the first two continue to tear streaming limb from limb on a multitude of platforms.
Per FlixPatrol, Terrifier is one of the Top 10 most-watched features on the Prime Video global charts, while its sequel can be found indulging its homicidal tendencies on the Google Play Movies, Amazon, and Rakuten ranks. It’s been almost a decade since his debut, but Art the Clown is clearly here to stay.