Although its planned 2020 launch was pushed back by COVID-19, Terrifier 2 is now expected to arrive sometime in the near future. In the last year, we’ve received a trailer and some suitably gory images to tease the return of Art the Clown, and writer-director Damien Leone has recently noted that the sequel will run for approximately two hours in length.
Announcing the news on Facebook, Leone had this to say about the project:
“You might like to know I have already assembled a rough 1 hr and 30 minutes of Terrifier 2. Based on what I have left to edit, I’m projecting the final film to clock in at around the 2 hour mark! I know that’s not typical of slasher films but then again this isn’t your typical slasher film.”
In addition, he made the somewhat ambitious claim that Terrifier 2 will be the “Apocalypse Now of indie horror films.” Given that editing was well on the way to being completed towards the beginning of 2021, we wouldn’t be surprised if an official release date is confirmed soon. Whether that will involve a purely streaming premiere, or an additional theatrical engagement, is another question, but it’s clear that Leone will continue to find creative ways to get his work out to audiences.
Partly financed by an Indiegogo campaign, Terrifier 2 sees David Howard Thornton reprise his role as a murderous clown, and he’ll be taking on a brother and sister on Halloween night. Lauren LaVera plays Sierra, the older of the siblings, who has to protect her younger family from the resurrected killer. From what we’ve already glimpsed in terms of footage and photos, Terrifier 2 will be pushing the premise of its predecessor to new levels, while Leone has also been working on a prequel comic series to explain more about the mythology behind the action.
If you haven’t seen the first Terrifier, it’s definitely worth a watch as one of the more imaginative independent horror movies of the last decade, and certainly among the bloodiest. Based on the enthusiasm that Leone’s been generating with his regular updates on social media, we’re looking forward to seeing whether Terrifier 2 can match or even exceed the straight-ahead genre fun of the original.