While Terrifier 3 contains a plethora of grotesque, gruesome fatalities, not all of the slasher sequels’ kills are equally brutal.
Art the Clown’s films are not for the faint-hearted. To misquote Christopher Walken’s Man On Fire character, Art the Clown’s art is death, and he has created several gruesome masterpieces throughout the Terrifier franchise.
Although Art the Clown’s deadliest kill occurred in 2016’s Terrifier, Terrifier 3’s increased body count raises the series’ stakes. Terrifier 3’s cliffhanger ending leaves two characters’ fates unclear, but it takes some brutal deaths to get there.
Each of Terrifier 3’s big death scenes is memorable, whether for its brevity, dark comedy, shock value, or sheer cruelty. Throughout the film, Art the Clown and his accomplice, Terrifier’s now-villainous original Final Girl Victoria, murder around 22 people.
Some of these victims die suddenly, which is frightening because it is so unexpected, while others die slowly, making anyone wish for a faster exit. Overall, Terrifier 3’s character deaths are some of the most horrific and inevitably contentious delights the horror industry provided in 2024.
11Corey And The Four Mall Victims
One of the biggest questions about Terrifier 3 was whether Art the Clown would violate a major taboo that the villain hadn’t done since 2013’s anthology horror film All Hallow’s Eve. Although his roles in Terrifier and Terrifier 2 made him a horror fan favourite, Art the Clown did not kill any children in the first two Terrifier films.
That certainly changes in Terrifier 3, where Art dresses up as a mall Santa and gives a small boy a present that turns out to be a bomb, which quickly explodes and kills four other consumers.
10Eddie and Smokey
Although the murdering of child characters in Terrifier 3 is technically disturbing, Corey’s death at the mall feels more like a coarse comic beat than a true scare. The scene is designed for chuckles, making it the sequel’s least severe death.
The second most merciful deaths in the film are those of bartender Eddie and Clint Howard’s barfly Smokey, who are both shot in the head by Art and die quickly.
While not particularly enjoyable, both deaths are comparably fortunate in that they ensure that neither character dies in a slow, torturous manner, as many other victims do.
9The Opening Scene’s Unnamed Father And Son
Speaking of rapid yet terrible deaths, it’s worth noting that all of the remaining fatalities in Terrifier 3 are incredibly violent. As a result, the only criterion available for determining which characters suffered the most is the time spent dying on-screen.
As a result, the second and third killings in Terrifier 3 are rather quick compared to most of the film’s kills. Art’s off-screen dismemberment of an unnamed son makes no sound, implying that he perished while sleeping.
His father is less fortunate but appears to die within a few seconds of being attacked.
8Unnamed Exterminator
Dennis, the exterminator with the unfortunate luck of discovering Art in the attic of an abandoned house, suffers one of Terrifier 3’s most painfully slow deaths.
Dennis’ anonymous coworker, on the other hand, is off the hook. While exploring the basement of the same building, the exterminator comes across Victoria’s lifeless body.
Unaware that he is dealing with a supernatural being, the exterminator reaches out to her, only to be fatally slashed by a piece of glass. A massive neck wound guarantees the exterminator’s exit is quick but painful, as he bleeds dead in seconds.
7The Opening Scene’s Unnamed Mother
While her husband and kid died from their wounds before even getting out of bed, the mother in Terrifier 3’s first scene was not so fortunate.
Terrifier 3’s first drawn-out death is that of this unhappy mother, who Art repeatedly stabs until he slices off her arm and then breaks her head in two with an axe.
With a lengthy pursuit sequence chasing her through the house, several vicious hits before the lethal stroke, and an unnecessary limb amputation, this kill led some more sensitive viewers to leave Terrifier 3’s opening scene.
6Charles Johnson
The audience members that fled following the nameless mother’s pre-title card death were wise to do so since Terrifier 3 only gets worse from there.
Although Eddie and Smokey die quickly after Art pranks them at a quiet bar, the mall Santa, who gives Art his outfit and beard, has a considerably worse fate.
Tied to a chair, the mall Santa begs for his life and tells Art his true name. Art draws influence from Jason X’s Jason Voorhees, who mercilessly injects Santa with liquid nitrogen before severing his still-living body.
5Mia
While Terrifier 3 has received great reviews, this should not surprise franchise fans. Despite their flaws, the Terrifier films demonstrate Damian Leone’s passion for horror. This shines through in Terrifier 3’s Psycho homage, which sees Art attack and murder a canoodling couple as they shower.
Terrifier 3’s shower scene is a lot worse than Hitchcock’s famous sequence, with Art using his chainsaw to dismember the still-living couple as they try to escape.
4Burke The Hospital Orderly
In Terrifier 3, Chris Jericho plays Burke, a gigantic orderly in the psychiatric institution where Victoria is a patient. Burke’s destiny is especially bad because he is the first character to be brutalized by both Art and Victoria.
As Victoria rips chunks from the orderly’s face, Art the Clown’s headless corpse scalps him.
Burke’s eventual death is kept off-screen, but the scenes that viewers see are more than enough to qualify it as one of Terrifier 3’s most heinous killings. Once rejoined, Art’s mind and body engage in even more despicable behaviour.
3Dennis
It would take a lot to outdo Jess’s vile fate, but one of Terrifier 3’s first kills is arguably its most detailed and nastiest death.
Dennis, the exterminator, finds Art in the attic of an abandoned home, and before he can comprehend what’s happening, what looks like a clown statue has come to life and tossed him across the room.
Impaled through the hand with a nail, Dennis is pinned to the floor as Art eats his fingers and takes a boxcutter to his scalp. As if this weren’t enough, Art then peels his head wholesale as the still-conscious Dennis screams.
2Jess
Jess is arguably the most sympathetic new character in Terrifier 3, which makes her brutal fate all the more nasty. Sienna’s sweet aunt reminisces with her about her late mother and defends her niece when Sienna is accused of lying about Art’s return.
However, Jess also makes the fatal mistake of slipping Sienna a sleeping aid while Jess’s husband goes to pick up Sienna’s little brother, Jonathan.
As a result, Sienna is fast asleep when Victoria and Art break into the house, take Jess’s daughter Gabbie hostage and kill both her husband and Jonathan off-screen.
1Cole
The Worst Terrifier Death to happen is here. In Terrifier, Art the Clown cemented his spot in horror history with a daring sequence in which he chopped an unfortunate female victim in half.
This sequence receives a delightfully over-the-top homage to Terrifier 3’s most gruesome death, Cole’s. Cole, the second half of the shower above sex duo, has his hand severed and his leg chainsawed by Art before crawling to safety.
As a wacky novelty song plays on the Terrifier 3 soundtrack, Art the Clown begins to chainsaw Cole in half from the bottom up. Without going too graphic, it is safe to say that no part of Cole’s body is spared in this heinous procedure.
It’s unclear how much of this takes place while Cole is still alive or conscious, but Cole’s death is the most purely gruesome scene in Terrifier 3’s violent, bloody duration.
About Terrifier 3
Terrifier 3 is a 2024 American Christmas supernatural slasher film written and directed by Damien Leone.
It stars Lauren Lavera, Elliott Fullam, Margaret Anne Florence, Bryce Johnson, Antonella Rose, Samantha Scaffidi and David Howard Thornton. On the days leading up to Christmas, the story follows Sienna Shaw as she attempts to rebuild her life. At the same time, Art the Clown is pursuing her alongside his new accomplice, a possessed Victoria Heyes. It is the sequel to Terrifier 2 (2022) and is the third installment in the Terrifier franchise.
Following the critical and commercial success of Terrifier 2, Leone began writing for the third film with plans for an overarching narrative. Leone wanted to feature Victoria more prominently, as he regretted leaving the character underdeveloped in the first film. Principal photography began in February 2024 and wrapped that April.
Terrifier 3 premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on September 19, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 11, 2024. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The film has grossed $18.8 million on a $2 million budget, making it the highest-grossing film from the franchise.
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