Director – Damien Leone (All Hallow’s Eve, Frankenstein vs The Mummy)
Starring – Jenna Kanell (The Vampire Diaries, Super Sunday), Samantha Scaffidi (The Apocalypse Survival Guide, Demon Hole), and David Howard Thornton (Gotham, The Bravest Knight)
Release Date – 2016
Rating – 2.5/5
This October has taken a fucking abysmal turn. So far this month I’ve watched some amazing horror movies. Some were new while others are classics that I’m just now getting around to checking out. While I was on the hunt for movies I’ve never seen before I decided to toss in the horror anthologies All Hallow’s Eve and All Hallow’s Eve 2. The first film was just horrible. It took me two days to finally finish it. The second film had a couple awesome segments but the remaining segments bring the movie down.
Terrifier is the main reason I watched these two films. I had heard nothing but good things about Terrifier before I watched it. However, when I posted that I was checking it out some of my social media friends posted that this film was more meh than anything. After checking it out I have to agree with them. Where were they before I got excited for it?
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows two women returning from a Halloween party when they spot an odd clown lurking in the dark alley near their car. They leave and go for a quick bite and the clown finds them at the pizzeria. After a weird encounter with him they go to their car to leave and find the tire flat. One of them calls their sister for a ride but it will be sometime before she can pick them up. They sit in the car for a few moments but one needs to use the restroom and ask an exterminator (working odd hours) to let her in an abandoned building to piss. He agrees and while she is gone the clown kidnaps her friend. The building she is in is the same building that the clown calls home and soon a game of cat and mouse ensues before he is able to grab the second woman. He eventually kills them both and anyone else that wonders into the building. Eventually, the young woman’s sister arrives and another game of cat and mouse follows. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into this one with a lot of excitement. I heard so many great things prior to viewing it and even ignore the fact that All Hallow’s Eve, the film Terrifier is a spin off of, was total shit. Sadly, Terrifier was the textbook example of Wal-Mart horror. The film looks very appealing on the shelf but the movie is mediocre at best. Director Mike Lombardo said it best; “Terrifier is an FX demo reel” and I fully agree with that.
The acting in this one is over done. I love slashers with overdramatic acting but this one just didn’t fit the film. Slashers from the 80s was known for having the cast ham it up on camera but Terrifier didn’t come off as campy or cheesy like these films. However, it just doesn’t work with this film.
The story for this one sounds like a fantastic slasher on paper but once filmed is just bland. The viewer does not get enough substance with this slasher and for a feature length film the story is just stretch way too far. You could cut 30 minutes out of this one easily and make it a more fluid viewing experience.
Finally, the film is a visual feast in regards to on screen kills and gore. The kills are fucking brutal and the gore looks great. This is some of the best practical effects I think I’ve seen all year. Overall, Terrifier is a horror flick that I am sad to say is just a middle of the road horror flick. The gore and amazing but the story, acting, and running time just works against it. It reminded me a lot of The Orphan Killer that suffered the same fate. I can recommend this one for a one time viewing just to see the gore but the film as a whole is a huge let down.
