Terrifier
2018 · Directed by Damien Leone
Original language: English
- horror
The story
A maniacal clown named Art terrorizes three young women on Halloween night and everyone else who stands in his way.
What it’s like
Gritty, low-budget grindhouse texture: grainy digital video, harsh fluorescent and sodium-streetlight glare, and a lot of black where the night swallows the frame. Many scenes are shot on cramped, dimly lit locations, with handheld camera work that stays close to the characters' panic and holds on the killer's pale, painted face as it drifts through doorways and empty streets. The score leans on sparse, grinding synth stings and long stretches of near silence broken by wet, mechanical sounds. Its vibe is bleak, mean and deliberately unpleasant, the sort of Halloween-night nastiness that plays best late at night with the lights off. Pacing is slow to build and then abrupt, with the violence arriving in long, unflinching set pieces that linger on the damage rather than cutting away. This is extreme and graphic: explicit gore, brutal torture-style violence, and sustained dread throughout, with little relief or humour to soften it. It is not gentle and should not be chosen by anyone wanting comfort. It suits horror devotees who enjoy old-school slasher bluntness, gross-out effects and a villain who feels genuinely cruel, and who can take a relentless, nasty ride.
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