Terrifier 2 is an interesting film, in that it tries to build off what made the first film so popular – the extreme amounts of gore – and tries to add story to it. The gore succeeds, as it did the first time around. The story… not so much.

Picking up immediately where we left off after the first Terrifier, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is busy killing the coroner in the morgue. From there, he goes to a laundromat, strips butt-ass naked, and washes his clown costume. While waiting, he sees a little girl dressed remarkably similar to himself, and the two start laying together. When another patron, who had dozed off, wakes up, he sees a naked Art playing pattycake by himself, suggesting that this little girl is all in Art’s mind. The laundromat patron gets killed before Art leaves.

A year later, Art the Clown has disappeared, already little more than a local boogeyman. Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) are discussing their Halloween plans with their mother, and Jonathan wants to go dressed as Art the Clown. Both are horrified at the thought, but mom passes it off as Jonathan just going through a “weird phase.” Their father killed himself an indeterminate amount of time ago, and they are still dealing with the loss.


terrifier 2

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At this point, there are lots of story points that are mixed into the gory murder sequences, and quite frankly, I have no idea what is going on. Sienna has an extended nightmare about Art the Clown that ends with him lighting a group of people on fire. In her room, a set of feather wings she made for her Halloween costume catches on fire, nearly setting the entire house ablaze. A sword that her father gave her was untouched by the fire. Later on, the sword will become important for an incomprehensible supernatural story point.


The next day at school, Jonathan is out on a hall pass when he sees Art and the little girl playing with a dead possum in the middle of the school hallway. They throw it at him, Jonathan runs, and he gets suspended for vandalizing the school. Later on, he finds a news clipping in his father’s sketchbook about a young girl who was mutilated outside a carnival (the carnival which, later on, Sienna is lured to). This was the young girl playing with Art. As far as I can tell, Art, Sienna, and Jonathan can all see and interact with this little girl, but they are the only ones.