10 Horror Movies That Pissed You Off Straight Away
6. Terrifier 3 (2024)
Damien Leone’s Terrifier series has come a long, long way since he was making Art the Clown shorts with Mike Giannelli - all the way to mainstream cinema, in fact - building out the Terrifier narrative without compromising on the level of messed up antics and gore fans expect to see.
The biggest instalment to date, Terrifier 3 puts David Howard Thornton’s Art back in Sienna Shaw’s (Lauren LaVera) life in a big way, bringing along his ex-victim Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) for the grim, gory Christmas massacre. But while previous entries have taken their time building up to the biggest and most brutal kills, 3 really tested audiences from the get.
The film opens on what appears to be the night before Christmas, and is shown from the perspective of a sweet little girl who has woken up and come down to find Santa in her living room. Unfortunately, he has clown makeup and an axe. What follows is five minutes of pure, undiluted horror, in which Art takes the family apart piece by piece - including the girl’s brother, dismembered in his bed.
Some audiences threw up, some left, and all found this an especially aggrieving part of a thoroughly aggrieving film. But come on - you really can't expect to brutally slaughter two children and their family on Christmas Eve and get away with it.