10 Most Anxiety-Inducing Horror Movies EVER
6. Terrifier
And right on cue, as soon as this list claims it's difficult to make an audience care about the fate of some slasher film's stock teen characters, this next entry proves it is still possible.
Subtle it isn’t, but Damian Leone’s 2016 slasher throwback Terrifier is gruesomely effective in its ability to give grown adults nightmares. The film, a spin-off of Leone's earlier goofier anthology All Hallow's Eve, follows the murder spree of twisted entertainer/potentially paranormal monster Art the Clown as he picks off a string of victims.
The film's monster design, an unnervingly simple greasepaint makeover, is made unbelievably effective by actor David Howard Thornton's performance. Whether he's handing a girl a ring or sawing her in half, the clown moves with the uncanny and unsettling affected air of an actual children's entertainer, making his child-like empty grins even more terrifying.
Where many movie clowns such as the infamous Pennywise are aware they're evil and seem canny about it hiding it, the gleefully amoral Art is a deeply anxiety-inducing creation because no number of bullets or beatings can wipe the smug smile from his face, and there's nothing apparently human beneath his herky-jerky, mime-like exterior.