Off the back of plenty of hype and great word of mouth, Damien Leone’s long-awaited Terrifier 2 has arrived for UK viewers.
With vomit bags, reports of people vomiting and passing out in cinemas, the question may be does it live up to the reputation? To be honest, that’s quite irrelevant but it is more straight forward to say with confidence this is a more accomplished film than its predecessor.
Leone’s uses the increased budget to improve the production value and really go to town with some incredible practical effects.
David Howard Thornton, also now feels more comfortable in the shoes of Art The Clown, with a more nuance performance which mixes some really sadistic moments with pure black humour.
In the other corner, Lauren LaVera’s Sienna and her younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) put in sympathetic turns in the wake of Art’s trail of destruction. Depending on the direction of the series going forward, it would be interesting to see if these characters could return, in some guise.
At 2 hours 18 minutes, the film is too stretched out for a slasher, with some parts easily identifiable as filler which could have been cut out altogether.
Getting to the kills, Art ups his repertoire with some pure insane and viciou kills that go to extreme that equal the ‘splitting’ kill from the original. He uses knifes, whips, guns and pretty much anything he can get his grubby mits on.
There are hints to a wider plot, which feels like it will be explored in Terrifier 3, but for now you have to commend Leone and co. for going all in on their vision and fully realising it.
It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but in Terrifier 2, we have a super sized slasher with big ideas from a director and crew who feel like they’re only getting started.
Terrifier 2 is available now on DVD, Blu Ray and Digital Download.
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