Terrifier 3

 Terrifier 2 expanded on the first movie in every conceivable way. A bigger budget can do wonders, as shown by that film's presentation, but no amount of money is worth anything if the people behind it don't have any ambition. That's not the case with Writer/director Damien Leone, who stepped up on his previous effort with a script that included likeable characters, a cool '80s-movie-adjacent fantasy plot (seriously, this movie's more fantastical elements feel like they belong airbrushed to the side of a van) and... more violence, more cruelty, and, well, I'd say more gore, but that doesn't even begin to cover the amounts of innards, shambles, offal, guts, viscera and other synonyms that Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) cheerfully throws around during the course of that movie. It's a fucking maximalist, peerless gorefest.

 So here we are, a couple of years later, with a sequel set during Christmas that somehow ups the ante on the grand guignol and on Art's antics, letting the rest recede a little bit into the background.

 The opening shows you just how terrific (and how vicious) these movies can be with a horrific, stand-alone yuletide home invasion shown from the point of view of a poor, doomed, innocent family who gets a visit from a suspiciously skinny and pasty white Santa Claus. With an axe. The segment is worth the price of admission alone and is a good showcase for Leone's considerable chops (ha!) for pacing and building a sense of dread. And, of course, for bloodshed.

 From there, the script gets a lot sloppier, bouncing back in time a little to explain what happened after the end of the previous film. First, a (very funny) interlude to show how Art put himself back together after being beheaded at the end of Terrifier 2. Then, an introduction to her sidekick Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), back from the first Terrifier film. Her suffering at Art's hands left her a broken wreck, physically and mentally; After literally playing a role in the demonic clown's rebirth, she decides that she wants to be on the other end of a knife for once, helping him out on some of his grisly outings, providing running commentary all the time. There's a story reason for her inclusion which ties into the series' convoluted metaphysics, but honestly it's kind of a mess.

 Once Art is fully back and on the warpath (a process that takes him five years), he decides to go after the other one that got away - and also decapitated him with a magical sword.
 Sienna (Lauren LaVera) has spent those five years in a mental institution. She's released to spend Christmas with her aunt (Margaret Anne Florence), uncle (Bryce Johnson) and adoring young cousin (Antonella Rose). Her trauma gets a lot of screentime, but while LaVera remains likeable and does a good job selling her internal turmoil, the dialog is a little too clunky. Serviceable, but not really effective.

 As Art circles around her and her newfound family, Sienna realizes something is up and tries to put up a resistance. It all leads to a sickeningly brutal final confrontation, and... sigh, an extremely unsatisfying cliffhanger. The script barely moves forward, plot-wise, and only develops the mythology a tiny bit - and not in a satisfying way*. The story here, like on many a modern Marvel or other franchise-minded movie, barely merits that name; Besides signalling that the series might get weirder, it's mostly padding. It works better as a series of murderous episodes, and the focus is firmly set on the bloodshed.
 

 It is some pretty damn good bloodshed, if I might say so. Faces are torn off, necks are slit, bowels are dissem'd. And that's just for starters. There's a grotesque creativity at work, and a sense of gleeful, over-the-top cruelty even before Art starts miming his stupid little jokes like the little shit he is; His lethality is only rivalled by his punchability.
 There's nothing as bad as poor Allie's torture from the last time around, but there are a lot more extended deaths, elaborate as all hell and realized with disturbing panache; It's no wonder that Tom Savini, patron saint of gorehounds, puts in an appearance. As in the previous movies, things are heightened enough (the sound design, particularly) that you can kind of have fun in between all the wincing... just about. There's some heavily sexualized violence (to both genders) but next to no nudity, which must have been a conscious decision - a strange one, given that we get to see loads of people with their skin off, never mind their clothes. In any case, that scene caused three walkouts at my screening (that I noticed).

 This is a nasty, nasty movie, ugly by design and calculated to get a deeply visceral reaction. Some of the targets of its violence are fair game as per the slasher genre's admittedly permissive rules, but most of them aren't. There's also a lot of black, black humour, most of it coming from Art. After killing a whole family at their home, for example, he takes the time to eat the cookies and milk they left for Santa. Or, in my favorite scene, the asshole finds a way to curdle the hospitality of a kindly soul in the foulest way possible. He really is the incarnation of the most hateful internet troll.

 Terrifier 3 is not exactly scary - it's a little too ghoulishly interested in its red, wet fireworks - but there's a lot of very effective suspense as the next gruesome death looms. And as a gnarly kill delivery engine, well... that's basically the film's raison d'etre, and it fully delivers. I prefer the second part's balance and tonal variety, but I have a lot of respect for a film that only cares about the bits that everyone fast forwards to in slashers upon a rewatch. Shame you may also need to do that here, as well.

*:  We do at least find out that Art washes his hand after taking a piss. If he puts his shopping cart back with the other after doing his groceries, I think that effectively makes him a good person. At least according to some internet theories.