Christmas has come early this year!
Art the Clown is back in all his gore-splattered glory to follow up last Halloween’s hit with a Christmas killing spree, proving no holiday is safe. Damien Leone’s latest entry in the hit cult horror franchise, the highly anticipated Terrifier 3 is in cinemas across Australia on October 10.
With Terrifier 3 splattering into cinemas, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the mastermind behind the new iconic horror villain, writer and director Damien Leone, about his ‘rolodex of death’, creating the mythology of Art, and the scene that got the most surprising reaction in the entire franchise!
Nick: It’s a pleasure to meet you, man! Thanks for taking the time to chat.
Damien Leone: Oh, man. My pleasure, buddy. Thank you. Good to speak with you.
Nick: One thing that I love about this franchise, outside of the horror and gore, is the mythology and lore you’ve created for this franchise. I’m curious to know what your process is in creating this dense mythology. Is it something that unveils itself as you write and explore the scripts, or do you have this definitive beginning and end that you know everything that happens in between?
Damien Leone: I always toy with the idea of where I want to take the character. At the end of Part One, when I decided to officially just dive in and bring him [Art the Clown] back from the dead, and now he’s officially a supernatural character, I wrote Part 2 diving into this aspect of the film.
I want it to be a character in and of itself, because it’s not something that’s typically explores enough in the movies. Meanwhile, all of the boogeymen become supernatural, and they don’t really describe or explain why or what that evil is. What is this energy that’s bringing this character back?
And so, I thought that was so interesting and something that’s greatly overlooked. So, once I dove in there, I decided to get really bold and very mythic, and just take on the battle of good and evil, the heaven and hell, everything I could imagine. Because to me, if you’re gonna make your villain this supernatural evil, that’s virtually an unstoppable force, how do you combat that? If there’s a force of evil, there’s gotta be a force of good.
I wanted to anoint this final girl who’s the chosen one to take on Art, his benevolent counterpart. And that’s when I decided to bring Sienna into the mix. It became just as much of her journey for the rest of this saga, so to speak, as it is Art’s journey. I knew when I was writing that basically I had the blueprint with those two characters, and I knew where I was going to end that journey as I was writing Part 2.
So now, it’s just a matter of how many movies can I pack in there until I get to that end zone, and not trying to force things in there that shouldn’t be in there. How many movies is it going to take organically for me to get to that end zone? And I mean personally, I don’t think I could do more than two more, if that! So, we’ll see where it goes.
But I have a lot of ideas. Like I said, I have a blueprint, but I’m also always receptive to better ideas. If something hits me, inspiration, nightmares, a dream that all of a sudden makes me thing this is a good direction to go in now. So, unless I’m like totally locked in and it’s up on the screen, anything can change at any point.
Nick: I’m assuming some of that inspiration can also come from the collaboration with David Howard Thorton, and the ideas he puts forward for Art. How has writing Art as a character evolved over these films? How much of what we see Art do is on the page, and how much of the quirks and nuances are what you come up with on set?
Damien Leone: Believe it or not, I write a lot of that. The details are in the script. A lot of the jokes. I mean, sometimes, even as I started writing 2 and 3, I would have a very specific way of writing the jokes for him, even down to the facial expressions and gestures.
Then obviously David reads the script, and before we start improvising, we’ll probably do it my way for the first couple of takes, they way it’s written in the script. And then I allow David to go crazy, and he’ll often come up with these amazing things, amazing faces, and even ideas.
I always share the script and ideas that I have months in advance, sometimes years in advance. We’re constantly travelling together on places, we’re at conventions, hotels. So, we’re always sharing ideas. He throws ideas at me. I throw ideas at him.
But, I mean, David is the physical embodiment of the character. All of those quirks nuances in between moments, those are all David. He brought the physicality to this character. When I first created the character, and it was played by Mike Gianelli, there was none of that. He was very much more like Michael Myers. Just a lot colder, more stoic. The silent killer. And then David brought this theatricality, this flamboyance into the character, where it’s actually a clown now.
David’s got maybe three of my favourite scenes that he’s ever done in this franchise, in Part 3. Some of my favourite collection of these beautiful faces that he makes, those nuances expressions that come through, there was times it was just magic. You could actually feel it on set. I felt it a few times making this one.
We’re always exploring the character and seeing how far we can push the levity, you know? Draw more humour out of the situation, and if we could pull more humanity out of the character. Because those are the two things that the audience really responds to.
Nick: I’m so glad you brought up the levity, because I love asking horror directors about that unique relationship between horror and comedy. They feel like two genres that are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they work so well to compliment each other. When did you realise that horror and comedy do indeed work well together on screen?
Damien Leone: I gravitated toward horror-comedies as a kid, you know? Some of my favourite movies are Evil Dead II and Return of the Living Dead. I mean, no body does horror-comedy better than those two movies. Shaun of the Dead too! Those a perfect horror-comedies. And that was never my style as a filmmaker when I was making short films and stuff. It was just straight, dark, grim horror. That was my tone.
But when I wrote Art the Clown, since he is a clown, there was a little bit of humour in him. I really love the awkward laughter, the uncomfortable laughter, I would get from audiences when he’s like honking the horn or giving somebody a flower. And the way he would silently laugh, like it would make people uncomfortably laugh! And I loved that reaction. It was something new to me.
When I made the short film, Terrifier, I injected more of that sort of humour into it. Like him going into the bathroom and smearing his shit all over the wall, and getting yelled at, then reacting like a child! It was working, and I knew I had to keep injecting that into it.
But then once David took the role, it was just like the floodgates opened with the humour we were able to pull out of that. He’s a natural comedian. If anything, David leans more into the comedy naturally than the horror. He’s not really a huge horror fan, the way I am. He loves theatre and comedy. The people that influence him are like the Marx brothers, and Buster Keaton. Mr. Bean. Jim Carrey. Those are his heroes. So, he organically draws from that, and it comes through. You totally see it on screen.
Nick: I think the perfect example of a moment that really showcases what you just explained is when Art meets the mall Santa Claus in the bar.
Damien Leone: There’s so much nuance in his expression when he’s about to torture Santa [laughs]. And Santa Claus is just pleading with him. He’s just so good in that scene. There’s a few scenes where he’s just in the zone and it’s sort of the character really taking over.
Nick: Without spoiling too much, the Santa Claus torture is pretty hectic, as are many of the deaths in this film and franchise. I’m curious to know – do you just what I would describe as a ‘rolodex of death’ with all these insane kill ideas, just ready to go to put into a film?
Damien Leone: [laughs] I do. I’m constantly putting ideas down in there, or an instrument, or tool, or something. Especially now that it’s literally become my job where I have to do that for the audience. I have to figure out how to surpass the last big kill scene, which is not easy anymore.
It was easier with Part 2 because not many people had seen the first Terrifier. Most people went in blind to Part 2, not knowing what they were in for. And then they were hit with the bedroom scene in the middle of the movie, and it freaked people out! It’s like nothing they’d ever seen. But now, in Terrifier 3, everybody’s expecting that. You can’t really trick them, so you gotta deliver the goods!
I’m always trying to one up myself, swing for the fences, and deliver something bigger and better. But it is getting harder because there’s only so many ways you can tear apart the human body! And we’re not just competing with our own movies, we’re competing with other horror movies like Saw, or against someone like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie! They’re all out there doing their thing. So, it’s tricky. You’ve gotta get really creative.
Nick: I can imagine how much that creativity comes down to the sound design to, which is a highlight of this film, for sure. How important is sound design to horror, in your opinion?
Damien Leone: Oh, it’s crucial. We actually hired Martin Hernandez, who did the sound design for Pan’s Labyrinth. He’s worked with Guillermo del Toro. He worked on The Revenant. Like, I can’t believe he actually worked on this! An Oscar nominated sound designer!
We spent a month, I guess, in Mexico where he was working on the sound design, right before this movie premiered at Fantastic Fest. Like we went from Mexico with a fresh sound mix, right into that festival. I kept telling people that if the movie was paint, it would still be wet right!
But the sound is so crucial, especially for that opening 10-minute scene of the movie where I really rely on sound design specially. Which was kind of the anti-Terrifier method!
Even with everything we see in Terrifier – the crunching bones, the blood and what not, and everything in your face – the sound design is crucial. And this time, I wanted to do something where you’re only hearing what’s happening behind the door. It’s the first big moment of the movie, and Martin knocked it out of the park.
We sort of blatantly draw a line in the sand and let you know what this movie is. And that happens at like the six-minute mark, so if you can’t handle that – leave at the point! Don’t test yourself!
Nick: Based on the sold out screening I was at, the reaction to that opening scene and the sound design means it really worked! Which brings me to what I’d love to close on – the reactions to this movie, whether it’s praise or people puking, is awesome! Is there a moment from this franchise, or perhaps a personal reaction to a film for yourself, that stands out to you?
Damien Leone: I mean, just to speak about Terrifier 3, there was thunderous applause in a couple of screenings after the big shower massacre. That was validating because they came for a scene of that calibre. And the fact that it was recognised for that scene means we had delivered for them.
But I think the most surprising response I ever head, and I’ll ever probably get another one like this, was for the original Terrifier. It was when Art pulls out the gun and shoots Tara in the legs. I’d never heard a combination of laughter, boos, cheers, screaming. I’d never heard a sound like it because it was so polarising and hit everybody at a different level. So that will always stand out as a reaction I’ll never forget.
Thank you so much to Damien for his time, and to Umbrella Entertainment and NixCo PR for organising the interview. Terrifier 3 is in Australian cinemas October 10.
