Art the Clown in a Santa costume going on a killing spree in Miles County might not have been anywhere in your anticipation about Terrifier 3. But Damien Leone has nothing but wholesome faith in his killer clown played by a fantastic David Howard Thornton. This time around, Leone’s added more depth to the lore-heavy narrative weaved around the clown who’s claimed the most vicious kills in the history of slashers. And because he clearly took note of the complaints about Terrifier 2’s stretched runtime, Terrifier 3 keeps things decidedly subtle in the department of fleshing out Art’s backstory. So let’s see if I can help you out with the questions you might have about the way Terrifier 3’s ending gently nudges you toward a more roundabout idea of this menacing demon-mime you absolutely adore.
Spoiler Alert
What happens in the film?
When a family in Miles County is terrorized by a Santa costume-clad Art the Clown in the present day, you know that your favorite silent butcher is branching out wider than Halloween. I wouldn’t call him the Grinch though. After all, Art’s polite enough to do the dishes after turning little Juliet’s entire family into mincemeat. But given I see Art acting a little unlike himself in Terrifier 3 and actually sparing the lives of a few people who pass him by, I think there’s a good chance he leaves Juliet alive and traumatized. But how did Art come back to life after Sienna decapitated him in Terrifier 2? To understand that, we’ve got to go back to right after Terrifier 2’s ending, which, according to the timeline of Terrifier 3, was five years ago. Right around the time Vicky gave birth to Art’s head in the asylum, a headless Art hopped on the train and headed to Vicky while trying on the head he’d just taken from a cop who’d gone to check out the Terrifier massacre. When Art and Vicky reunited and the clown put on the head birthed by the girl whose face he ate in Terrifier, they went to an abandoned building where Vicky proceeded to slit her wrists and supposedly died in a tub. Considering Vicky’s possessed by the demonic entity that was inside The Little Pale Girl and Art himself is a creature of the darkness who’s practically immortal, I think they were just hibernating in that place for five years, waiting for a kill to feel alive.
In the present day, the kills to revive Art and Vicky come in the form of two demolition workers. And after that, Art and a resurrected, demonic Vicky are off to torment the people of Miles County and find Sienna. Sienna’s just gotten released from the hospital and moved in with her aunt Jess, her husband Greg, and their little daughter Gabbie who’s totally obsessed with her. It looks like Jonathan’s sort of distanced himself from Sienna in the five years that have passed. Jonathan’s goofy roommate Cole must be a good distraction from the lingering shadow of the horror at the Terrifier, but Jonathan’s forced to revisit the events by a very persistent Mia, this girl who runs a true-crime podcast and would love for Jonathan to go on and talk about the wrath of the Miles County killer clown. Considering none of what she’s been through was imaginary, Sienna obviously doesn’t believe that the medications can help her. But even as she’s mocked and hurt by visions of her dead best friend, Sienna bites her tongue because she already feels like a burden on her aunt’s family. But when a premonition of sorts about Art’s imminent terror hits Sienna when she’s at the mall, it gets practically impossible for her to stay calm and pretend that it’s all in her head.
How does Sienna get the sword back?
Sienna and Jonathan’s reunion after all this time would’ve gone very different if she hadn’t just had a vision of Art dressed as Santa at the mall. But I bet she would’ve let him in on that in a less explosive manner if Mia hadn’t shown up and gotten on her nerves. But despite being caught off guard by his frantic, panicky sister, Jonathan understands that there’s more to Sienna’s fear than just paranoia. You see, in the early days following the events of Terrifier 2, Jonathan used to write letters to Sienna. Given we already know that the Shaw family have a peculiar connection to Art the Clown, it makes sense that, like his late father, Jonathan knows things about Art that he doesn’t quite understand himself. In one of his letters to Sienna, Jonathan mentioned The Little Pale Girl as a demonic creature. He also mentioned that that dark energy needed a vessel–someone who would act as a link between the world of the living and the world of the dead. In the letter, Jonathan claimed that the vessel for evil itself would have to be someone who’d died recently, and they would also have to be corrupt to their core–someone like a serial killer. That’s where Art’s lore comes in, but I’ll get to that later. For now, whether or not Sienna believes that Art the Clown could come back to life after losing his head in Terrifier 2, she needs to stay prepared. Jonathan reminds her about the sword, the flaming weapon that their father bestowed on the angelic warrior who he created after his daughter’s image. The sword’s still at the Terrifier. So without letting anyone know, Sienna retrieves the special sword, makes it look like a Christmas present, and hides it with the presents under the Christmas tree at her aunt’s place.
What does Sienna’s dream mean?
Nobody other than Jonathan believes that Art exists beyond the fear that often takes control of Sienna’s mind, and even Jonathan is desperate to stay in denial about it. While Sienna fortifies her mind to tackle Art’s in the case of his return, Art and Vicky make the necessary preparations to turn people’s favorite holiday into a horror show. After killing a Santa Claus impersonator at the bar and uh, “stealing” his beard and his clothes, Art the Clown dresses up as Santa and drags his sack of terror into the mall. The crowd of kids and parents surrounding him are turned to mulch by the explosive Art snuck into one of the gift boxes. And when Sienna sees this on the news, she has an immediate panic attack and demands for her uncle Greg to bring Jonathan to safety. Ever since the Shaw family has been included in Art’s overarching narrative, Sienna’s late father Michael has been in the center of the enigmatic powers both Art and Sienna possess. Sienna’s dreams keep pulling her back to the time when her father created the angelic warrior with the flaming sword who could kill just about any adversary. It’s possible that there was more to these memories than Sienna’s mind allows her to remember. And I think some of the more supernatural and inexplicable bits are what come up in her dream in Terrifier 3. This dream brings us closer to understanding the creation of this special sword and why it’s the only thing that can hurt an evil entity like Art the Clown. A demonic bladesmith controlled by a holy entity made this sword. My takeaway from this vision/dream is that since the sword has been made by something evil under the supervision of something Holy, it holds the combined strength of good and evil.
Is Jonathan dead or alive?
When Sienna wakes up to the worst turn of events she could possibly imagine, things sort of look like she’s still dreaming. But if you ask me, I think whatever happens in the final act of the film is very real. Poor Uncle Greg is beheaded and pinned to the wall with his guts pouring out of him, and Art the Clown and his new demonic handler Vicky torment Sienna with the sight of her Aunt Jess tied to a chair. If you’re wondering how Vicky and Art even got to Greg, there’s a little hint in an earlier phone call he made to Jonathan. Jonathan was completely out of it and lying practically unconscious in his bed. But when Greg called him, he sounded totally lucid and fine. But it wasn’t Jonathan on the other side of the call. It was Vicky speaking to Greg imitating Jonathan’s voice, which is why the sound cracked right around the end of the call. Being hit with a mallet and watching her aunt get killed in a way that involves rats and a long pipe jammed into her throat completely crushes Sienna. And it’s all the more awful that Jess died thinking that that severed head in the birdcage being feasted on by rats belonged to her daughter Gabbie. But we see Gabbie unharmed, which obviously means that Vicky was lying about who the head belonged to. And the reason behind that lies in the fundamentals of the war between good and evil. Since Sienna is the embodiment of all things good and holy in this war, the demonic entity possessing Vicky needs to take control of Sienna’s spirit to vanquish the threat she poses. It was originally inside The Little Pale Girl. And ever since that creepy girl possessed Vicky, her entire purpose has been getting the evil spirit close to Sienna so it can possess her. For that, Sienna’s needs to be weak in her spirit. That’s why Vicky lied to her about Gabbie’s death. And now that Gabbie’s come downstairs and joined this grotesque party, Vicky claims that that head is actually Jonathan’s. That obviously shatters Sienna, but I don’t think she totally buys the fact that her brother is dead. Even beyond Jonathan’s enigmatic significance in the narrative, there are plenty of reasons for us to believe that he wasn’t killed off screen. Think about it. Wouldn’t killing Jonathan in front of Sienna have been way more effective a way to torment her? Art’s been in the dorm for sure. He even fulfilled Mia’s wishes of looking into a ruthless killer’s eyes by butchering her and Cole. But if you ask me, I think Jonathan is still alive and will become a crucial part of the narrative in the next installment of the franchise.
What happens to Gabbie?
Vicky, or more accurately the evil entity possessing Vicky, has but one agenda; taking control of Sienna’s body and soul. And for a moment when Sienna’s eyes glow the same way Art’s did in Terrifier and Vicky’s did in Terrifier 2, it almost looks like the entity’s about to win. But Sienna is stronger than that. And as brutal and bloodthirsty as Vicky and Art may be, they’re not exactly the smartest ones in the room. Even Gabbie’s smarter than them. Her knack for secretly opening presents really comes in handy. She’s already seen the sword in the present Sienna left under the tree. And because she’s read Sienna’s journal, Gabbie knows that that sword is the only thing that can defeat Art and Vicky. So Gabbie pretends that she wants to give Sienna her Christmas present before they both die. The only reason Art and Vicky let Sienna open the present is because they want to torment her further by breaking her hands and then letting her open it. Vicky pays the price for that when Sienna beheads her with one swift swing of the sword. But before she can put an end to Art’s terror, whatever evil being was inside Vicky opens the gates of Hell, presumably to go back to where it came from. Sienna would’ve been able to kill Art once and for all if she wasn’t distracted by Gabbie falling into that pit, that probably goes down straight to Hell. Unfortunately for Sienna, even her best efforts fail to keep Gabbie from falling into the hole. Sienna will likely go down there herself to save her baby cousin in the next installment of the film. It will be interesting to see what sort of preparations she’d need to make for that. Lucky for her, she’s still got that special sword.
What does the ending mean?
In Terrifier 3’s ending, Art slips out of the window when Sienna’s not looking. He’s been injured in the fight, but considering wounds are always superficial for Art and he can heal himself, I think he was A-OK by the time he got out of Sienna’s aunt’s place. In Terrifier 3’s closing scene, the woman in the bus reading a book called “The 9th Circle” is a direct reference to the 2008 film of the same name where Art the Clown first appeared. Damien Leone also makes this into an opportunity to pay homage to the classic Rosemary’s Baby by naming the writer of the book Rosemary Castevet. Is this also his way of implying that Rosemary took the Castevets’ name after birthing the Antichrist?
Coming back to the Art the Clown universe, in “The 9th Circle,” Art the Clown kidnapped a girl to be sacrificed in a satanic ritual. Given Damien Leone’s already implied that Art was a mortal once, I think a further look into his backstory would reveal how the satanic cult Art was involved in in his tenure as a serial killer might’ve played a part in the supernatural aspect of Art’s story. This seems like the right time to go back to Jonathan’s letter. When he was urging his sister to gear up for a fight with something demonic, Jonathan mentioned that the evil spirit needed someone as ruthless as a serial killer as a vessel. That can only mean one thing. Art the Clown was the mortal serial killer who was chosen to be the vessel of evil on Earth. That’d also explain Art’s connection to the building he and Vicky went to and stayed in for five years before reinvigorating themselves with the blood of the two demolition workers. Remember how one of those guys mentioned that in the 90s, someone had killed about a dozen people and left the bodies in the basement of that building? I know he later claimed it to be a joke, but I think he only did that because his partner was freaking out. If we choose to believe that that massacre was real, it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to assume that Art the Clown was the killer. Maybe that’s the reason he went back to that building in Terrifier 3. Who knows? Maybe even that building will be of significance in Sienna’s path to destroying the demonic murder-clown in the next installment of the Terrifier franchise.
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