Terrifier 2 is the rare slasher film that actually makes you care for the characters. Across the board, the characters respond realistically to situations, communicate with each other in a way that suggests they have actual preexisting relationships, and conduct their lives like people who aren't expecting to be plunged into a horror film. The screenplay, acting, direction, and editing work in perfect concert. Two and a half hours may seem like an absurdly long running time for a slasher film, but not a single minute is wasted. I was captivated from beginning to end, in part because the generous running time allowed the story to breathe.
I've only seen one out-of-context clip of the first film, and the way in which that clip was presented to me made me worried that this film would have some depraved thesis justifying the artistic merits of violence--or that, at best, it would (like many slasher films) imply that the victims were deserving of their fates. The movie, I think, teases this possibility with some of the first few killings, but ultimately Art the Clown proves to be an agent of chaos. His actions are dictated solely by what will amuse him in the moment, and that's very liable to change at any moment. The end result--for me, at least--was that I genuinely had no idea who was safe.
By combining such realistic characters with such unpredictable violence, this film achieves what few slasher films do: making viewers genuinely worried that someone might die and making them genuinely upset and uncomfortable whenever they do. The violence in this film is extremely over-the-top, and some critics might accuse the filmmakers of being exploitative and immoral because of that. Yet by making many of the murders seem so regrettable, I think director Damien Leone actually achieves the opposite. Some incidental remarks about the protagonist's budding career as a horror prop designer and her little brother's fascination with serial killers likewise put this film within the realm of providing intelligent commentary on its own genre. Liking slasher films doesn't make you a murderer, nor does it necessarily give you the vicarious catharsis of seeing other people commit acts of violence. Leone suggests that there is something more nuanced, and less condemnable, about moviegoers' fascination with what they know to be repulsive.
I've only seen one out-of-context clip of the first film, and the way in which that clip was presented to me made me worried that this film would have some depraved thesis justifying the artistic merits of violence--or that, at best, it would (like many slasher films) imply that the victims were deserving of their fates. The movie, I think, teases this possibility with some of the first few killings, but ultimately Art the Clown proves to be an agent of chaos. His actions are dictated solely by what will amuse him in the moment, and that's very liable to change at any moment. The end result--for me, at least--was that I genuinely had no idea who was safe.
By combining such realistic characters with such unpredictable violence, this film achieves what few slasher films do: making viewers genuinely worried that someone might die and making them genuinely upset and uncomfortable whenever they do. The violence in this film is extremely over-the-top, and some critics might accuse the filmmakers of being exploitative and immoral because of that. Yet by making many of the murders seem so regrettable, I think director Damien Leone actually achieves the opposite. Some incidental remarks about the protagonist's budding career as a horror prop designer and her little brother's fascination with serial killers likewise put this film within the realm of providing intelligent commentary on its own genre. Liking slasher films doesn't make you a murderer, nor does it necessarily give you the vicarious catharsis of seeing other people commit acts of violence. Leone suggests that there is something more nuanced, and less condemnable, about moviegoers' fascination with what they know to be repulsive.