Movie Reviews
Movie Review: TERRIFIER 3 – Assignment X
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: October 10th, 2024 / 10:09 PM
TERRIFIER 3 movie poster | ©2024 Cineverse
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton, Elliott Fullam, Sarah Voigt, Samantha Scaffidi, Chris Jericho, Antonella Rose, Margaret Anne Florence, Bryce Johnson, Alexa Blair, Mason Mecartea, Krsy Fox, Clint Howard, Jon Abrahams, Daniel Roebuck, Jason Patric
Writer: Damien Leone
Director: Damien Leone
Distributor: Cineverse
Release Date: October 11, 2024
TERRIFIER 3 provides two-for-one holiday horror. Arriving just in time for Halloween, it’s actually set during Christmas.
Like its predecessors, 2016’s TERRIFIER and 2022’s TERRIFIER 2, TERRIFIER 3 is written and directed by Damien Leone. Actor David Howard Thornton is likewise back for his third round as Art the Clown, a sadistic, silent killer who loves slapstick (and slapping his knee, and sticking people with sharp objects).
TERRIFIER 3 has an opener set a few days before Christmas, when a little girl wakes up her parents at 3 AM because she hears someone on the roof. Spoiler: it’s not Santa.
We then flash back to five years earlier (although TERRIFIER 2 was released in 2022, in movie time, TERRIFIER 3’s present is half a decade later than that film).
Art and Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), a woman who survived having her face torn off only to wind up giving birth to her attacker’s severed head (you read that correctly), find an abandoned house. Victoria slits her wrists in the bathtub.
In the present, a couple of demolition workers arrive at the ostensibly empty residence and accidentally wake up both its actual occupants.
Meanwhile, Sienna (Lauren LaVera), who triumphed over Art in TERRIFIER 2 by decapitating him, is being discharged from her most recent stay at a psychiatric facility.
Sienna is warmly welcomed into the home of her aunt Jessica (Margaret Anne Florence), uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson), and their young daughter Gabbie (Antonella Rose), who worships her older cousin.
But Sienna is still tormented by visions of dead friends and relatives, to the point where she sometimes can’t function.
Sienna’s younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) had his own awful experiences during TERRIFIER 2, but he’s suppressed them well enough to be able to attend college. Jonathan’s bro roommate Cole (Mason Mecartea) is dating podcaster Mia (Alexa Blair), who is obsessed with “the Miles County Massacre.”
We get more narrative, character, and mythology in TERRIFIER 3 than we had previously. A fair chunk of the finale of TERRIFIER 2 is clarified (although it seems like we’re never going to get an explanation of the dunk tank in Hell).
If the notions aren’t exactly new, they don’t need to be. The selling point here is the contrast between Art’s wackiness and his mind-blowing cruelty, along with Leone’s penchant for brightly-colored settings and production design that add an almost fairytale dimension to the action.
We get a bit of character development, including a scene with Daniel Roebuck as a professional Santa who momentarily tries to befriend Art. The sequence goes from amusing to poignant to appalling.
Leone also allows us to get a little more insight into the workings of the demonic rules here, as the possessed Victoria can speak. She’s disturbing-looking enough that the exposition she provides – along with vicious mockery – mostly works.
While TERRIFIER 3 is closer rhythm and structure to a more conventional slasher than its predecessors, prospective viewers should be aware that the gruesome ethos is the same. There is no rape, but there is onscreen mutilation of every body part belonging to either gender. The special effects makeup by Christien Tinsley and Tinsley Studio is as extreme as it can be.
The violence and sheer brutality here is for people who aren’t inherently bothered by movies like, for example, SAW and HOSTEL. Those were rated R; the TERRIFIER films are all unrated, as it’s hard to imagine them getting anything other than an NC-17.
Between them, Leone and Thornton are doing something unique here. It absolutely is not for everyone, but there is (pardon the pun) real art to it. Thornton brings forth not only the terrifying but also the authentically clownish aspects of Art.
TERRIFIER 3 does pretty much exactly what it sets out to do, as well as laying the groundwork for TERRIFIER 4.
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Movie Reviews
Miyamoto says he was surprised Mario Galaxy Movie reviews were even harsher than the first | VGC
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto says he’s surprised at the negative critical reception to the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
As reported by Famitsu, Miyamoto conducted a group interview with Japanese media to mark the local release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
During the interview, Miyamoto was asked for his views on the critical reception to the film in the West, where critics’ reviews have been mostly negative.
Miyamoto replied that while he understood some of the negative points aimed at The Super Mario Bros Movie, he thought the reception would be better for the sequel.
“It’s true: the situation is indeed very similar,” he said. “Actually, regarding the previous film, I felt that the critics’ opinions did hold some validity. “However, I thought things would be different this time around—only to find that the criticism is even harsher than it was before.
“It really is quite baffling: here we are—having crossed over from a different field—working hard with the specific aim of helping to revitalize the film industry, yet the very people who ought to be championing that cause seem to be the ones taking a passive stance.”
As was the case with the first film, opinion is divided between critics and the public on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. On review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a critics’ score of 43% , while its audience score is 89%.
While this is down from the first film’s scores (which were 59% critics and 95% public) it does still appear to imply that the film’s target audience is generally enjoying it despite critical negativity.
The negative reception is unlikely to bother Universal and Illumination too much, considering the film currently has a global box office of $752 million before even releasing in Japan, meaning a $1 billion global gross is becoming increasingly likely.
Elsewhere in the interview, Miyamoto said he hoped the film would perform well in Japan, especially because it has a unique script rather than a simple localization as in other regions.
“The Japanese version is a bit unique,” he said. “Normally, we create an English version and then localize it for each country, but for the first film, we developed the English and Japanese scripts simultaneously. For this film, we didn’t simply localize the completed English version – instead, we rewrote it entirely in Japanese to create a special Japanese version.
“So, if this doesn’t become a hit in Japan, I feel a sense of pressure – as the person in charge of the Japanese version – to not let [Illumination CEO and film co-producer] Chris [Meledandri] down.
“However, judging by the reactions of the audience members who’ve seen it, I feel that Mario fans are really embracing it. I also believe we’ve created a film that people can enjoy even if they haven’t seen the previous one, so I’m hopeful about that as well.”
The sixth outing in the director’s chair for filmmaker Kirk Jones, I Swear dramatizes the real-life story of touretter John Davidson (played by Robert Aramayo). Tourette’s Syndrome, for those unfamiliar with the condition, is a nervous system disorder that causes various tics, the most prolific being erratic and explicit language. However, as I Swear expertly showcases, the syndrome is far more than ill-timed outbursts of curse words. Davidson’s story is one of societal frustration, finding your people (both with and without the condition), and using your voice to help others rise. The subject and subject matter are handled with absolute care and understanding under Kirk’s measured vision and Robert Aramayo’s BAFTA-winning performance.
The film kicks off with the greatest exclamation to democracy ever uttered (*%#! the Queen!), as a nervous John Davidson prepares himself before entering an awards ceremony hosted by Britain’s royal family. Right away, the film tells us what it is: a triumph over adversity that blends humor and human drama with education. It’s an important setup, as the film flashes back to Davidson’s 1980s youth, where we see his time as a star soccer recruit flatline as his condition takes hold. Davidson’s life spirals from there. Some aspects, like school bullying and accidental run-ins with authority figures, are expected but important to empathizing with young Davidson’s (young version, played with heart by Scott Ellis Watson) new everyday life. The more tragic, a complete meltdown of his family system, is unsettling if quick. His father (Steven Cree) is never given enough screen time to explore his alcohol coping tendencies. However, his mother Heather’s descent into easy fixes and blaming is crushing and convincing. Harry Potter series actress Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) gives a layered performance as Heather. Someone who loves her son, but also feels cursed by him as the entire family exits the picture. It’s bitter, she’s tired, and fills each conversation with ‘only medication and your mother can save you’ energy.
From there, the viewer and Davidson find refuge in a host of characters. Maxine Peake plays Dottie, the mother of a childhood friend and a retired mental health nurse. Screen vet Peter Mullan plays maintenance man Tommy Trotter. Together, they help Davidson build a life and an understanding of himself that carries the film forward into its second half. After that, the film is primarily a 3-actor show as director Kirk fills the screen with these tour-de-force performances. Peake and Mullan are great vessels to get the film’s main message across: patience, love, and a shared responsibility between the diagnosed and those who understand their struggle can help change the path for people quickly left behind by a normative world. Together, they are the soul of the movie, with the filmmakers clearly hoping the audience will follow their lead after they exit the theater (in my case, the beautiful Oriental Theater for the Milwaukee Film Festival). Both performances are perfectly warm and reflective and shouldn’t be left out in discussions of I Swear.
I say this because the movie is anchored by The Rings of Power actor Robert Aramayo, who leaves Elrond’s elf ears behind to bring an acute naturalism to his performance of main character John Davidson. Aramayo’s physicality and timing of the fitful Tourettes Syndrome never feel out of place or overplayed. In fact, the movie as a whole does an amazing job of never veering into sentimentality. While many moviegoers left with tissues dabbing their eyes, the filmmaking never felt like it was forcing that reaction out of audiences. It straddles the line between feel-good and reality with every story beat and lands squarely on the side of letting the real inform our feelings. Anyone with an ounce of empathy will grasp the film’s message and hopefully take it with them into life.
I Swear continues at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Tuesday, April 21st, and releases nationwide April 24th, 2026, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
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