At the world premiere of Terrifier 3, franchise writer/director Damien Leone said there will be a Terrifier 4 – and he later said he thinks that will be the last entry in the franchise, because he doesn’t want it to wear out his welcome. We’ve heard that Leone plans to reveal Art the Clown’s origin in the new sequel, with the character’s backstory being told in the first 15 minutes – and now, actor David Howard Thornton, who plays Art, has revealed that Leone told him the finale is going to be “batshit insane.”
When asked about Terrifier 4, Thornton told Slasher Radio (with thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription), “I’m very excited, but I don’t know a whole lot, because this time around Damien has been keeping everything very close to his vest about what’s happening in the script. [Fellow cast members] Lauren [Lavera], Samantha [Scaffidi], and I, in the past when he’s been writing the other scripts, he’s been consulting us the whole entire time, running ideas by us. This time, he’s been pretty much silent. He just goes, ‘Oh yeah, you’re gonna love the origin story, Dave. You’re gonna love how we do it.’ And he said also, ‘The finale is batshit insane. You’re gonna have a lot of fun with that.’ Other than that, I don’t know, but that makes me excited.“
Thornton also doesn’t sound entirely convinced that Terrifier 4 is going to be the end of the franchise. “Is this going to be the true finale? I feel like this might be the finale of this story arc that [Leone]’s going with for right now and might give it a rest for a few years and might return later on to it. I have no idea, but I’m excited nonetheless.” Leone himself once said that Terrifier 5 might be required to properly wrap up the story and has also acknowledged that slasher franchises never really seem to end, so the door will probably be left open to more sequels in some way.
Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget; a “couple million” went into that one – and it paid off, as the film raked in over $76 million at the box office. So we can probably expect Terrifier 4 to have a larger budget behind it as well.
Are you looking forward to seeing Art the Clown’s origin and the batshit finale in Terrifier 4? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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