The Scariest Character in ‘Terrifier 3’ Isn’t Just Art the Clown (2024)

The Terrifier series keeps on gaining popularity, with Terrifier 3 already surpassing the box office milestone of the franchise. New fans and old just can’t get enough of the sadistic killer at the center of each installment. From the short films to two-hour movies, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) has a knack for creatively horrific kills and while Terrifier 3 is as bloody as ever, there is a surprise in store. Director and series creator Damien Leone brings a character back to the forefront from an earlier installment, giving Art the Clown a partner-in-crime this time around. And it doesn’t lessen his impact as a horror icon.

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Who Is Vicky Heyes in the ‘Terrifier’ Series?

The Scariest Character in ‘Terrifier 3’ Isn’t Just Art the Clown (1)

In Terrifier (2016), two friends are stalked and hunted down by Art on Halloween night. The sister of one of the girls, Vicky Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), drives to pick them up, only to end up as the mutilated survivor of Art’s killing spree. Although Vicky isn't a final girl who is killed off in the sequel, she does become volatile, which is why she is incarcerated at the Miles County Psychiatric Hospital in Terrifier 2 (2022). The same movie introduces The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain), a female demonic entity that is the mini-version of Art, who doesn’t get her hands too dirty, but whose glowing eyes and haunting grin make her one of the creepiest elements in the movie. By the end, Vicky and the Little Pale Girl become one.

After the new final girl, Sienna (Lauren LaVera), kills Art, Vicky is seen in a post-credits scene possessed by the Little Pale Girl (her glowing eyes a dead giveaway) and births the decapitated head of the clown. It’s still actress Samantha Scaffidi under the scarred face makeup and the sequel’s cliffhanger is paid off in Terrifier 3 where the possessed Vicky is unleashed as an evil force. In Art’s latest feature-length outing, the killer clown now has a partner-in-crime, making for double the trouble in scenes where Vicky is as unpredictable and deranged as Art.

The Women in ‘Terrifier 3’ Are Scary

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Thornton’s performance as Art relies on theatrical body movements and facial expressions, but Vicky can speak, meaning Scaffidi can portray how unhinged her character is through dialogue and horrific witch cackles. It’s one thing being violently killed by a demonic entity, it’s a whole other nightmare scenario when Vicky attacks a man after she has been submerged for years in a bathtub of stagnant water. The revolting odor is unimaginable. And while Art plays with injuries he suffers out of amusement -- plopping a victim’s eyeball into his own empty socket in the opening of Terrifier 2 -- Vicky has urges to personally continue the damage on her body that Art started, during a gross and bloody scene where she’s turned on by one of the clown’s kills.

Classic slasher flicks reserved the status of “ultimate evil” to a boy’s club — think Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. By turning Vicky into a female boogeyman, it's proof the series knows how to keep things from getting stale, and it's not just her — Terrifier 3 has some very scary ladies all around. Sienna’s dead friend Brooke (Kailey Hyman) reappears as a berating corpse during a hallucination. A Virgin Mary statue in a hellish vision Sienna has is suddenly revealed to be an uncanny living figure, jolting viewers without a jump scare. At the forefront is Vicky, in her blood-splattered pairing with Art, an ironic dynamic given that Terrifier 3 has quickly dethroned Joker: Folie à Deux at the box office, beyond the fact the slasher movie’s budget was nowhere near the cost of the DC production.

Art and Vicky Are Horror Movie Versions of Joker and Harley

The Scariest Character in ‘Terrifier 3’ Isn’t Just Art the Clown (2)

If Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga were stripped-down depictions of the Joker and Harley Quinn, Thornton and Scaffidi play a twisted duo that could very well be seen as the horror versions of the comic book villains. Even more damning, they stick closer to the toxic relationship between Joker and Harley than what Todd Phillips put on-screen. Art is responsible for driving Vicky into madness. She is obsessed over him, writing “Vicky + Art” on the wall of her old hospital room in her blood. Art enjoys her company, but she can easily annoy him, like when blasting his horn in his ear.

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In the finale, Vicky dresses like Art, with a handmade costume and a face of black and white makeup, to relish their duet as they deliver bodily destruction, and she becomes an imposing monster for Sienna to defeat. Art would taunt her before eventually killing her, and he does try during a maniacal chainsaw fight. Vicky’s plan is for a worse fate, to make Sienna vulnerable enough to accept being possessed to restart the cycle of a final girl pushed into the dark side. Even though the clown escapes, killing Vicky is at least one triumph for Sienna in what is one of the bleakest Christmas movies. The fans expecting Art’s grisly theatricality will get it, but Terrifier 3’s best surprise is how scary Vicky is. If you first survive Art, you better watch out for her next.

The Scariest Character in ‘Terrifier 3’ Isn’t Just Art the Clown (3)

Terrifier 3

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Terrifier 3 follows survivors Sienna and her brother as they attempt to recover from their traumatic encounter with the sinister Art the Clown. As the holiday season arrives, their efforts to find peace are shattered when Art returns, intent on turning their Christmas into a new nightmare.

Release Date
October 11, 2024

Director
Damien Leone
Cast
Lauren LaVera , David Howard Thornton , Antonella Rose , Elliott Fullam , Samantha Scaffidi , Margaret Anne Florence , Bryce Johnson , Alexa Blair Robertson , Mason Mecartea , Krsy Fox , Luciana VanDette , Clint Howard , Bradley Stryker , Daniel Roebuck , Chris Jericho , Tom Savini , Jason Patric , Alex Ross , Kailey Hyman , Kellen Raffaelo , Lisa Marie Falcone , Stephen Cofield Jr. , Corrine Kelly , Joe Falcone , Peter Mitchell , Marie Maser , Jon Abrahams

Runtime
125 Minutes
Main Genre
Horror

Terrifier 3 is playing in theaters.

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The Scariest Character in ‘Terrifier 3’ Isn’t Just Art the Clown (2024)
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