Terrifier 2 director reacts to reports that horror sequel is making people throw up and faint

Slasher movie sequel Terrifier 2 proved to be the little gore-fest that could last weekend, crashing into the box office top 10 with an initial take of around $1 million despite costing less than $250,000. Writer-director Damien Leone describes the days since the movie's release as "wonderful, overwhelming. Every morning I wake up, it's like Christmas morning. Since it hit theaters, the hype's been building, so it's really exciting."

Courtesy of CINEDIGM 'Terrifier 2'

Leone's movie, which features a silent but very expressive maniac named Art the Clown, has also gained a degree of infamy thanks to social media posts claiming that audience members are fainting and vomiting at screenings of the film. "My friend passed out and the theater called an ambulance. Highly recommended," wrote one Twitter user, relating his experience of seeing the film. Another cinemagoer described how at a screening of the movie, "the guy behind me passed out cold n crashed into my chair, another guy left because he didn't feel good, I overheard him say and walking out theatre door I heard a guy puking hard & loud in the bathroom."

Leone explains that he has mixed feelings about such reports.

"Listen, I would have loved to have a couple of walk-outs, I think that's sort of a badge of honor because it is an intense movie," he says. "I don't want people fainting, getting hurt during the movie. But it's surreal. Here's the thing, it's called Terrifier 2, you should probably see Terrifier 1 before you jump into this one. If you see Terrifier 1, you'd know what you're getting into. There is a now-notorious murder scene, a hacksaw scene, in Part I that everyone walks away talking about. We tried to rival that scene [in the new film] because the really supportive fan base that we've had this entire time, that has really started to put Art on a pedestal, I mean, those are the things that they really want. I think this movie is more accessible, but we're essentially still making these movies for them, and if other people want to come on board, the more the merrier."

Courtesy of CINEDIGM Terrifier 2

The New York-based Leone initially dreamed up the character of Art the Clown around a decade-and-a-half ago.

"I had this idea of a clown terrorizing a woman on a city bus," says the filmmaker. "She's all alone, coming home from work or whatever, in the middle of the night, and then this clown gets on, and sits across from her, and starts staring at her and toying with her. It's awkward and uncomfortable, and maybe even funny, but then it gets progressively more intimidating and aggressive. I thought that was just an interesting, weird idea. When it came to making my first short film I said, you know what, I'm going to use that, that's going to be the opening."

Leone ultimately developed the feature-length Terrifier, which was released in 2016 and starred David Howard Thornton as the killer Clown.

"When I held the auditions he was only the sixth person who came in and as soon as I saw him I basically shut it down after that," says Leone of the actor, who also plays the lead role in the upcoming, Grinch-parodying slasher film The Mean One. "He has this amazing, almost silent film-like quality to his acting, and he's influenced by Mr. Bean and the Marx Brothers. When I saw him do his performance, I said, wow, this will really allow me to turn Art the Clown into a real clown."

Courtesy of CINEDIGM

In addition to Thornton, the cast of Terrifier includes Lauren LaVera and wrestler Chris Jericho.

"He turned out to be a huge fan," says Leone of Jericho. "Friends of mine, who are wrestling fanatics, they would call me up and say, 'Dude, I was just listening to Talk Is Jericho, his podcast, and he's talking about Art the Clown and Terrifier.' He reached out to David Howard Thornton and had him on his podcast, and then he got in touch with me, and he said, 'Hey man, if I could ever be involved in Part 2 somehow, I'd love to.'"

Leone explains that he added a clown shoe-sized element of the supernatural to the franchise with Terrifier 2.

"In most of these slasher franchises, the killer usually winds up getting killed, and then he's supernatural, but the filmmakers just gloss over it," says Leone. "I wanted to really explore that supernatural evil as a character, and it actually is a physical apparition in this film, that luckily we really haven't spoilt yet. Art is driven by this force back to the town where the murders took place [in the first film] and to our hero, Sienna, played by Lauren LaVera. At the same time, there's this sort of weird, mystical, supernatural element working its way into her life as she starts to realize that she may be destined to become Art's nemesis."

Once Terrifier 2 audience members have, literally, picked themselves off the floor, they can look forward to Leone's planned third film in the series.

"Not to give away spoilers, but we really have a nice twisted cliffhanger at the end of Part 2," says the filmmaker. "There's a lot more to explore with Art the Clown for sure."

Terrifier 2 is now screening in cinemas. Watch the movie's intense and disturbing trailer below.

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