Slashers aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s understandable in some respects. However, there’s no denying how beloved the subgenre is to many horror fans. There’s something so wonderfully simple about a classic slasher formula. Of course, in the case of Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), he’s anything but simple in terms of his style of execution. The Terrifier films give slasher a whole new meaning with their violent kills.
Terrifier 2 focuses on a new final girl, Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) who has to face off against Art to keep her brother safe. There’s more of a plot in this sequel compared to the first film, and that works in its favor. It also takes it up a notch when it comes to the kills, and that’s why I’m ranking them. How? From gory to goriest.
Note: I’m not counting the Clown Café deaths as they occur in Sienna’s nightmare.
Laundromat guy
There’s very little to say about this guy because we barely interact with him in the film. Art goes to the laundromat after murdering a coroner and kills the only other person in the laundromat with a broken mop handle. The man gets it through the head, but we don’t get to see it happen. Ultimately, it’s a basic death compared to how Art tends to take care of his victims.
Allie’s mom
Seeing your daughter on her bed, completely mutilated and barely alive, with a murderous clown beside her is horrific. But so is dying merely because you came home. We don’t get to see Allie (Casey Hartnett)’s mother die. All we know is that Art decapitated her and served trick or treaters candy with her severed head.
The Coroner
Characters like coroners aren’t always safe in slashers and this guy fell victim to Art’s insanity. Sure, being brutalized in numerous ways and finally killed off by having your head smashed in is a rough gig. It’s just that in comparison to what happens to some of the characters, it’s certainly not the goriest murder. Art was saving the bonkers kills for much later in the film.
Barbara Shaw
More often than not, parents tend to be killed off in slashers, especially if the protagonist(s) are teenagers. It’s just the way things often go, and Sienna’s mother didn’t get to defy the odds. Barbara (Sarah Voigt) spends most of the film being an exasperated single mother to Sienna and her brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam). But she gets to have one last tender phone conversation with her less-than-sober daughter and when she goes to clean her vandalized car in the garage, Art blows her brains out from inside the car. It’s very abrupt and violent, but it’s not the worst Art can do.
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Art the Clown
After brutalizing many people in real-life and nightmares, Art meets his end when our resilient final girl decapitates him after suffering through a violent night. Art’s death might be retconned entirely during Terrifier 3 or he’ll magically be resurrected. Either way he does meet his end in a way that’s nearly as gruesome as his own kills.
Jeff
A slasher villain mutilating someone’s genitals is gross, and Jeff (Charlie McElveen) knows that all too well by way of Art. Jeff’s character is merely the boyfriend of Sienna’s friend, Brooke (Kailey Hyman). He’s a nothing character, and his death is almost not as gory as it could have been. Art stabs him in the penis multiple times when he goes to pee in the abandoned carnival parking lot. And his penis is severed offscreen. Maybe that sounds noodles to minimize what was indefinitely a painful death, but it’s all about sorting out gory to goriest, so I’ve got to be honest.
Ricky
Sometimes working in a costume shop is a death sentence. Ricky (Johnath Davis) does nothing but his job and even manages to make one sale to Sienna before Art finishes clowning around. When Art decides to stop playing with the shop items, he mangles Ricky and then cleavers his head, ultimately decapitating him. It’s gruesome and outrageous, and those are a few words to describe the films as a whole.
Brooke
Air-headed friends in slashers aren’t always the most likable, and while Brooke isn’t that deep of a character, she manages to get a memorable death. She gets away before Art can kill her in the parking lot, like he did her boyfriend. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter because Art catches up with her in the carnival building. Brooke tries her best to defend herself, only to get a face full of acid and breaks her body with a homemade weapon. In the end, her heart is taken out of her chest and eaten by Art. What’s worse is how Sienna has to find her friend like that, and it’s completely undignified.
Allie
Terrifier 2 made various movie goers puke like they ate some bad camp food. And Allie’s death is violent enough to cause some folks to barf their lunch. Being Sienna’s friend is a death sentence throughout this film because Allie meets a grisly end. Art breaks into her home and rips body parts off, flays her back, mangles her, and brutalizes her in general. Bleach and salt? She experiences the pain of having both poured on her exposed wounds. And then dies on her bed because she just couldn’t catch a break.