Terrifier Kills, Ranked by Nastiness
When trying to describe Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise, it’s hard to go very long without using the word disgusting. The movies, starring David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown, a mysterious and menacing being, have become cult staples thanks to their exceptionally violent and bloody murders, almost all of which are perpetrated by Art himself. Art first appeared in the Leone shorts The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011), both of which were part of the anthology film All Hallows Eve (2013). Art made his mark by ensuring that no one — man, woman, or child — was off-limits when it came to his penchant for blood.
In fact, the franchise is so devoted to exploring the art of nasty kills that the first Terrifier movie hardly has a plot — it’s just an excuse for Art to wreak havoc on innocent people. Terrifier 2 finally introduced a more robust story about a woman named Sienna (Lauren LaVera) who may just have what it takes to defeat Art, but plot be damned: The Terrifier movies have always been about shocking kills above all else. As Terrifier 3 seeks to turn your dreams into nightmares when it arrives in cinemas this weekend, it feels like the perfect time to explore every kill in the franchise.
Certain alleged kills don’t count — it has to be very clear they are dead (thankfully, the Terrifier franchise goes to great lengths in making death extremely, agonizingly obvious). For example, there’s an especially vulgar “kill” in Terrifier prequel All Hallow’s Eve, but the last time we see the character, she’s clearly alive, so we can’t include it here. The kills also have to be seen (or heard). If a mutilated body just appears, you won’t find it ranked here. And apologies to the Clown Café advocates out there, but dying in a dream doesn’t count, either. Details matter, people!
Massive spoilers for all Terrifier movies, and for the faint of heart, this is gonna get gross.
Bartender and Smokey (Terrifier 3, 2024)
Both are murdered in rapid succession: The bartender is shot in the neck, and Smokey is shot in the head, killing both of them instantly. For a franchise as nasty as Terrifier, these feel like a mere footnote.
Construction Worker No. 1 (Terrifier 3)
The man gets stabbed in the neck by Art’s helper, Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), and dies swiftly. That’s close to as pleasant a death you can get in this world.
Guy Driving Car (All Hallow’s Eve, 2013)
This guy was just trying to help someone in need. So, naturally, Art pulls up in the car next to him and shoots him straight through the eye, a grisly detail that makes it slightly more unsettling than a simple shot to the head.
Tara (Terrifier)
Given the beyond-horrific fate that befalls her friend Dawn (see No. 2), it’s somewhat surprising Tara is saved from dismemberment. She takes a series of bullets to the head, which, while very bloody, is rather merciful of Art.
Gas-Station Employee (All Hallow’s Eve)
Art’s first onscreen kill! The man working at the gas station is furious that Art smeared feces all over the bathroom walls, and Art isn’t happy about that. So he saws him into pieces and smiles widely as he picks up his severed head and stares at it. This one would be nastier if we saw the kill, but we only see Art in action after the guy has already died.
Art the Clown (Terrifier, 2016)
For a guy into complicated killing rituals, Art sure does kill himself in an unremarkable fashion by putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. And he comes back from the dead moments later.
Vicky (Terrifier 3)
Vicky also gets a surprisingly tame offing, as Art’s partner in crime in Terrifier 3 is killed by Sienna’s all-powerful sword. Sure, the beheading is gruesome, but severed heads are pretty par for the course in this universe.
Mike the Janitor (Terrifier)
There’s a clever fake-out death when Art strikes Mike with a hammer to the head. But Mike comes back with a vengeance, which results in a grislier death when his head gets caved in by Art’s foot. One for the Gears of War fans.
Dad (Terrifier 3)
The patriarch of the home Art invades as Santa Claus in the opening of Terrifier 3 is hacked to death with an axe. What makes this chopping stand out is that it’s shot from the wife’s perspective, who sleeps peacefully in bed as he’s hacked to bits.
Mom (Terrifier 3)
When she does wake up, her time is limited. Art chases her downstairs and takes the axe to her back, chops off her arm, and splits open her abdomen, which really gets the blood flowing. And once she’s fully in pieces, Art celebrates by eating the cookies left out for Santa. He’s worked hard destroying a whole family — he needs to refuel!
Cat Lady (Terrifier)
Technically, we don’t see the crazy cat lady in Terrifier get killed, but we do see her draw her last breath, so she’s earned her spot here. Her maternal approach to get Art to stop killing backfires as she is scalped, has her chest removed (Art wears her hair and breasts later), and is savagely left to bleed out.
Art the Clown (Terrifier 2, 2022)
Turns out the seemingly unstoppable Art can actually be taken down. All it takes is a beheading. Sienna undergoes unimaginable hell in Terrifier 2 but ultimately gets the last laugh, repeatedly hitting Art with her sword and landing a finishing blow removing his head after a long, brutal fight. And, yes, he gets revived again, though this time his head is birthed by Vicky in the mid-credits scene.
Will (Terrifier)
Will comes to the scene of the crime to rescue his friend Mike but doesn’t even make it into the warehouse before Art sneaks up on him from behind. As if he’s carving a turkey, Art drives one knife into Will’s head, and another starts slicing his neck until his head comes clean off. It’s not quite as appetizing as it sounds.
Sienna’s Mom (Terrifier 2)
Perhaps the quickest death in all of the films, Sienna’s mom meets a quick and grisly end when Art appears in the window of the car she’s cleaning. He takes a sawed-off shotgun to her face and sends her scalp off her head and blood flying everywhere. As gun kills go, this is the gnarliest.
Cop (Terrifier 3)
This poor officer finds Art’s headless body, only to have it come to life and strangle him to death. That doesn’t sound very nasty compared to what Terrifier often has audiences go through, but there’s a vicious twist. In the next scene, Art gets on the subway wearing the cop’s head as his own.
Burke (Terrifier 3)
It’s always fun to see former WWE wrestler Chris Jericho, and his role as hospital worker Burke ends in exquisitely yucky fashion. Art goes to town on his face, ripping the flesh off with a distressing ease. And there is more blood than you’d think necessary. We’ve seen variations of this, but it gets points for being relentlessly gory.
Timmy (Terrifier 3)
The first kill in Terrifier 3 certainly ups the ante — you never actually see the kill or the aftermath, but you sure do hear it. Timmy is a sleeping boy waiting to wake up for Santa, but he’s hacked to death by Art instead. The only example of restraint in the entire film still manages to be hugely unsettling.
Coroner (Terrifier 2)
The first kill in Terrifier 2 is positively restraint-free. Art emerges from his body bag to unleash hell upon the coroner, bashing his head in with a comically tiny hammer before he rips open his skull. It almost prepares you for how disgusting things are going to get. Almost.
Pizza-Shop Employee (Terrifier)
This unwitting employee already had to wipe Art’s feces off the bathroom walls, and then he gets his arm cut off and a seemingly infinite number of knife strikes to the face until his face looks more like mush than anything human. Terrifier loves practical effects, and the creators really seem to delight in getting an obscene amount of blood out of a single person here. Their delight does not, in fact, make the kill any less vile.
Ricky (Terrifier 2)
Halloween-store employee Ricky has had it with Art’s antics, so, naturally, Art must kill him. The glass bottle is a nice (read: nasty) touch, and the hatchet to the skull goes a long way in removing Ricky’s head from his body. It’s what happens later that adds a sinister layer to things: Art poses with Ricky’s head in the shop display to avoid detection.
Jeff (Terrifier 2)
We don’t learn much about Jeff, but he does seem like kind of a dick (he wears a shirt to a party that reads “Just the Tip”). Art must have taken umbrage with the slogan, because his killing of Jeff is extremely phallic in focus. Put simply, Art unleashes his knife into Jeff, stabbing his penis over and over before he rips it off and smears it on his car window.
Santa Claus (Terrifier 3)
Okay, this isn’t actual Santa Claus, just a mall Santa who picked the wrong night to go to a bar. While his friend is killed quickly, Santa gets prolonged torture. Art whips out liquid nitrogen; earlier, Santa told Art you can’t be a true Santa without a real beard. Those are words that come to haunt him, as Art takes that nitrogen and freezes Santa’s face so he can rip off his beard and wear it himself. That’s just part of the excruciating detail. Art also shatters Santa’s limbs and rips his flesh off, ultimately jamming the carrot nose of a fake snowman into the center of Santa’s face. Merry Christmas, indeed.
Mia (Terrifier 3)
Mia’s obsession with true crime and particularly Art the Clown comes back to bite her — or, rather, saw right through her. It’s impressive that it took four films before Terrifier had a shower kill, but this one is plenty harrowing to make up for it. One of the bloodiest kills in the franchise, Art upgrades his typical handsaw for a chainsaw, and it allows for a swifter and even more brutal takedown. Mia is sliced in half and repeatedly sawed into over and over, and there’s so much blood you completely forget the water’s still running. As a grisly punch line, Art puts his Christmas sunglasses on what’s left of her face. Mia longed to know what it’s like to be in the presence of Art, and he was all too happy to grant that wish.
Brooke (Terrifier 2)
Even after her boyfriend, Jeff, is rendered dickless, Brooke’s death feels more severe. It seems like Art is about to bludgeon her with a spiked bat, but instead, he throws acid on her face in an effective and shocking fake-out. He then makes full use of the club, battering her legs and breaking open her sternum. And in case you had any doubts Brooke was still alive (people’s endurance levels in this franchise are remarkable), Art rips out her heart and eats it.
Construction Worker No. 2 (Terrifier 3)
While the one construction worker got a mere slap on the wrist in comparison, this guy goes through absolute agony. Art shoves a stake through his hand and bites the fingers off his other hand. While he’s doing all of this, his assistant, Vicky, violently masturbates with a knife as blood pours everywhere. But that’s not all: Art takes out an X-Acto knife and carefully opens the man’s scalp before ultimately peeling the skin off of his face — think taking off a sweater.
The Mall Kids (Terrifier 3)
Easily the most shocking moment in Terrifier 3 and, frankly, the franchise as a whole. An extended sequence at a mall spells trouble, but there’s no way the film would go there … but it does. Art takes the role of Santa and starts handing out gifts to a bevy of excited children. Art starts walking away as one child opens up his present, which happens to be an explosive device blasting everything and everyone in sight. You expect to see plenty of mutilation in Terrifier, and the mall scene queasily builds to a grim reveal, but blowing up an entire group of kids is a whole other ballpark. Even worse are the close-ups of brains and simmered flesh in the aftermath.
Cole (Terrifier 3)
If you’re the kind of person who thinks more people should get a chainsaw up the ass — first, seek psychiatric help, and then enjoy this kill in Terrifier 3. Cole gets a chainsaw up his ass and then through his scrotum, which we see in excruciating detail. Things often sound disgusting in the Terrifier universe, but the sounds here are especially off-putting. This one would probably be even more impactful if we didn’t just have Mia get chainsawed seconds before, but it’s still extraordinary in how revolting it is.
Aunt Jessica (Terrifier 3)
Terrifier 3 saves its most revolting kill for the end. Jessica had been nothing but lovely and supportive to Sienna throughout the film, and seeing her die is upsetting. What’s far worse is how it happens. Tied to a chair, Art violently shoves a plastic tube down her throat. Vicky picks up a group of rats and pours them down the tube as Jessica violently gags. To finish the job, her neck is sliced open, allowing the rats to run free and Jessica’s horrifying experience to come to an end. The creativity is off the charts here, and so is your potential for vomiting.
Dawn (Terrifier)
Unfortunately for Dawn, her death became the defining kill in Terrifier, and for good reason. Friend Tara is tied to a chair and forced to watch Dawn suffer unimaginable agony. Tara’s pain is nothing like what Dawn goes through, though. She’s naked and hung upside down with her legs spread. Art, beaming with joy, takes out his trusty handsaw and begins sawing away at Dawn’s vagina, and continues downward until he’s sliced through her brain. It’s somewhat simple in theory, and beyond disgusting and dangerously close to completely and utterly unwatchable in execution.
Allie (Terrifier 2)
What Allie goes through in Terrifier 2 is monumentally abhorrent. It feels like the longest scene in the franchise for how astonishingly nasty it is. When someone’s eye getting sliced open is one of the best things to happen to them, you just know it’s awful. After the eye, Art pulls off one of her arms and rips the other one in half like it’s a hot-dog bun. That’s to say nothing of the countless stabbings in Allie’s back. And that’s it. Until we return to the kill in yet another brutal scene, as Allie is somehow still alive and crawling to get her phone. But Art interrupts by pouring bleach all over her, getting a pile of salt, and smacking it into her open wounds. If that wasn’t twisted enough, Allie’s mother comes home to see her, somehow still barely breathing. It’s longer than you’d think, more violent than you can bear, and more ingenious than you’d like to admit. It’s pure Terrifier.
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