The Art of the killer clown

The "good" psycho killer clown and the "bad" psycho killer clown

I never intended to bash Joker 2 as much as I did. I just wanted to analyze it like the first Joker movie which was a serious and captivating drama about people isolated from society and struggling with mental illness. So I was really, really looking forward to seeing and analyzing Joker 2. But as it turns out, this time there really wasn’t much more to analyze other than coming to the sad conclusion that the filmmaker hates his fans.

After the movie flopped, he and the studio were attempting in vain to do some half-hearted damage control by claiming that this wasn’t the main message of the movie - when it clearly was and there really wasn’t much more to analyze than that - so that’s why my review and analysis of Joker 2 is little more than the sad realization that there really isn’t a lot more meaning to it other than the director telling everyone in a not so subtle way to F themselves.

And that’s why Joker 2 is one of the most expensive movies ever with one of the worst box office performances ever. But at the same time as Joker 2, there is another sequel in another beloved killer clown franchise playing in the theaters. And I am of course talking about Art the clown from the Terrifier franchise. But unlike Joker, Art’s movies (of which there are actually 6 already) are notoriously low budget. Yet Terrifier 3 ended up making more money at the box office than Joker 2.

And so originally I never intended to talk about the Terrifier franchise, but since I was really looking forward to finding hidden meanings in a killer clown movie and yet Joker 2 didn’t really provide anything to analyze beyond the obvious, I guess I am gonna do a little review and analysis of Terrifier after all.

Even though I am still really hesitant about talking about such extremely gory and low budget slasher movies. And even some priests on Youtube that I follow went out of their way to warn people about how evil and unholy the Terrifier movies would be. And normally I don’t like gory movies either, much less slasher movies, but I do feel the Christians who attack movies like that are doing them wrong.

Yes, movies like Terrifier ARE gory and extremely violent, but that violence isn’t at all glorified. And yes, we laugh with Art the Clown, but we laugh in the scenes where he does genuinely funny pantomime clowning, not in the gory killing scenes. For me it’s pretty much the only way to watch and appreciate a clown pantomime (and the actor is really good at it). Because I can pretend that I am watching it for the gore, so that way I don’t have to admit that I am still a big child at heart :-)

But anyway, Art certainly isn’t the good guy in his movie and unlike Joker in Joker 1, he is never portrayed as someone the audience could possibly identify or empathize with and unlike Joker in Joker 2 he is never portrayed as someone with a character ark of redemption who we feel sorry for and who ultimately turns out to be the most sympathetic guy of the movie with the true villain being someone else.

The Joker movies intentionally blur the line between good and evil and I guess you could even view it as promoting such monstrous villains. And that’s why Joker 2 turned into such a mess. Because after Joker 1, the writer/producer/director noticed that he (un-)intentionally ended up making the psychotic killer clown into the (anti-)hero that (everyone in) the audience identifies with and roots for (even the kinds of people he really didn’t want to like it). And that’s why Joker 2 ended up being nothing more than an intentional destruction of said character in the hopes of undoing the perceived damage he did.

But in doing so he just made a genuinely horrible movie and didn’t even manage to make the killer clown any less sympathetic to the audience. If anything he made him even more sympathetic and completely redeemed him from being the villain and instead turned him into the victim with the real villain now being someone else.

Terrifier 3 on the other hand DOESN’T blur the lines between good and evil. As a matter of fact, I have never seen any movie with such clear lines between good and evil. Unlike Joker 2, Terrifier 3 makes it VERY clear that the psychotic killer clown is the bad guy and is as bad as it gets and couldn’t possibly be seen in any other light and the heroine fighting him is clearly the good guy and is as good as it gets and again couldn’t possibly be seen in any other light. And actually the contrast between good and evil is so clear, that it actually reaches spiritual levels.

Even though (just like the “real” Joker from the comic books) Art is a completely psychotic and sadistic killer clown right from the beginning without the slightest hint of remorse; he does however have a character ark. Though not one of redemption. He is SO evil that he goes from that psycho killer to becoming a literal demon. Instead, Joker in the Joker movies has an ark of starting out as a genuinely sympathetic character who is a victim of a cruel society that only laughs AT him and then after being driven to become an insane killer clown, he has an ark of redemption.

So the Joker movies actually redeem their killer clown and make him into the good guy with the real villains being the ones that hurt him. But in Terrifier it’s our heroine fighting the killer clown who has an ark of redemption, where, like Art she also becomes supernatural and basically turns into a literal angel after going through tremendous suffering and even death and resurrection - with imagery that clearly took inspiration from Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ - even employing the same special effects artist!

Art the Clown on the other hand also goes through death and resurrection with it also being based on the Bible, but not the part about Christ in the gospels, but rather, HIS death and resurrection is based on the death and resurrection of the Beast and the evil red dragon mentioned in the book of Revelation. As such Art could even be seen as representing the Antichrist. So Art’s death and resurrection mimic that of the Beast in Revelation - or more precisely the FIRST beast of Revelation who’s head was mortally wounded and yet lived. And Art even has multiple heads - just like the Red Dragon.

The possessed Pale Girl is the same demon as possessed Victoria and represents the SECOND beast of Revelation and as such works for the first Beast. So it’s those symbolical and spiritual elements in addition to David Howard Thornton’s pantomime work that I like - not the gore. I actually can’t see gore and I get real squeamish when I see any kind of blood. Even watching a birth or a nosebleed makes me faint.

But even so, I was able to sit through all of the gore in the Terrifier movies (especially the early films) cause the effects were just so low budget that the red paint and the obvious props, never registered in my mind the same way as actual blood and actual bodies would. Which isn’t to say that the effects were bad. It’s just that it’s very obvious that the whole character of Art the Clown is a love letter to all those classic horror villains from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

As such they are intentionally sticking to practical effects and cosmetics and prosthetics that are easily identified as such, because the goal isn’t to make it look realistic, but to make it look like in those iconic horror movies of the past. And the clear line between good and evil with the good ultimately being victorious and the evil ultimately suffering defeat is also something that they inherited from classic horror movies and actually traces its origin all the way back to the Hays Code.

Even the spiritual elements come from iconic slasher villains such as Jason, Freddy and Michael. It’s just that with them it was actually nothing more than a plot device that allowed them to cash in on yet another sequel even though their villain already died 5 movies ago - and the supernatural elements simply allowed him to keep coming back anyway.

Terrifier is the only slasher franchise (I know of) that intentionally leans into these supernatural aspects and uses them as (so much) more than just a plot device that allows endless sequels. And for the first time a movie really explores these aspects - something I wished they would have done with Jason, Freddy and Michael - but which they never did in a about a million sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes.

And also, those classic horror movies felt unbalanced, because their villain was supernatural and basically immortal and their victims weren’t - which is why they were always just victims even if they managed to survive - which was the best they could hope for.

But Sienna is much more than Art’s victim. She (and not the villain) is the hero of the story and has angelic superpowers to match (and eventually overpower) the demonic superpowers of the villain for good.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this certainly isn’t a Christian movie or even a movie with good morals. It certainly isn’t and if you are a Christian you probably really shouldn’t watch slasher movies at all. But while it really is a violent slasher movie, it’s not as morally corrupting as the Christians attacking it make it out to be.

For me, the really corrupting movies are not the ones where good is good and evil is evil and there is a sharp and clear distinction between them and where eventually good is victorious and defeats evil - even if in the process the good side has to endure some graphic suffering and even if the villain is literally demonic.

But if any of that would be what makes a story unchristian or even anti-christian - then the entire Bible itself would be the most unchristian and anti-christian book there is because it consists almost entirely of such stories.

So for me, truly unchristian movies are such “lovely” movies like “Pleasantville” (which on the surface is a nice and lovely looking movie, but actually PROMOTES sins and violence), “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (which allegedly contributed to the death of someone in real life), “The Matrix” (which promotes moral relativism since nothing would be “real”) or “I Saw the TV Glow” (which pretty much encourages its viewers to commit suicide) and yes, that OTHER psycho killer clown movie (where the psycho killer clown is the “good guy”). And let’s not forget “The Lego Movie” (which subtly teaches little kids that Jehovah would be evil - yes I am serious - go watch my analysis if you don’t believe it).

Because while none of them are nearly as violent as a literal slasher movie, they intentionally blur the line between good and evil and turn it upside down.

So no matter how violent a slasher movie might be, that violence is never really glorified or encouraged. Which is more than what can be said for those other movies and which is why I keep criticizing THEM instead of criticizing simple slasher movies like Terrifier 3.