Terrifier

Damien Leone's "Humble" beginnings, a short slasher film about Art the Clown that blossomed into a number of films including a feature movie of the same name. But how?

I haven't exactly been a fan of his works, All Hallows Eve (2013) got a 3/10 from me and it's sequel All Hallows Eve 2 (2015) a mere 4/10. I get what he was trying to do, I just don't think it was done very well.

Here we have a 20 minute short film about a young woman who witnesses a clown murder a gas station attendant. Fleeing she realizes that she's his next target.

Short entirely in the grindhouse fashion that immediately didn't sit right with me, I hate grindhouse! The lead actress was dire, Art the Clown seemed to have disappointingly little personality and the whole thing was unoriginal and very generic.

Sure the finale is shocking, but not exactly memorable stuff regardless.

I've seen many instances where a short film has been the stepping stone needed for a creator to get further in their career, but I don't understand how this underwhelming little nugget accomplished that.

The Good:

I do like clowns

The Bad:

Grindhouse style

Poor actress

Generic

I had already seen Terrifier, which was an hour and a half long, so I tried this short film, which was made a few years earlier. I was very satisfied. Since it's only 20 minutes or so, there wasn't room for any story, so Terrifier from 2011 didn't have to worry about that and went straight into it and then showed us some brutal scenes, which is what he did best here and in the 2016 version anyway. So was this short film better than the long version? I honestly don't think so. They both offered us brutal scenes full of blood, only here it was over in a moment, while in the full film we had plenty of time, only that time could have been filled with a little deeper plot, and by that I mean why the clown is doing what he's doing. How it came to be what it is and just some originality would have been nice. Maybe that's the goal of the script and they don't want to reveal too much about the character and leave questions unanswered and maybe nobody cares either. I'm just saying what I found lacking in the longer film, whereas here it wasn't a problem and that's why I'll give the 2011 version a better rating. For me, a good horror short that I recommend to horror fans.

My friend Daniel Rodas let me watch this film recently (He played the 'Man in Car').

And I was very impressed. The film had me engaged from beginning to end, which is not easy to do in a span of only 18 minutes.

The acting was strong, the make up was gruesomely realistic, the deaths were highly creative, and the 'Clown' was very creepy.

The story is very simple and traditional. A young woman's car runs out of gas, on Halloween night. She stops by a deserted gas station. Witnesses a brutal murder and then what follows is a horrific night of survival as the Killer (dressed in a hideous Clown costume) hunts her down to finish her off. Slaughtering anyone and everyone who gets in his way.

The attention to detail for classic B Exploitation was wonderful and quite refreshing. Everything from the grainy camera quality to the credit font to the closing shot. You see Damien Leone's passion for horror in this film quite intensely.

This film is far better than 70 percent of those stupid 'Safe' horror movies Hollywood is spitting out these days. Nice to see that Exploitation is still very much alive.

I recommend this short film to anyone who LOVES horror. And if you love Exploitation horror... then this film is DEFINITELY for you.

Bravo.

A young female motorist is terrorised by a crazed, murderous clown after she stops for fuel at a gas station. This 20 minute short was later used as one of the segments of the excellent All Hallows' Eve (2013) anthology and features Art the Clown, who then went on to star in another feature length move, Terrifier (2017). Despite the low budget everything about this short impressed me. Art, in my opinion, is the scariest clown in horror history (sorry Mr King!). He really is sick. The film makers don't hold back on the gore and violence, which is well done despite a low budget. Acting is good. This film shows a great passion for the slasher sub genre and there is real talent here.

When Terrifier first arrived, it was obvious the film wasn't aiming for mainstream acceptance so much as a place in the midnight-movie slasher lineage, and the result is a gritty, unapologetic descent into pure horror filmmaking. Despite its thin plot and low-budget origins, the film quickly distinguishes itself through one element that critics and audiences alike couldn't ignore: Art the Clown. From the moment he steps on screen, he becomes the axis around which the entire experience turns, transforming a modestly produced slasher into a truly unsettling cult phenomenon.

What gives the film its staying power is Art himself, portrayed with startling precision by David Howard Thornton. Without saying a single word, Thornton constructs a performance filled with personality, menace, dark humor, and a hypnotic strangeness that sets Art apart from nearly every modern horror villain. His mime-inspired movements, unpredictable shifts from playfulness to brutality, and that unnervingly wide grin create a presence that feels both otherworldly and disturbingly human. In a genre where antagonists often blur together, Art's silence becomes his greatest weapon, making every gesture feel calculated and every appearance spine-tightening.

Visually, the film understands exactly what makes a slasher icon endure. Art's black-and-white makeup, ragged costume, elongated features, and soulless eyes form an image that feels instantly iconic-one part vaudeville, one part nightmare. Even when the film's pacing stumbles or the narrative feels directionless, Art remains impossible to look away from. The character design, paired with Thornton's physicality, carries the film through its rough edges, ensuring that the most memorable aspect of Terrifier is also its most effective.

Narratively, the film is far less ambitious. Its story is minimal, its characters often exist only to populate the body count, and its worldbuilding offers little depth beyond the basics. For some horror fans, this back-to-basics brutality is exactly the appeal, but for others, the sheer level of violence-graphic, shocking, and at times deliberately confrontational-may feel excessive without a richer story to support it. The near-total lack of backstory for Art adds to his mystique but also leaves the film feeling hollow in stretches, making it clear that the movie is more interested in impact than interpretation.

Yet this stripped-down approach is also part of what propelled the film to cult status. Terrifier doesn't pretend to be anything other than a vehicle for Art's reign of terror, and in that respect, it succeeds with fierce conviction. The film taps into the gritty, handmade tradition of indie slashers, embracing shock value, practical gore, and atmospheric discomfort in ways that mainstream studio horror often avoids. For viewers who crave raw, boundary-pushing genre filmmaking, Terrifier delivers exactly that and more.

In the end, Terrifier is a flawed but unforgettable slasher, elevated almost entirely by one of the most disturbing modern horror icons to grace the screen. Art the Clown alone makes the experience worthwhile for fans of the genre, proving that a low budget and a bare-bones plot can still produce a figure who lingers in the imagination long after the credits roll. It's a film that won't win over everyone-but for those who appreciate horror at its most unfiltered, it's impossible to dismiss.