Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone has claimed that the opening five minutes of his horror threequel were more depraved than anything we'd seen in the previous movies (if you can believe it), and he may not have been exaggerating.
The first teaser trailer debuted ahead of the second movie's return to the big screen back in October, and while it has yet to be officially released, the footage leaked online shortly after.
The recent poster confirmed reports that the film would have a Holiday setting, and the teaser really leans into the Christmas vibes, as we see a little girl wake up and make her way downstairs as a figure in red is leaving gifts beneath the tree. The excited youngster believes Santa has come to town, but, of course, it's really Art the Clown, who raises an axe as a sinister grin spreads across his face.
Then, the final shot sees Art drinking a glass of milk on the chair while covered in blood, strongly implying that he murdered the poor lass.
Even though we don't actually see the kid being slaughtered, the trailer has come in for a lot of backlash. Horror movies have always got away with depicting some incredibly brutal and disturbing things, but young children being killed tends to be seen as a bit of a taboo - even though it happens frequently!
At any rate, Leone hasn't issued a response, but he did speak about the movie's plot during an interview with Screen Rant.
"Some things just are going to be in your face, but you'll understand when you see it, a lot of it's grounded. But yeah, I'm excited, you're gonna see, and it's sickening and hysterical how it picks up and how Art gets out of that situation, if I could say that. Maybe this is a bit of a spoiler, but to see how the Victoria character aids Art the Clown in that journey is sort of just as interesting.
And I'm excited for people to see that as well. In this movie, there's a lot of new fresh elements in this movie, there's a lot of, I call it "safety net," just a lot of Art the Clown doing his thing, everything you love about this franchise that you're there to see, you're definitely going to get. I'm always going to deliver that, you're going to see the big kills and Art the Clown being his quirky, charming, sadistic self. But then there's that other sort of 30%, where I allow myself to take really bold risks and just inject new fresh ideas and things that just make it something new."
Terrifier 3 hits theaters just in time for next Halloween.