Terrifier 2 Star Says the Film Intended to Push Hollywood’s Boundaries

While Halloween Ends might be one of the bigger letdowns of the horror genre this year, Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 is quickly becoming a dark horse genre film that’s totally in your face with its sheer brutality and desire to elicit any reaction from audiences. No matter how unsettling it may be!

Now, weeks after its release, the micro-budget horror title still shows solid box office numbers. After several reports of viewers getting sick during screenings, the film (and its brutal villain Art the Clown) is turning into an instant and unexpected cult classic. During a recent interview with AL, David Howard Thornton, who portrays the new horror icon, opened up about how they intended to go the distance and how this level of bloodshed was presented to him upon conception.

Challenging Hollywood’s Horror Standards

Discussing the Terrifier 2 reaction from fans in theatrical screenings and its choice to avoid pulling punches, Thornton explains, “Yeah, we definitely knew we were doing something different. That’s for sure. And we knew that especially because, you know, the reactions to part one with the infamous hacksaw scene. We took that [as] a starting point. Because we’re like, OK, we’ve set that bar there, that fans are expecting this kind of level of kill scene in our films, so we have to pass that bar now and go somewhere crazier. Because we don’t want to let the fans down, especially since they practically funded the whole entire film, so we definitely intend to do crazier with things.”

Reflecting on the earlier carnage of the filming experience, the actor notes, “While we’re doing these scenes, like when we were filming the very first kill in the movie, I remember Damien turned to me at one part when we had just done one of the very first things in the kill where it wasn’t much of anything. It’s just basically blood splatter. And he’s like, ‘This would be a whole entire kill in a Jason (Friday the 13th) movie back in the day. We’re just getting started on this kill.’ [Laughs]”

The new terrifying horror star then goes back to the question at hand regarding new territory; he admits, “They [Hollywood films] have all gotten to where they feel like they have to be too safe. They’re too afraid of offending anybody. I think they’ve lost the whole point.”

If you’ve already stomached the intensity of Terrifier 2, did you think it felt like an appropriate change of pace? Or was it too brutal for your taste? Sound off below.