News has recently been going around in the horror circles that Damien Leone has confirmed that fans of the Terrifier franchise will finally learn about Art the Clown’s origin in the upcoming Terrifier 4. Leone has said this before, but he reaffirmed his promise at the 2025 Texas Frightmare Weekend.
Speaking with Cris Parker of 3CFilms, Damien Leone said, “you’re gonna get Art’s backstory in the first 15 minutes of the movie.” Exciting news, right? Well. Maybe.
Now look, I’m not a pessimist. I go into movies hoping and expecting to enjoy them. And despite the impression some of my movie reviews might give you, I can almost always find something I like in any movie. Also, I am a fan of the Terrifier franchise. But when I saw this news about Art’s backstory finally being revealed, my initial reaction wasn’t excitement. It was more of just, “oh, okay.”
Do we really need to know Art’s origin? I’m not so sure. But before you run off to grab the salt and bleach, please allow me to explain.
Let Damien Leone Do It His Way, But…
I’m actually of two minds about Art and his backstory. First, and most importantly, I’m 100% supportive of Damien Leone telling his story the way he wants (not that he needs my support, but I’m just trying to be clear). Art the Clown is his creation, and however Leone wants to tell his story, that’s the best way it can be told. I bet I’m probably even going to enjoy Terrifier 4 more than I expect. I just have something in the back of my mind preventing me from getting excited about the big reveal of Art’s origin. It all has to do with less-than-great experiences with other superb villains in other famous slasher franchises.
Freddy’s Folly
Let’s start with Freddy Krueger. Freddy is one of the greatest horror villains to ever slash his way across the silver screen. I actually see a lot of parallels between Art and Freddy. There are big differences, obviously—like the fact that Art is silent and Freddy loves to talk—but they’re both fun-loving maniacs. They’re creative with their kills, they like to play with their victims, and they’re both powered by supernatural forces. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Art the Clown is the closest thing modern slasher cinema has to Freddy Krueger.
However, the longer Freddy stuck around in sequel after sequel, the more his origin was explained. In the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), we just knew he was a child killer who somehow came back to haunt the dreams of the children of the parents who killed him. Simple, spooky, and effective. The next big revelation came in Dream Warriors with the story of “the bastard son of 100 maniacs.” So, we learned a little more about Freddy and the horrific way he was conceived, but it still left a lot of mystery. We still didn’t really know how he did the things he did.
Then Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare was released in 1991. It told us more than we ever wanted to know about Freddy. We didn’t need to know that he was bullied and abused growing up. Inexplicable evil is often more unnerving than clichéd stories of serial killers in their youth. We also didn’t need to know that he got his supernatural powers from a trio of flying, worm-like dream demons. Stories need in-universe rules, but those rules don’t need to be over-explained, and they don’t need to be explained in this ridiculous way that doesn’t add anything to what’s already been established.
I love Freddy, but his origin in Freddy’s Dead is the weakest part of his character. If it’s explained that Art the Clown used to just be some guy who was bullied and then got powers from a demon, it’s not going to be worth the wait.
Michael’s Mistakes
Art is also a little like Michael Myers. Silent, relentless, pale white face (paint and mask respectively). Michael is another of horror’s greatest killers, but unfortunately, his origin has been bungled multiple times.
Halloween (1978) is perfect. At six years old, Michael kills his sister Judith. Why? Nobody knows. Fifteen years later he escapes from a mental institution, and he fixates on Laurie Strode and the people around her. Why? Nobody knows. Dr. Loomis seems to think Michael is pure evil, and his fears are seemingly confirmed when Michael disappears after Loomis unloads his revolver into him. It’s one of the best endings in any horror movie.
In Terrifier (2016), Art’s path isn’t so different from Michael’s in that first Halloween movie. Why does Art kill so viciously? Nobody knows. Why does he fixate on Tara Heyes and the people around her? Nobody knows. Then, after Art is seemingly killed (due to a self-inflicted wound), he rises to kill again. The story is a lot less subtle in Terrifier, but there are certainly parallels.
Art’s story throughout Terrifier 2 and 3 largely maintains the killer’s mystery, choosing to instead build Sienna’s story which hints at what Art might be in relation to her. Sadly, Halloween wasn’t as restrained. In Halloween 2 it’s unnecessarily explained that Michael is Laurie’s brother, and there’s some nonsense about a connection to Samhain. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is the worst though. The Cult of Thorn is so dumb it’s funny (I actually use the thorn symbol in my byline because I think it’s ridiculous). Depending on which version of Curse you watch, the cult is either doing something with DNA, or they’re trying to get innocent blood for a ritual. Either way, it’s an awful origin that tears down a lot of what made the earliest movies so interesting.
That’s not all though. Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween is nearly just as bad. Now we see Michael as he’s growing up, and he’s—you guessed it—bullied at school and abused at home (verbally, by his mother’s boyfriend). It’s clichéd and boring, and it takes a lot away from what the original character was established as. I’m crossing my fingers that Art the Clown’s origin stays far, far away from bullies, abusers, and cults. And if Sienna turns out to be Art’s sister like Laurie and Michael? Well, that would actually be kind of funny. But no, it would be bad.
Hoping for the Best Art
I could go on. Like how Charles Lee Ray’s additional backstory in Curse of Chucky complicated matters more than anything. Or how Jason Goes to Hell is terrible and introduced a half-sister for Jason and a set of rules that make no sense in the context of the rest of the franchise. I won’t do that though. Instead, I’ll end on a positive note.
I actually enjoy all of the movies I mentioned. Well, I enjoy parts of them at least (except for Jason Goes to Hell). Naturally I like some more than others, but they almost all have elements that I can point to as positives, most of them with more positives than negatives. I love slasher movies with a passion, and even the ones I’m not crazy about, I’ll still rewatch from time to time. So whatever happens with Terrifier 4 and Art the Clown’s origin, I’m still going to like the movie.
Plus, at least with the examples of Freddy and Michael, the mistakes in their backstories were done by filmmakers who were not the creators of the characters. Or, in the case of Halloween 2, a creator who didn’t want to write the movie.
Damien Leone created Art, and he’s going to tell Art’s story the way he wants. That’s all any of us can hope for. It’s a testament to how successful the Terrifier movies are, and how beloved they are by fans, that we’re getting a fourth movie (more if you count Art’s earlier appearances) written and directed by the creator. That’s amazing, and I can’t wait to see what Leone has in store for us.
