Halloween costumes offer little protection in Terrifier 2 (2022), which puts 17-year-old Sienna Shaw and her younger brother Jonathan in Art the Clown’s path. Writer-director Damien Leone builds their October 31 ordeal around graphic kills, a nightmare at the Clown Cafe, and a killer whose clowning makes his violence even more unsettling.
Lauren LaVera plays Sienna, giving the film a heroine to follow through the carnage. She’s dealing with her father’s death from a brain tumor, a strained relationship with her mother, and a brother who believes their father knew something about Art. His evidence includes drawings their father made of the clown before he died.
The sequel expands Art’s supernatural world, introducing a Little Pale Girl who resembles him and leaving questions about his connection to Sienna’s family. Its Halloween setting, elaborate costumes, and gruesome effects give it the feel of an older slasher, while the siblings’ story supplies a reason to care who survives.
Expect sustained, explicit gore as Art stalks his targets, including an encounter with Sienna in a costume shop and a showdown at an abandoned carnival.
Art’s history reaches back beyond the Terrifier movies. He appeared in the 2008 short The 9th Circle and the 2013 anthology All Hallows’ Eve before returning in Terrifier and this sequel.
