There are a couple of things we know about the upcoming Terrifier 4. For one thing, director Damien Leone has said that it will be the final chapter in the saga of Art the Clown and Sienna Shaw.
Second, we’ve known for a while now that Terrifier 4 will reveal the origin of Art the Clown. Leone has been quoted as saying that we’ll see Art’s backstory in the first fifteen minutes of the movie.
That, naturally, led to much speculation. Who is/was Art? What motivates him? Will he be given a tragic and/or sympathetic origin story? Well, the actor who plays Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton, cleared up this last question.
While speaking in a panel at the Chattanooga Comic Con this past weekend, Thornton said that he and Leone have discussed Art’s background for years. As an actor, it’s important for Thornton to know why his character does what he does, even if those reasons are never revealed to the audience. Thornton said the first time he asked Leone about Art’s story, Leone said, “I don’t know.”
But over the years Thornton and Leone continued to talk about the character. Things changed over time, but they agreed that neither of them want to give Art a background that will elicit any sympathy from the audience.
“We don’t want him to have a sympathetic background,” Thornton said. “In my head, he basically is evil incarnate. He came out of the womb just evil.”
So there you have it. Art the Clown will deserve and receive no sympathy. Sometimes a sympathetic villain works, but it’s also great to have a villain that is simply evil. It just depends on the story being told. We should see Art and Sienna’s story come to a conclusion sometime in 2027, though no specific release date for Terrifier 4 has been announced yet.
