Upon my first viewing, I found myself both thrilled and baffled, as I ventured through its uncanny narrative and startling imagery. With its unique storytelling and bold visual choices, this film was a captivating experience that lingered long after the credits rolled.
Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” opens as if the screen itself was dipped in a hallucinogenic cocktail, one with an aftertaste of bile and eyeliner, and I found myself reeling, delighted, and (let’s not be coy) more than a little queasy. This is the promise and peril of modern body horror: when it’s any good, you come away not only a little sick to your stomach but a little troubled in your soul.
One comes to a marathon of the “Terrifier” films much as you might approach a rickety rollercoaster at a fading state fair, skeptical, but secretly hoping to stumble out a little changed. It all begins with a shriek and a snicker: Damien Leone’s creation, Art the Clown, born of a 2011 short that was less a calling card than a threat. Yet by the third film, set amid Christmas glitter and moral queasiness, the series has grown into a twisted, almost baroque pageant of splatter and dark wit. The “Terrifier” films, watched in quick succession, form their own fevered treatise on what horror can still provoke, where it dare not go, and just how long you can keep laughing in the dark before you start to worry about yourself.
There’s a peculiar thrill in surrendering to a franchise you once tiptoed around, only to discover, three films deep, that what you’d dismissed as mere butchery contains a bewitching, misanthropic wit. “Terrifier 3,” the latest of Damien Leone’s splatter operettas, is that rare slasher sequel that not only resurrects the franchise corpse, but hustles it, grinning, into the main square, clad in Christmas tinsel and brandishing a bloodied candy cane.
This low-budget slasher reintroduces Art the Clown, a character who has quickly risen to iconic status within the horror genre, while delivering a story that ups the ante in every conceivable way, violence, scale, and ambition. With a runtime of over two hours, Terrifier 2 pushes the boundaries of modern horror, offering a visceral experience that caters to hardcore fans while alienating some mainstream viewers.
As someone who typically gravitates toward different genres, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying "Frankie Freako," directed by Steven Kostanski.