Terrifier 3 will not be doubling down on the fantasy elements of its predecessor.
In 2022, Terrifier 2 became a viral hit. The gory slasher film written, directed, edited, and produced by Damien Leone grossed $15.1 million against a $250,000 budget. Cinverse Corp. has secured the North American rights to the third film in the Terrifier franchise.
Leone spoke with Variety about dialing back a few of the film’s fantasy elements.
“I wanted Part Two to have a Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors vibe to it. That was my tone in the back of my head, and I knew I was really going to embrace this supernatural and fantasy element. I also knew I was going to alienate a handful of fans going that route. I personally love it,” Leone said.
“But the biggest mistake I could do now is double-down on that fantasy aspect. That’s why I want to course-correct a bit; let’s go back to Nightmare on Elm Street Part One, as opposed to going further into Dream Warriors. That could be very helpful criticism and help me make a better movie moving forward. But we’ll see.”
When is the Terrifier 3 release date?
Terrifier 3 is set to release in fall 2024. It will have a wide theatrical release after the success of the sequel.
“Once I figured out what Part Two was, I knew it was going to be at least a trilogy, so I’ve been working on this since I completed Part Two,” Leone says. “Even while I was writing Part Two, I actually had scenes that I’d already written for Part Three because I knew where it was going to go. I want to shift back a bit to the tone of Part One, which I felt was a little more simplistic and old school, gritty slasher. I want this one to go back in that direction, and I want this to be the scariest one of the trilogy.”
“This one will actually have a little bit more of an evil overtone to it, so this is going to be hopefully the scariest and the darkest. I want it to feel as if the audience coming into this one isn’t as comfortable with Art the Clown as they feel they are now. I want to see if I can make them really scared of him again.”
