How many times have we watched a horror franchise take its most notorious killer and try to make us feel sorry for them? A little childhood trauma, a troubled upbringing, maybe a tragic event or two, and suddenly we’re supposed to look at all those murders a little differently. We’ve seen this approach pop up time and time again, including with Peacock’s CRYSTAL LAKE, but apparently there is one horror icon who won’t be getting that treatment.
David Howard Thornton isn’t interested in seeing Art the Clown turned into a misunderstood killer, and it sounds like director Damien Leone feels the same way. With TERRIFIER 4 expected to explore more of Art’s history, the actor has made it clear that one thing he hopes the filmmakers avoid is giving the sadistic clown a sympathetic origin story.
During a panel at Chattanooga Comic Con over the weekend, Thornton discussed the character’s mysterious past and shared some insight into conversations he has had with Leone over the years. As reported by ComicBook.com, Thornton recalled first asking the director about Art’s identity and motivations when he began playing the character.
“When I first sat down in the make-up chair with [Damien], I was like, ‘Tell me everything about Art. Who is he? Why does he do what he’s doing? Because I just want to know that just for my own self.’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know.’”
According to Thornton, the two have continued kicking around ideas as the franchise has grown, but they have also agreed on one important detail.
“We don’t want him to have a sympathetic background,” Thornton explained. “In my head, he basically is evil incarnate. He came out of the womb just evil.”
He even offered a rather gruesome explanation of just how far back that evil goes, joking that Art would have strangled his own mother with his umbilical cord the moment he was born. That’s certainly one way to establish that this isn’t a character who needs a tragic backstory to explain his behavior.
That doesn’t mean TERRIFIER 4 won’t answer some of the questions fans have been asking. Thornton is particularly interested in exploring why Art never speaks, along with other details that could shed some light on the character without making audiences feel sympathy for him.
Leone has previously teased that the fourth installment will dig into Art’s backstory, and the director has described the upcoming film as “the most epic, horrifying, thrilling, emotional and satisfying conclusion to the saga.”
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR TERRIFIER 3 BELOW
Thornton is expected to return alongside Lauren LaVera as Sienna Shaw and Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria Heyes. The franchise began with TERRIFIER in 2016, followed by TERRIFIER 2 in 2022. The third installment arrived in 2024, opening at No. 1 at the box office and becoming the highest grossing unrated film of all time.
Personally, I’m all for keeping Art the Clown as an absolute monster. Not every horror villain needs a sob story, and sometimes evil is simply evil. Give us some answers about where Art came from, explain that disturbing silence, and let the clown remain the nightmare audiences have come to love. TERRIFIER 4 is still in development, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for more details as Leone brings the saga toward its conclusion.