Art the Clown

Art the Clown is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Terrifier franchise created by Damien Leone. He originates from Leone's short films The 9th Circle and Terrifier, both leading up to his appearance in the anthology horror film All Hallows' Eve (2013). He was portrayed by Mike Giannelli in his earlier incarnations. He later appeared in the feature length slasher film adaptions Terrifier (2016) and Terrifier 2 (2020) in which he was portrayed by David Howard Thornton. His short films and anthology segments depict him as a demented and merciless supernatural serial killer whose only apparent motive is to entertain and enjoy himself by inflicting torture and death upon others. His first feature length appearance follows him as he engages in a cat and mouse chase with a young woman named Tara (Jenna Kanell) before targeting her sister Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi). Terrifier 2 will focus on his resurrection and his pursuit of a teenage girl and her younger brother. While all of the films featuring the character have garnered generally mixed reviews, Thornton's portrayal has been met with critical acclaim. Art and Victoria are the only characters to appear in more than one installment in the Terrifier franchise and related films.

Art the Clown
Terrifier character
Art (David Howard Thornton) and Tara (Jenna Kanell)
First appearance
  • "The 9th Circle"
  • 2008
Created byDamien Leone
Portrayed byMike Giannelli
David Howard Thornton
In-universe information
SpeciesDemon
ClassificationMass murderer

Appearances

Art the Clown made his first appearance in the 2008 short film The 9th Circle. In the film, a young woman is tormented and subsequently abducted by Art while waiting at a train station on Halloween.[1] Art made his next appearance in the 2011 short film Terrifier, where the character stalks and torments a young woman who witnessed one of Art's previous murders.[2]

The character later made his feature-film debut in All Hallows' Eve (2013)[3]. In it, Art stalks and murders a group of teenagers on Halloween night.[4] The 2016 film Terrifier, Art begins a new killing spree on Halloween night, tormenting and murdering a variety of people within a decrepit apartment building.[5]

Concept and creation

Creating a horror villain
I drew my inspiration for Art from a lot of different sources. The most obvious being Mike Giannelli’s original portrayal of Art in All Hallow’s Eve. He gave me a great foundation to really build my version of the character from. From there, I combined my love of great horror villains (especially Freddy and The Joker) and coupled that with my love of great physical and silent film comedians.

—Thornton on what inspired his portrayal[6]

Art's original incarnation originates from Leone's short film The Ninth Circle. Despite being only a minor character in his debut appearance, he stood out amongst viewers. Because of this, Leone decided to make a short film entitled Terrifier centered strictly around Art. He soon wanted to adapt a feature film centered on the character but abandoned the concept after producers approached him to feature his short films as segments in the anthology horror film All Hallows' Eve with Art being the thread connecting all of the segments together. Leone wanted to create a clown character based on iconic slasher film villains but wanted the character to be the complete opposite of Pennywise from It (1990), being devoid of color and vocals.[7]

Men under the makeup

In all of Art's short film appearances and in All Hallow's Eve he was portrayed by actor Mike Giannelli. Once Leone began developing a feature-length film focused solely on Art, Giannelli decided to retire from acting. After sending in an audition tape, David Howard Thornton was cast in the role of the murderous villain and is set to portray him in future installments.[8] Thornton based his performance on classic physical comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and combined it with famous horror villain portrayals such as Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and Tim Curry as Pennywise but was mostly inspired by the iconic supervillain the Joker and his varied appearances and portrayals.[9]

Reception

In a review for iHorror.com, Danielle Cervantes wrote "Art the Clown is destined to become one of the great names in horror. He stands apart from other slasher greats in several aspects. His background is never established, though I’m sure that’s something we can look forward to in coming years. As of now, Art is some unknown evil entity embodied by a murderous clown with no reason or motive."[10]

In 2018, Trick or Treat Studios released an officially licensed costume of Art.[11] The same year, Art was the main part of the design in the officially licensed Terror Threads "Man of the Hour" collection which included a mug, and turntable slipcover.[12] The following year, Art and Tara were featured in another Terror Threads collection "Til Death Do Us Part".[13]

References
  1. Damien Leone (Director) (2008). The 9th Circle (DVD). United States.
  2. Damien Leone (Director) (2011). Terrifier (DVD). United States: D&D Films LLC.
  3. All Hallows' Eve, retrieved 2020-03-31
  4. Damien Leone (Director) (2013). All Hallows' Eve (DVD). United States: Ruthless Pictures.
  5. Damien Leone (Director) (2016). Terrifier (DVD). United States: Dark Age Cinema.
  6. "Exclusive: David Howard Thornton Talks 'Terrifier' Sequel, Art the Clown". Horror Nerd. US. July 31, 2019.
  7. Taylor, Nick. "Horror Business: The Making of Damien Leone's TERRIFIER". Dread Central. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  8. Millican, Josh. "Audition Tape that Got Actor Cast as "Art the Clown" in TERRIFIER Emerges On Facebook". Dread Central. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  9. David, Teixeira. "DAVID HOWARD THORNTON TALKS TERRIFIER, ART THE CLOWN". Decay Mag. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  10. Cervantes, Danielle. "'Terrifier' – Why Art is the Newest, Baddest Clown in Town". iHorror.com. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  11. Millican, Josh (August 21, 2018). "Dread Central Presents: TERRIFIER's Art the Clown Gets Mask & Costume from Trick or Treat Studios". Dread Central. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  12. "Terror Threads 'Terrifier' Apparel Collection Now Available". Decay Mag. May 18, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  13. "Terror Threads Releases 'Terrifier' "Til Death Do Us Part" Collection". Grave Decay. Retrieved August 22, 2019.

Further reading
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