Terrifier 3 Ending Explained: Blood Red Christmas

The central ethos of filmmaker Damien Leone’s "Terrifier" films involves a combination of profanity and subversion. In other words, anything goes, especially when you least expect it to. That guiding principle has been present as far back as the first, non-canon appearances of Art the Clown, initially played by Leone’s friend Mike Giannelli in the "Terrifier" short film that ended up being part of the anthology movie "All Hallows’ Eve" from 2013. Even though Art was recast with actor David Howard Thornton for the first proper "Terrifier" film in 2016, the concept remained: here was a slasher movie villain who didn’t play by the rules.

Where most prior slashers, a Final Girl would rise to the challenge of temporarily defeating the killer and that killer would only use sharp and blunt objects to do his business, Art pulled an Indiana Jones and whipped out a pistol, dispatching one Final Girl with horrific brevity and brutally mutilating the character who took her place. 2022’s "Terrifier 2" continued this game of zigging where most would’ve expected a zag, the film being one of the longest slasher movies ever made (138 minutes!) that introduces hints of a larger, deeper mythology surrounding Art, his goals, and his origins, but without providing many answers.

This month’s "Terrifier 3" provides these answers, and then some. Leone once again takes the series in a new direction, bringing back several characters from the previous films while changing the setting from Halloween night to Christmas Eve. In addition to making explicit what was only inferred or hinted at in "Terrifier 2," Leone rather ingeniously recontextualizes the character of Art (if not the films themselves) without losing that perverse sense of shock or surprise that keeps drawing curious audiences in. Although this film, like "Terrifier 2," ends on a cliffhanger, it’s a testament to Leone’s clarity and consistency of vision that a potential "Terrifier 4" could literally take things anywhere next.