SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5 EPISODE 12 OF YELLOWSTONE BELOW
Yellowstone‘s final season is finally revealing the fates of certain characters. The elephant in the room is certainly how Kevin Costner’s exit was handled. [SPOILERS] Costner was not particularly thrilled to learn that his John Dutton would fall by his own hand, so he wasn’t too keen on watching the final episodes. As he revealed on The Michael Smerconish Program (via Deadline), “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.”
However, in a show like Yellowstone, the safety of other characters isn’t necessarily guaranteed either, especially with the show coming to a close. Earlier in the season, Emmett Walsh would succumb to natural causes, and episode 12 of season 5 would also see Colby Mayfield’s passing on the show. Denim Richards’ character saw a tragic fate in the episode “Counting Coup,” but it would also seemingly come out of nowhere. SlashFilm reports that director Christina Voros told The Hollywood Reporter that this development was not meant to blindside viewers for shock value.
She stated, “In a world of very high-stakes drama, this death comes as a shock because it’s so simple and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic because there’s no enemy here. It’s the risk of the job.” Colby’s death was aimed to show authenticity and Voros says the takeaway from the event was “[Colby] had a love in his life; they were making plans. There was a future ahead of them. So it has a very different impact, I think, than the murder of John Dutton, because it happened because he was doing what he’s meant to be doing. It didn’t happen because someone was out to get him or because he did anything wrong. He was trying to protect Carter and did what he thought was the right thing, and it was a freak accident.”
Our Alex Maidy really enjoyed season 5 part 2, as he says in his review, “The mid-season premiere was written by Taylor Sheridan, who manages the smaller, quieter elements that have always made Yellowstone intriguing to watch between murder scenes, backstabbing, and intrigue. For anyone who does not work on a ranch or in the wide expanses of America, there is a romantic element of cowboy life that Yellowstone beautifully displays. Taylor Sheridan also never lets us forget that the privilege of living the way most Americans do comes on the backs of men like Rip, Lloyd, and the others who work the Dutton Ranch.”
Blizzard is delisting Warcraft I and II from GOG, the only PC gaming storefront the real-time strategy classics were available on outside of the company’s own Battle.net launcher. The move comes after the recent launch of its own expensive and lackluster remasters of the two games, but GOG is using that now-standard…
Blizzard is delisting Warcraft I and II from GOG, the only PC gaming storefront the real-time strategy classics were available on outside of the company’s own Battle.net launcher. The move comes after the recent launch of its own expensive and lackluster remasters of the two games, but GOG is using that now-standard…
The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers‘ remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it HERE) is set to reach theatres on Wednesday, December 25th – and during an interview with SFX magazine, Eggers revealed that actor Bill Skarsgard (It), who plays the title character, improved his film by bringing vulnerability to a vampire that Eggers originally envisioned as nothing but demonic evil.
An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home. Werner Herzog directed his own remake of the film in 1979. Murnau’s film had a running time of 94 minutes and Herzog’s is 107 minutes long, so Eggers’ 132 minute version is substantially longer than its predecessors.
Eggers’ take on Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.
The cast includes Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as crazy vampire hunter Von Franz, Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol) as Ellen Hutter and Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) as her husband Thomas – a role Skarsgard was going to play at one point. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) is in there as Thomas’s friend Friedrich Harding, with Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Friedrich’s wife Anna, Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as Von Franz’s cohort Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, and Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) in an unspecified role. As mentioned, Bill Skarsgard is the title character and has said that playing Nosferatu / Count Orlok was like “conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.“
The first reactions to the film recently made their way online, and they were very positive. Nosferatu has earned an R rating for bloody violent content, graphic nudity, and some sexual content.
Eggers told SFX magazine, “I sent (Skarsgard) a backstory of Orlok that I wrote. So we came to it together to achieve what I was after. Because I’m so tired of the heroic and sad vampires, I was just like, ‘He’s a demon. He’s so evil.’ Bill was like, ‘Yeah, but there needs to be some times where he has some kind of vulnerability.’ It’s very subtle, and it’s not there often, but it is enough. I think the ending of the movie is much more effective than it would have been without Bill’s acute sensitivity to that – while still delivering on this big, scary, masculine vampire.“
Are you looking forward to seeing Nosferatu and Bill Skarsgard’s performance? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
In 2006, Mel Gibson was just about the most controversial guy in Hollywood. But he was, let’s all admit it, still an icon of the screen. As such, some people still had a lot of faith in him. And that faith would be translated in Hacksaw Ridge. There was the faith of its central figure, Desmond Doss; that which the producers and studio put into Gibson; and that which Gibson himself had in the project, which would tell of a conscientious objector during World War II.
Hacksaw Ridge centers around the real-life figure of Desmond Doss, who served as a medic during World War II and became famous for his refusal to carry a weapon. Even still, he is credited with saving 75 lives while in action. As he once said, “God convicted me not to kill. If somebody else is convicted by God to kill, I pass no judgment on that person.” This stems from his being a Seventh-day Adventist, a denomination also shared by filmmaker Terry Benedict, who directed the 2004 documentary THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR, which Mel Gibson actually screened for the cast/crew ahead of production. Such a key figure during the war, Doss – a member of the 307th Regiment, 77th Infantry Division –went on to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Desmond Doss was well aware just how enrapturing his story was, but was also worried that his story would focus too much on him and not the faith that drove him. The story seemed destined for the big screen, but Doss was turning it down every chance he got, even rejecting iconic Casablanca producer Hal B. Wallis directly. As the decades went by, it seemed like the story would never be fleshed out for the screen, with rights being pitched and passed.
With the turn of the century, however, came more interest; thus, Benedict’s aforementioned documentary. But there would be a push for a narrative version. Producer Bill Mechanic eventually secured the rights, initially collaborating with Walden Media (the studio aimed at faith-centric, sometimes overtly Christian-leaning fare, whose most notable movies include Holes and Because of Winn-Dixie) who had desires to make the film PG-13, which doesn’t exactly fly in a WWII film, perhaps especially so if it’s focusing on the work of a medic…Gregory Crosby (the grandson of crooner Bing) wrote the initial treatment, soon having a vital role in convincing Desmond Doss to let his story be put on the big screen. The first draft came in the mid-2000s, with Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle; HBO’s The Pacific) behind the project, rewrites by Randall Wallace (Oscar nod for Braveheart; Pearl Harbor) and additional work by Andrew Knight (The Water Diviner). Schenkkan and Knight would get final credit.
So, who would direct? Mel Gibson – who hadn’t directed a film since 2006’s Apocalypto – was actually initially interested but passed on the project. But Mechanic was diligent in his efforts to land Gibson, who was on major outs with Hollywood, what with the racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, misdemeanour battery charges and drunk driving arrest…As Mechanic put it, “If you took BRAVEHEART and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, the intersection gives you Desmond Doss.” With unending persistence, Gibson finally relented and agreed to direct Hacksaw Ridge.
It would then come time to cast Desmond Doss, who passed away in 2006. For the role of the conscientious objector – sometimes called a “conscientious cooperator” – Andrew Garfield would seal it. Garfield was immediately drawn to Doss, who gave him a new hero to portray after playing Spider-Man. As Garfield put nit, “It’s a pretty wild time we’re in. There’s a lot of violent uprising and separating and warring ideologies that are plaguing our beautiful planet right now. And I think Desmond Doss is a wonderful symbol of embodying the idea of live and let live no matter what your ideology is, no matter what your value system is, just to allow other people to be who they are and allow yourself to be who you are. That was really his core value, and to operate from a place of love.”
Other key cast members would be Sam Worthington as Captain Jack Glover, Luke Bracey as “Smitty” Ryker, Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths as parents Tom and Bertha, Teresa Palmer as wife Dorothy, and Vince Vaughn as Sergeant Howell. Notice anything about a lot of these actors? Most are Aussies! That’s because the film was shot exclusively in Australia. This goes back to one of life’s guarantees: taxes. Australian tax incentives were in place, but after they were yanked, the film had to officially be marked as at least partly an Australian production before they could get additional funding. Thankfully it did, and shooting in Australia gave the team the perks of filming “72 cents on the dollar”, as Gibson put it. This would come in handy, as Hacksaw Ridge had a budget of just $40 million. Compare that to Braveheart 20+ years earlier, which had a budget north of $70 million!
Filming – which lasted from September 29th, 2015 until December of that year – took place in a variety of locales across the Land Down Under, including the Fox Studios soundtrack in Sidney, Richmond, Orna Park, Centennial Park, and Newington Armory at Sydney Olympic Park, which stood in for Fort Jackson. Extensive filming in New South Wales reportedly brought in nearly $20 million and generated over 700 jobs in the area. On the more controversial side, Bringelly in New South Wales saw an environmental protest after they found out the production team had removed more than six dozen trees, including native eucalyptus. And that wasn’t the only way they were changing the landscape, as production designer Barry Robison was in charge of raising land so they could get a full 360-degree view without catching any local foliage or landmarks in the shot, as well as transforming a plot of land in Australia into Doss’ hometown of Lynchburg, VA. For anything else they couldn’t do with bulldozers, they brought in massive smoke machines to conceal backgrounds. And yes, that’s a pasture near Sydney standing in for Okinawa, the site of the namesake battle.
Speaking of battles, in the pre-production phase, Gibson did extensive storyboards and toyed with 8×12-foot models so he could get the feel for blocking and filming them, as he wanted the film to look and feel “visceral…tight, chaotic.” Cinematographer Simon Duggan helped contain the action on the battlefields using the Alexa with Panavision Primo Anamorphic Prime lenses, and the Red for handheld shots. He even used pocket cameras to up the intensity and nail Gibson’ “informed chaos.”
So why not just use green screens and other SFX? Gibson insisted on authenticity, leaning towards practical effects whenever possible. They even cast a man who lost his legs in the war in Afghanistan instead of doing the Lt. Dan route. However, some work – such as napalm wounds – had to be done via computers.
The sound design would also be reworked to better suit the film’s needs. While period-appropriate weaponry and ammo were used, the sound design had to intensify and amplify all of it because of how those particular weapons sounded in real life – that is, tinny and without the power needed for the big screen. Gibson himself had some fun with the effects, even sneezing and yelling into the mic to create a unique effect found in no other movie before or since. Also on the sound front, Hacksaw Ridge was supposed to be scored by James Horner (nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar for Braveheart), but was replaced by John Debney after Horner’s June 2015 death. Debeney himself was later replaced by Rupert Gregson-Williams after his score was not deemed satisfactory.
But historical accuracy, by and large, was a chief goal for the cast and crew of Hacksaw Ridge. This was something Desmond Doss himself had been concerned with regarding cinematic adaptations of his story, so Gibson and his team made it their mission. There are some slips to be sure (Doss’ brother Harold served in the Navy and not the Army, for example) and Gibson had to refrain from including a few key moments – chiefly one involving stretchers and bullets, which sounds simultaneously brutal and goofy – because they would be too Monty Pyhtonesque and not believable, even if they really did happen. There, too, are amalgamations and choices for dramatic effects – in other words, nothing really out of the ordinary for a biopic.
After seeing Hacksaw Ridge, Desmond Doss’ own son said, “I just couldn’t believe it. I was just completely taken by it. I thought I was watching my mother and my father.” That’s the sort of compliment you can’t fake or diminish the impact of. With Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson wanted to make a “five-star flick” about Desmond Doss…So, did he pull off that feat?
Hacksaw Ridge had its premiere on September 4th, 2016, nearly one year after filming first started. This occasion, an out-of-competition screening at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, resulted in a standing ovation, immediately kicking off Oscar buzz. And it kept generating, resulting in six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Mel Gibson and Best Actor for Andrew Garfield. It would win two: Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing
As for its box office numbers, it pulled in $15.2 million on opening weekend, landing at #3 just behind Marvel’s Doctor Strange and DreamWorks’ Trolls. And that’s where it would peak, ending its run with $67 million domestically and $113 on the international market for a total of just over $180 million, well over its $40 million budget. Nearly a decade on, it holds an 84$% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.9 on Letterboxd, even better than Best Picture winner Braveheart.
Nobody saw it coming, but Hacksaw Ridge cracked the door back open for Mel Gibson, who all of a sudden was being seen on the big screen again. Hell, he might even be playing Riggs for another Lethal Weapon! As for his directing career, he has his sixth feature, Flight Risk, lined up for 2025.
Check out these special Amazon Cyber Monday deals. Now, these are good for this week only, so make sure to buy them as soon as you can! Remember, some of these deals may be ongoing while others are limited, so strike while the iron is hot!
One disclaimer: Deals as good as these can be fickle, so there’s no telling if and when a money-saving opportunity might end or if the price may change. So if you want something – snap that shit up quick! Don’t wait, only to have Festivus roll around and discover you’ve nothing to give or the price suddenly changed and you no longer have the bread. And remember that if you want to support JoBlo.com, please make all your purchases by initially clicking through our links, since that’s beneficial for us. So click away, buy what you like, and happy Holiday hunting!
The upcoming TV series It: Welcome to Derry, which will serve as a prequel to Warner Bros’ two-part adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel It (pick up a copy HERE), was originally meant to be for the Max streaming service, but we recently learned that it will be airing on HBO as well. The show went into production in Port Hope, Ontario at the end of last year, aiming for a 2025 premiere, and wrapped in August after 237 shooting days. Bill Skarsgard came back to reprise the role of Pennywise, the evil clown – and during an interview with SFX magazine, Skarsgard discussed what it was like to play Pennywise again, hyping up the show a bit without revealing anything.
Brad Caleb Kane (Tokyo Vice) and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman), who was a co-producer on It: Chapter Two, are the showrunners on It: Welcome to Derry (and Kane recently signed on to be showrunner on the Friday the 13th series Crystal Lake as well.) The show is being executive produced by Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, the sibling director/producer duo that was behind the two It movies, through their production company Double Dream. Kane and Fuchs are also executive producing, as are Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, and Dan Lin. The series is produced by HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television.
Fuchs wrote the script for the first episode, working from a story he crafted with the Muschiettis. Andy Muschietti has directed four episodes of the nine-episode series.
Stephen King had this to say about the series: “I’m excited that the story of Derry, Maine’s most haunted city, is continuing, and I’m glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!“ The Muschiettis added, “As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King’s It until the thick paperback fell to pieces. It is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our It movies. We can’t wait to share the depths of Steve’s novel, in all its heart, humor, humanity, and horror.“
The cast of Welcome to Derry includes Taylour Paige (Zola), Jovan Adepo (Watchmen), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason), James Remar (Dexter), Madeleine Stowe (Revenge), Stephen Rider (Daredevil), Alixandra Fuchs (Hatfields & McCoys), Kimberly Guerrero (The English), Dorian Grey (Star Trek: Discovery), Thomas Mitchell (Gangland Undercover), BJ Harrison (Family Law), Peter Outerbridge (Saw VI), Shane Marriott (Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent),Chad Rook (Billy the Kid), Joshua Odjick (Little Bird), Rudy Mancuso (Música), and Morningstar Angeline(Westworld). We don’t know anything about the characters they’ll be playing, either. In fact, the only character we know anything about is Pennywise.
Skarsgard told SFX magazine, “It was strange to be back. Andy and Barbara Muschietti were doing the show, and I adore them. Most of the crew was the same people that did the movies. So it was this weird thing of going back to this gang of people that you created this thing with.” He added, “I don’t know why, but Pennywise is very accessible for me. So in terms of getting back into it, it was just like ‘Da da dah!’, and he explodes out. He’s so defined, he’s sort of dormant but very easily activated. We explored things that we haven’t explored in the movies – particularly one side of it, which I can’t go into. I hope the fans are excited.“
Are you looking forward to It: Welcome to Derry? Are you excited to see Bill Skarsgard back in the role of Pennywise, and to finding out what “things” this show explores that the movies didn’t? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Sixteen years passed from the time Eli Roth made a slasher faux trailer called Thanksgiving for the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse to the day when a feature version of Thanksgiving (read our review HERE) finally made its way into theatres – and the fact that we’re being rewarded for our patience with not just that movie, but also a sequel that’s expected to reach theatres sometime in 2025 is truly something to be thankful about. The sequel was announced soon after the first film reached theatres, and during a new interview with IndieWire, Roth revealed that the script for Thanksgiving 2 is complete and filming starts soon!
Roth had been wanting to make a feature version of Thanksgiving ever since he made the faux trailer, and even wrote the screenplay with Jeff Rendell (who played the homicidal pilgrim in the trailer) a dozen years ago. The feature finally happened thanks to Spyglass Media stepping in to provide the funding. Roth jumped at the chance to get the movie made, even though it meant having Deadpool‘s Tim Miller take over as director on the reshoots for his video game adaptation Borderlands.
Roth and Rendell produced the film with Roger Birnbaum. Spyglass chairman and CEO Gary Barber and president of production Peter Oillataguerre serve as executive producers alongside Kate Harrison and Greg Denny of Cream Productions Inc. Oillataguerre and SVP Production & Development Chris Stone oversaw the project for Spyglass while Caellum Allan and Kelseigh Coombs oversaw for TriStar.
If you’ve watched the original Thanksgiving trailer, you have a good idea of what this slasher movie is about, but here’s the synopsis: After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the infamous holiday.
The film starred Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), Rick Hoffman (Hostel), Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy), Addison Rae (He’s All That), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Milo Manheim (Z-O-M-B-I-E-S), Gina Gershon (Bound), comedian Tim Dillon (who was in a TV show called Thanksgiving), Gabriel Davenport (Mistletoe Time Machine), Tomaso Sanelli (Titans), and Jenna Warren (The Young Arsonists).
Speaking with IndieWire, Roth confirmed that Thanksgiving 2 is currently in “soft prep” and aiming for a production start in late March. Several actors will be returning for the sequel (we’ve previously heard that Verlaque, Hoffman, and Rae are expected to come back), the script has been written, and the movie will have a budget in the same range as its predecessor’s budget. Roth said, “We’re upping the ante but we are not going to do it with more money. That keeps it tight and lean and mean and forces us to make decisions. There’s a lot of setting up that we did in the first one that we don’t have to deal with now. It can just be all pay-off. … I’ve come up with stuff that is going to be achallenge. And I want it to be a challenge to pull off. Because if I’ve come up with the stuff that I think will make the best kills, then I’m going to do it like I’m never going to make another movie again.” He also said he intends to deliver an epic cat-and-mouse chase that he compared to a standout sequence in the first movie as well as Anthony Waller’s film Mute Witness.
Are you glad to hear that Thanksgiving 2 is on track, the script is finished, and filming will begin in a few months? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Gladiator II aimed to outdo the grandiose action scenes of the first film. But in a movie where combatants fight each other in the Colosseum with tigers and chariots abound, how did Ridley Scott go bigger? More animals. More elaborate environments. In the sequel to Scott’s own 2000 Academy Award-winner, audiences were treated to the gladiators being pitted against ravenous monkeys, charging rhinos and a simulated sea battle, complete with sharks in the water.
These sequences seem incredibly outlandish, but is it accurate? Well, yes and perhaps no. Variety reports that Chris Epplett, who is a Greek and Roman history professor at the University of Lethbridge, spoke with Vulture and stated that while the staged water battles were indeed a form of gladiatorial combat, he hadn’t personally learned if sharks were used. Epplett said that “there was a period when they could have flooded the floor of the arena. There was basically a period of, I think, 10 to 20 years before they put the full basement in, when they could have flooded the floor and had exhibitions with marine animals and that sort of thing.”
Scott, who has never shied away from being snide about his decisions, had joked at the Alien: Romulus premiere about how they would’ve gotten sharks in the Colosseum. He said, “That’s easy. Someone said, ‘How do you get sharks in the Colosseum?’ I said, ‘You can build the Colosseum — how stupid are you?’ I mean, you catch a few sharks and lob them in. They could do that.”
As for Gladiator III – which we should note hasn’t officially been greenlit – Ridley Scott is taking inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather saga, particularly as it relates to the central character’s arc. As he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s already an idea. I always had this idea that The Godfather ends with Michael not wanting the job. He sits there, and there’s this push-in on Al. He’s already had his hand kissed. He’s betrayed his wife with lies. [Lucius] isn’t quite that evil at all. He’s wondering, ‘Father, what do I do?’ Paul not wanting the job is a good place to start.”
For his part, Paul Mescal – who plays Lucius, son to murdered father Maximus – has said he is “massively down” for a Gladiator III but hopes it won’t be another quarter-century until we get it. And with Ridley Scott at 86 right now, he definitely won’t have time to let his plans for Gladiator III sit.
While we wait for the final box office numbers to come in, Gladiator II is tracking around $60 million, which would be well over what 2000’s Gladiator made on opening weekend. With that, we can probably expect the sequel to fare better at the overall box office as well, despite the original pulling in over $450 million worldwide. With numbers like that, a Gladiator III does seem like a given, especially with how Gladiator II ended. Scott even said that he had to keep Lucius alive and kill off his mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), to help develop the character, suggesting it would help propel actions for another film.
Art the Clown. He’s a homicidal maniac. He’s a supernatural being. He’s disgusting. He’s amusing. He’s the latest cinematic madman to be added to the ranks of genre icons. And he’s been around longer than you might realize. He’s been lurking around for a couple of decades. His breakthrough moment came with the 2016 movie Terrifier – and we’re going to examine that film… and the bad clown at the heart of it all… with this episode of What Happened to This Horror Movie?
Writer/director Damien Leone first brought Art the Clown into the world with a short film called The 9th Circle, which was shot in 2006.The story centers on a young woman who’s creeped out by a strange clown in a train station. The clown ends up attacking her, delivering her to a coven of witches that are in direct contact with Satan himself. Leone never intended for Art to be the lead villain of the short. But he found that everyone who watched it thought Art was the best thing about it. So, a few years later, he decided to make a short that was all about the clown. That twenty minute short was called Terrifier. It follows a woman who’s driving down an isolated road when she crosses paths with Art at a gas station. And he proceeds to relentlessly pursue her for the rest of the night. Attacking, torturing, and disfiguring her. All just for his own amusement.
The Terrifier short caught the attention of a producer who wanted to include it in an anthology film. The rest of the anthology would be made up of shorts directed by other filmmakers. But the producer wanted to shoot new footage of Art the Clown to insert into those other shorts. Leone didn’t like that idea, so he pitched his own: he would build an anthology out of The 9th Circle, Terrifier, and a new story that deals with an alien invasion but includes a nod to Art. Titled All Hallows’ Eve, that anthology was released in 2013. And by the time it hit home video, Leone was already planning to make a feature film that would serve as a showcase for Art. This character that seemed to fascinate anyone who watched the short films. He made the monster mash Frankenstein vs. the Mummy first, but then he circled back to his killer clown.
Speaking with Bloody Flicks, Leone confirmed that he drew inspiration from multiple existing characters when he created Art. He said, “Pennywise from Stephen King’s It was the killer clown king even back then. So I knew if I was going to step into that arena, I was going to have to do something drastically different. If you compare Art to Tim Curry’s Pennywise side by side, you’ll notice they are almost polar opposites. Pennywise is colorful, Art is black and white. Pennywise has hair, Art is bald. Pennywise speaks, Art is silent. Pennywise doesn’t use weapons, Art carries around a garbage bag filled with weapons. I also took personality traits from my favorite slashers and attributed them to Art. For instance, Art is essentially the silent stalker à la Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, but with Freddy Krueger’s sense of humor. Art is ultimately my tribute to everything I loved about slasher movies growing up. I wanted to take familiar elements that we all embraced from American horror movies, combined with the graphic violence and atmosphere of Giallo films. Hopefully creating something fresh and exciting.”
The Terrifier feature was an independent production, with producer Phil Falcone providing funding. Some more money was raised through an IndieGogo campaign – but that campaign fell short of its fifteen thousand dollar goal. Only four thousand, three hundred and sixty dollars were contributed. Leone went ahead and made his movie anyway. Working with a budget that was around fifty-five thousand dollars. This is a good example for other indie filmmakers to follow. Make your movie, even if an attempt at crowdfunding falls short. Just because a fundraising campaign didn’t generate much interest doesn’t mean the project isn’t going to be successful.
And just because the Terrifier feature was going to be an hour longer than the short didn’t mean the plot had to get overly complicated. Leone crafted a very simple story for the film. It starts with two young women, Tara and Dawn, heading home from a party on Halloween night. They decide to stop by a pizza place so they can sober up a bit. And in walks Art the Clown. Once Tara and Dawn have caught his attention, he dedicates himself to ruining their night. He stalks, tortures, and kills them – and pretty much everyone else he happens across. There is no intricate back story given for Art, no motivations. There’s nothing going on here but sadistic mayhem. Extended stalk and slash sequences, with Art doing things that are weird, gross, and disturbing. Leone’s approach was to make the movie feel like a fever dream, with a relentless sense of dread. And he succeeded.
Jenna Kanell was cast as Tara, with Catherine Corcoran as Dawn. Samantha Scaffidi plays Tara’s sister Victoria, who gets pulled into the horrific events. Some of the other victims include characters played by Pooya Mohseni, Matt McAllister, Michael Leavy, Gino Cafarelli, and Erick Zamora. Katie Maguire, who played a babysitter in the All Hallows’ Eve wraparound story, also shows up. Playing a different character, but one who still has some very bad luck.
The project hit a bit of a speed bump when Mike Giannelli, who had played Art in the short films, decided not to return. He was replaced by David Howard Thornton, a stage actor with a background in mime and physical comedy. That experience was greatly beneficial to his performance, as Thornton was able to make the silent killer even more unnerving. Leone told Clout Communications, “Everything people loved about Art was a testament to how Mike Giannelli portrayed him and now I had to start from scratch. Very frightening indeed. But as luck would have it, David came in for an audition one day and my producer and I immediately knew this was our guy. David pantomimed the act of stabbing someone to death and sawing their head off with great exuberance and glee. He’s also extremely animated, tall and thin. I always envisioned Art to be of a more slender build and I was excited to see what little quirks and nuances David could bring to the character. Working with David was a total delight from start to finish.”
Terrifier was made specifically to let viewers watch Art do his thing for a longer period of time. We might connect with other characters and hope they’ll be able to get away from this insane clown. Because nobody here deserves what Art does to them. But it wouldn’t serve the viewer well to get too attached to any of them… because chances are high that Art is going to make a bloody mess of them. The film serves not only as a showcase for Art the Clown, but also for gory special effects. Which were provided by Leone himself. He had been interested in special effects since he was a kid, especially the work of Tom Savini. That’s what got him into filmmaking. And he proved to be quite capable of making nauseating death scenes. Turning Terrifier into a gore-drenched throwback to the ‘80s glory days when Savini was splashing blood across the screen on a regular basis.
The Terrifier short had a scratched up, Grindhouse-style look to it. But Leone and cinematographer George Steuber decided to ditch that aesthetic for the feature. Figuring viewers would get tired of the fake scratches very quickly. Steuber was able to give the movie an old school look without beating up the image. The story is clearly set in modern day. The characters use cell phones and laptops. They take selfies. But the movie still feels like a remnant from a time gone by.
The finished film made its festival debut in 2016. And ended up securing a distribution deal through Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures. Genre fans began taking note of it right away. Then it reached a wider audience through streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, and Tubi. Minds were blown. Stomachs were turned. And Art the Clown began gathering a large fan base. Leone always felt that Terrifier had the potential to lead into at least two sequels… and in 2019, he started working on Terrifier 2. Which had a higher budget than its predecessor; a little over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That film was released in 2022, and performed better than expected during its theatrical run. Opening the door to a Terrifier 3… which had a budget of a couple million dollars. And did so well at the box office, it humiliated the under-performing Joker sequel.
While we’re speaking of sequels, we should mention that All Hallows’ Eve spawned a franchise as well. Although the adventures of Art continue elsewhere, the All Hallows’ Eve sequels are a collection of short films from multiple different filmmakers. Just like the producer’s original vision for the first movie, before it ended up being made entirely by Leone. That movie led to Leone making the Terrifier feature. And as the series goes on, maybe we’ll see one of the sequels launch a filmmaker to a similar level of success. Either way, we have two separate franchises to enjoy.
So what happened with Terrifier is that Damien Leone came up with a character who appealed to viewers to a surprising degree. Even the filmmaker himself was surprised by how interested people were in Art the Clown. But he went with it, endeavoring to give the people what they wanted. They asked for more, so he gave them more. And even though he made it disgusting, people loved it. There have been ups and downs along the way, but the Terrifier franchise is a great success story. And an example of how to build on success.
This is shaping up to be a substantial franchise. Art the Clown is still out there. He’s more popular than ever, with fans who just can’t seem to be enough of him. There will be more Terrifier movies. Leone has said that he wants to wrap up the story before Art wears out his welcome. Aiming to end things with Terrifier 4 or 5… But he also knows that you can’t keep a good slasher down. Especially when they have a supernatural element to them. They have tried to end all of the major slasher franchises. But the iconic killers just keep finding new ways to come back. And the same thing could wind up happening with Art. We might be seeing this guy carve up new victims for a long time to come. So keep your stomachs strong, because there’s always more blood and guts to be spilled.
A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
