Although /Film's own Chris Evangelista dubbed 2016's “Terrifier” as “crap,” he at least acknowledged that Damien Leone's ultra-low-budget destroyer was “loaded with incredibly practical gore.” This was arguably Leone's strongest point in the following sequels, with 2022's “Terrifier 2” and 2024's “Terrifier 3” ramping up the gore to levels that defy explanation. As /FIlm's Jacob Hall wrote in his review of “Terrifier 3,” “The biggest credit one can give the 'Terrifier 3' effects team is that it's often unclear how they're pulling off these sequences.”
While the merits of Leone's brand of ultraviolence can be debated, his talent for creating practical effects simply cannot. The man knows how to create a sickeningly bloody sequel and apparently hasn't lost a step since his first film “Terrifier” featured a woman being sawed in half, from the pelvis up. In “Terrifier 2,” the director made use of every resource he could find, creating murder scenes using some very unlikely (and very disgusting) ingredients like fat-filled sausage casings and powdered milk to make the blood less translucent. Leone's favorite kill is Allie's (Casey Hartnett) infamous crime scene, in which Art completely decimates the young girl, skinning her alive and leaving her somehow conscious body for her mother to discover – a scene that required several days of footage and a series of low-budget practical effects.
While the scene itself is as vomit-inducing as you could imagine, the sheer level of technical wizardry on display is undeniable. Leone and his small team stayed in a barn for five days, where they built a set of Allie's bedroom and created the lewd sequence with a mix of makeup effects and a life-size doll that Leone created for the sickening final scene. But even Allie's death scene wasn't as ingenious as another death from “Terrifier 2,” in which Leone used a prophylactic to produce a very specific type of blood.
The death of Terrifier 2 who used a condom
Damien Leone has been preparing for the “Terrifier” films his entire life, revealing on The Scary Hour podcast that as a child he “would do makeup in the middle of the night,” adding, “You know, everyone's sleeping, it's night time. school and I’m melting clay on the stove to make a clay head or something like that.” These skills, honed throughout Leone's life, have allowed him to realize his dream of creating horror films that go far beyond what Hollywood typically allows, filled with the realistic gore that is the result of truly ingenious engineering.
Lauren LaVera, who stars as Sienna in the second and third “Terrifier” films, was asked about her favorite death from the franchise by Dexerto and highlighted some of Leone's inspired design work. The actress pointed to Brooke's (Kailey Hyman) death in “Terrifier 2,” where Art splashes acid on the defenseless teen before eviscerating her with a spiked club. The coup de grace occurs when the crazed clown rips out his victim's still-beating heart. According to LaVera, this was the death that impressed her the most during her time on “Terrifier 2.” “I really loved Brooke’s death,” she said, adding:
“When the acid was thrown in her face, you have to remember that it was a very low-budget film and her face needed to bubble. Then they used a condom to make the face look like it was bubbling, and I thought that was hilarious and genius. They used something so cheap and it worked so well that I was enchanted by these artists. I'm always amazed at the creativity that needs to be done on such a low budget.
Damien Leone pulls off another low-budget engineering feat
For those interested in knowing how Damien Leone used a condom to simulate a woman's face burning with acid, the director posted images of the practical effects and makeup used to create this brutal scene on Twitter/X.
Although Leone doesn't directly mention the condom itself, the director reportedly blew on the tubes to make the condom enlarge and make holes in the mask he constructed for Brooke's face. The end effect was yet another feat of low-tech engineering that seemed much more advanced than it actually was. Of course, once you know how it was done, you can perfectly see how the condom was used when you rewatch the final scene.
No doubt more stories about Leone's craftsmanship will emerge as “Terrifier 3” continues to make audiences vomit and flee the theaters. With the threequel going even harder than its predecessor, pushing the limits of what you think is possible when it comes to splatter films, we can't wait to find out what unlikely ingredients the director used this time around.
