An explanation of the origins, powers and victims of the clown in scary movies

Though Frightening the films initially didn't say much about Art the Clown, Creepy 3 finally explained the slasher's mysterious origins, motives, and powers. Continuation of the 2024 slasher film Creepy 3 David Howard Thornton's Art the Clown appeared on cinema screens around the world for the first time. 2022 year Creepy 2 was an unlikely occurrence as the limited release of the slasher grossed over $15 million on a budget of just $250,000. Budget for 2016 Frightening was even smaller, while Art the Clown's earlier appearance in a feature film entered All Saints' Day2013 horror anthology.

Though Creepy 3reviews are generally positive and understandable, they warned potential viewers that the latest installment of the series maintains two franchise traditions. Art the Clown was as terrifyingly brutal as ever, devising ever more elaborate, intricate and gruesome ways of dismembering his victims and Creepy 3 was still almost as opaque as its predecessors when it came to the series' history. The Frightening the films didn't explain much about his origins or powers, and most details could only be obtained by examining Art the Clown's on-screen mishaps. Luckily, Creepy 3The ending changed that a bit.

Terrifier 3 Confirmed Graphics The clown is a demon

The reference to the Ninth Circle clarified the nefarious status of the play

After the first two films of the series avoided this topic, Creepy 3 confirmed that Art the Clown is a demon, which is a meta reference to Leone's original short. After Creepy 3many brutal killings Art the Clown is almost destroyed when Sienna pins him to the wall with her magic sword. However, he recovers enough to break away from the wall and run to a nearby bus stop, where he boards a silent bus. The second lonely passenger is reading a book titled Ninth circlean obvious nod to Leone's previously mentioned short film. This awakens sick Art.

Art seems to come back to life, just as it did at the end of of Scarer 2so that he can continue his bloodletting and demonic possession spree. In the original Frighteninghe seemed shocked by his own resurrection after Vicky's brutal disfigurement. IN Creepy 2he was accompanied by a seemingly demonic presence, the Little Pale Girl, who appeared to be the clown's previous victim. Creepy 3new villain Vicky easily explained how these events were connected when she told Sienna that she would possess her when she gave up all hope, just like Vicky did.

The origin of the clown in Terrifier explained

Clown movies have never fully explained where he comes from

Unlike most slasher villains, Art the Clown has no canonical history. He first appeared in 2008 in the short film “The 9th Circle” directed by Frighteningfinal helmsman, Damian Leone. In this anomaly in the character canon, Art the Clown was merely an accomplice of a greater villain, namely the devil himself. Art kidnaps a woman from a train station and sacrifices her to Satan, but it is unclear whether it is a man in a clown suit doing the devil's dirty work or some demon. Creepy 3 ultimately confirms that this remains the role of Art, who is in fact a demon.

The sight of his glowing eyes is impressive. Art Clown looks like Pennywise at the end of “The Ninth Circle,” and his subsequent appearance in the short reinforces this interpretation. In the 2011 short film “Terrifier”, Art stalks and murders another female victim, using teleportation impossible in the history of the film and super strength. This supports the idea that Art is a demon rather than an ordinary human being All Saints' Day he sees him somehow coming out of the TV and into reality. Although the next one Frightening films avoided these clearly supernatural elements and presented a more human art, Creepy 3The ending proves he is a demon.

Art depicting the power and abilities of the clown in Terrifier

Art The clown is inhumanly strong and effectively immortal

One sec Creepy 3the story confirmed Art's demonic status, Frightening AND Creepy 2 I already explained that Art was super strong and effectively immortalalthough not necessarily capable of shapeshifting, possession, teleportation, or other supernatural feats. This has been up for debate as Art's presence does seem to drive some people to violence, like his victim Victoria, while his image haunts others until their mental health breaks down, as it previously did with Sienna's father Terrier 2 takes place. However, when it comes to what viewers actually see on screen, this Frightening the franchise version of Art the Clown remains less overtly magical.

Compared to the version of the villain from his short films, Frightening AND Creepy 2However, Art the Clown is at least close to human Creepy 3The villain is more magical. He feels pain when he is shot or stabbed, and his injuries temporarily hold him back. However, he is inhumanly powerful, crushing human skulls with his foot and tearing people to pieces with his bare hands. It is worth noting that he seems surprised when he is resurrected after taking his own life Frighteningend. This means that the ending could be the first resurrection of Art the Clown. His second place takes place in Creepy 2the end, after he was beheaded.

Explaining the clown motif in scary movies

Art the Clown seemingly never stopped recruiting lost souls to Satan

Despite how indirect a method his assassinations are to achieve this goal, It looks like Art the Clown is collecting souls for Satan in… Frightening cinema. In “The Ninth Circle” he made a direct sacrifice to the Devil, while at all times Frightening movies, uses murder to occupy souls in a less direct way. The play strips victims like Vicky, the Little Pale Girl, and Sienna of all hope so that it can then turn them into demon vectors. This is confirmed when Vicky's corpse melts Creepy 3end, opening a pit into hell that swallows Gabbie.

It's still unclear how exactly Art the Clown's plans work, as he appears to be killing many more victims than he is bringing down. He might only be able to use one victim as a vessel at a time, as the Little Pale Girl possessed Vicky suggests, and Vicky later tried to possess Sienna. However, this leads to the question of why Art also commits so many additional murders that are not necessarily part of this plan. The answer may be that by spreading misery and senseless cruelty throughout the world, Art deprives survivors of hope and exposes them to demonic possession.

Portray the clown's main victims in movies

Art the Clown specifically killed Tara, Dawn, Allie, and Barbara

The play is brought to life by his former asylum-seeker victim, Victoria, who gives birth to his disembodied head Creepy 2crazy plot twist. Victoria is one of Art's many victims during his film appearances. IN All Saints' DayArt escapes from a cursed videotape that the main characters are watching, enters the story of their framing device, and brutally kills two young children. In 2016 Frighteningkills Tara, seen in the movie Final Girl, her friend Dawn, a lonely wanderer, as the movie is called “Cat Lady”, two exterminators and the owner of a pizzeria. Art's kill count is even worse again Creepy 2.

This sequel ups the ante by giving viewers Art's most shocking performance yet. Art the Clown kills nine people on screen Creepy 2apart from the patrons of the Clown Café, he mows indiscriminately in Sienna's disturbing dream sequence. Almost inevitably, Creepy 3the story has even nastier deaths, but Creepy 2Among the most notable shocks is Allie's death, which drags on much longer than expected and in which Art literally rubs salt in her wounds. The coroner's brutal death is equally brutal, and the death of Sienna's friend Brooke is another particularly intense sequence in the sequel.

The most memorable deaths in the next installment include the double murder of Cole and Mia and… Creepy 3opening scene in which Art murders the entire family in their home on Christmas Eve. It is worth noting that the death of the family's young daughter was omitted off-screen, and it is possible that Art spared her. It's almost unthinkable that the character would do this out of the goodness of his heart, but it would fit his demonic modus operandi. Like the Little Pale Girl and Vicky, this lonely traumatized child can become the perfect vector for demons.

Who does the clown play in Terrifier

David Howard Thornton plays the series villain Terrifier

In “9. circle” i All Saints' DayArt the Clown is played by Leone's friend Mike Giannelli. In Frightening in the films, the role went to former mime David Howard Thornton. Ironically, before Thornton won the role, he was primarily a voice actor, and his training as a mime shaped the villain's unique on-screen persona. Thornton also played the murderous 2022 version of the Grinch The Mean Onea Christmas slasher that is a parody of the Dr. Seuss classic. Although Thornton has appeared in other films, FrighteningThe art of clowning remains the actor's most recognizable role to date.

Thorton also appeared as Art the Clown on comedian Pete Davidson's Peacock series Bupkiand will play a murderous version of Steamboat Willie in the upcoming 2025 slasher film The screaming boat. Thornton's work as Art the Clown catapulted him to fame among horror audiences, and the actor reprized the role in Ice Nine Kills' 2024 music video “A Work of Art.” Before he found fame in the horror franchise, Thornton played voice roles in video games such as Go to Hell: Revenge AND Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom. Now, FrighteningThe art of the Clown is Creepy 3 the star's signature role.

Director

Damien Leone

Release date

March 15, 2018

Studio(s)

Epic Photos Group

Writers

Damien Leone

To throw

David Howard Thornton, Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, Catherine Corcoran

Execution time

86 minutes

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