WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
This blog post shall explain the cyclicity of the horror genre using the contemporary example of the film Terrifier (Leone, 2016). In particular, I will be exploring the tendency of this genre to maintain specific conventions over time to which viewers and lovers of horror have become accustomed. This independent film made in very recent times is one which revels in the history of horror cinema of the 1980s; in particular, the narrative characteristics present in the feature hark back to and pay considerable homage to the ‘slasher’ subgenre. Furthermore, a large part of this aesthetic relies on visual excess in the employment of body horror and gore, traditionally using practical effects and brutal on-screen murders of the pursued victims of a killer. I will be employing theories on the use of the ‘Abject’ in horror film studies to link with the affecting relationship these images have on spectators. As I shall be responding, Terrifier is an interesting and somewhat underappreciated example of a genre film which pays its respects to the preceding titles that formed and maintained the template to which it scrupulously adheres.
Initially, to define a ‘slasher’ film from the past 45 years of Hollywood cinema there have been multiple contributions by authors. However, for me it is Clover’s interpretation of there being the story of “a psycho killer who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who survives'' (1992, p. 21 cited in Clayton, 2015, p. 8) which most effectively and briefly sums up this now well-established subgenre narrative. The films that will forever be synonymous with the introduction of the ‘slasher’ brand include the Halloween (Carpenter, 1978-) and Friday the 13th (Miller, 1980-) franchises which both follow Clover’s description.
Terrifier, with its release in 2016, is significantly more recent than such pioneer slasher features yet succeeds in completing a narrative of a crazed, unsympathetic murderer (in this case Art The Clown played by David Howard Thornton) committing unprovoked and gruesomely torturous killings that is believably akin to such earlier works. In fact, the majority of the film takes place over one Halloween night where Art the Clown is pursuing his victims within the confines of an old town building.
To explain this maintenance of a subgenre whose heyday is now long past, we must explain how genre functions over time. Those which remain relevant today have undergone processes of the wider film cycle. In Terrifier’s case, with a budget of only $800,000 the film’s overall lacking in Hollywood standard writing, image or editing quality has positioned it as a ‘B’ movie. This is not necessarily a negative connotation though, as ‘B’ movies profit from most of the work being done in the work of previous films of the genre. That is to say, scriptwriters recycle plot formulas and the overused semantic elements of a faltering film cycle and this is welcomed in the low-budget environment which relies heavily on an economy of action (Klein, 2011, p. 91). For aspirational filmmakers with a background in being the audience of slasher and ‘Grindhouse’ exploitation films, a knowingly lesser quality approach to re-introducing the preferred genre today makes financial sense. With ‘B’ movies like Terrifier as well as rebooted franchises such as The Hills Have Eyes (Aja, 2006), this subgenre has held onto relevance and success in the 21st century, although not as popular as it once was.
As well as the slasher, Terrifier also feeds into the resurrection of another even lesser appreciated subgenre: the Grindhouse film. This transgressive age of cinema was most prominent prior to and during the 1970s: originally with the exhibition of obscene, sexually and violently exploitative films in designated ‘Grindhouse Theaters’ across New York City. These films were a celebration of excess and served as ‘B’ movie horror hybrids, often incorporating elements of comedy or action into the makeup of the film. Intriguingly, the now somewhat cult and anti-mainstream status of the films of grindhouse cinema is attributed to their unsavoury content and ‘trashy’ production values (Fisher & Walker, 2016, p. 2). Terrifier contains stylised sequences that exploit the female body which is something closely related to grindhouse: Art the Clown hangs one female victim upside down and naked before slowly using a saw to completely cut her in half. This extremely graphic and disgusting scene chooses to allow the spectator a view of this helpless victim facing the camera directly with her entire body in shot. More than anything, scenes such as this as well as a scene later on with Art brandishing the severed breasts and scalp of another female victim serve the film greatly in its shock value and notoriety. This method of garnering interest in a film through the visual excess present is something that proved effective in the marketing of exploitative grindhouse films.
Terrifier, with its release in 2016, is significantly more recent than such pioneer slasher features yet succeeds in completing a narrative of a crazed, unsympathetic murderer (in this case Art The Clown played by David Howard Thornton) committing unprovoked and gruesomely torturous killings that is believably akin to such earlier works. In fact, the majority of the film takes place over one Halloween night where Art the Clown is pursuing his victims within the confines of an old town building.
To explain this maintenance of a subgenre whose heyday is now long past, we must explain how genre functions over time. Those which remain relevant today have undergone processes of the wider film cycle. In Terrifier’s case, with a budget of only $800,000 the film’s overall lacking in Hollywood standard writing, image or editing quality has positioned it as a ‘B’ movie. This is not necessarily a negative connotation though, as ‘B’ movies profit from most of the work being done in the work of previous films of the genre. That is to say, scriptwriters recycle plot formulas and the overused semantic elements of a faltering film cycle and this is welcomed in the low-budget environment which relies heavily on an economy of action (Klein, 2011, p. 91). For aspirational filmmakers with a background in being the audience of slasher and ‘Grindhouse’ exploitation films, a knowingly lesser quality approach to re-introducing the preferred genre today makes financial sense. With ‘B’ movies like Terrifier as well as rebooted franchises such as The Hills Have Eyes (Aja, 2006), this subgenre has held onto relevance and success in the 21st century, although not as popular as it once was.
As well as the slasher, Terrifier also feeds into the resurrection of another even lesser appreciated subgenre: the Grindhouse film. This transgressive age of cinema was most prominent prior to and during the 1970s: originally with the exhibition of obscene, sexually and violently exploitative films in designated ‘Grindhouse Theaters’ across New York City. These films were a celebration of excess and served as ‘B’ movie horror hybrids, often incorporating elements of comedy or action into the makeup of the film. Intriguingly, the now somewhat cult and anti-mainstream status of the films of grindhouse cinema is attributed to their unsavoury content and ‘trashy’ production values (Fisher & Walker, 2016, p. 2). Terrifier contains stylised sequences that exploit the female body which is something closely related to grindhouse: Art the Clown hangs one female victim upside down and naked before slowly using a saw to completely cut her in half. This extremely graphic and disgusting scene chooses to allow the spectator a view of this helpless victim facing the camera directly with her entire body in shot. More than anything, scenes such as this as well as a scene later on with Art brandishing the severed breasts and scalp of another female victim serve the film greatly in its shock value and notoriety. This method of garnering interest in a film through the visual excess present is something that proved effective in the marketing of exploitative grindhouse films.
The “semantic elements” (Klein, 2011, p. 91) of slasher texts in this case shine through in Terrifier with particular prominence. Films of this prescribed genre traditionally have relied on disturbing and boundary-pushing imagery: typically the human body under considerable graphic stress. Terrifier offers up multiple overly excessive deaths involving decapitations, scalpings and even a bisection of a human being. Such outlandish modes of killing and depictions of corpses form part of Kristeva’s theory on the effect of abjection on the spectator: “the corpse, the most sickening of wastes, is a border that has encroached upon everything”, in essence it is “death infecting life” (1982, pp. 3-4). Her deepened argument details that humans seeing images of the graphic human body simply are overwhelmed due to the loss of their being alive and their alignment of identification with the dead on screen who once were fellow living humans after all. Reyes responds to the writings of Kristeva with a view that perhaps abjection from a horrific image is better placed “outside the psychoanalytic remit, [instead] as a form of fearful disgust” (2016, p. 55). Where the disgust is inherently affecting due to the perceived threat of a killer; again, this can be a relationship of identification with the protagonists of slasher films in viewing.
Leone decided in directing his film to opt for the more cost effective, yet nowadays outdated, practical effects for objects such as human heads in Terrifier. The effect from lingering shots of such gruesome artefacts of murder is one that evoked in me an appreciation for the film’s exploitative quality. Typically, Hollywood establishments now would choose to use CGI for example to achieve a horrific image such as this; yet, I would argue that the use of prosthetics and fake blood paired with a strategic use of the camera for close-up shots of decapitated heads was intended to resemble the gore effects present in some of the classic slasher and grindhouse films. Another explanation for the film’s use of human head models for action sequences could be for the preservation of a low budget. However, with Leone setting out to create a modern slasher film I believe firmly that he preferred the authenticity provided by using the older effects style. In fact, it is often agreed that “visceral ‘reality’ is only present when a practical effect is present as a sculptural, profilmic object” (Ball, 2020, p. 94), and in the context of a film attempting to disgust and horrify, a sense of ‘reality’ within the willing suspension of disbelief of the narrative is crucial in having a lasting effect on audiences.
Leone decided in directing his film to opt for the more cost effective, yet nowadays outdated, practical effects for objects such as human heads in Terrifier. The effect from lingering shots of such gruesome artefacts of murder is one that evoked in me an appreciation for the film’s exploitative quality. Typically, Hollywood establishments now would choose to use CGI for example to achieve a horrific image such as this; yet, I would argue that the use of prosthetics and fake blood paired with a strategic use of the camera for close-up shots of decapitated heads was intended to resemble the gore effects present in some of the classic slasher and grindhouse films. Another explanation for the film’s use of human head models for action sequences could be for the preservation of a low budget. However, with Leone setting out to create a modern slasher film I believe firmly that he preferred the authenticity provided by using the older effects style. In fact, it is often agreed that “visceral ‘reality’ is only present when a practical effect is present as a sculptural, profilmic object” (Ball, 2020, p. 94), and in the context of a film attempting to disgust and horrify, a sense of ‘reality’ within the willing suspension of disbelief of the narrative is crucial in having a lasting effect on audiences.
Lastly, the filmmaking team behind Terrifier have managed to further make the association between this film and horror cinema of the 1980s with its manipulation of both its cinematography and soundtrack. In an interview, Damien Leone himself described the film’s visual style as “grimy” and commented how he felt that a more ‘polished’ look on horror films can lessen their effectiveness, he also would have liked to film Terrifier completely on 16mm film stock to achieve the full grindhouse aesthetic (Leone, 2018, para 2). The set design of a dirty and abandoned interior with decay all around effectively induces fear in the viewer. Art the Clown is often framed in the foreground of shots where he looks towards victims and also does not ever speak any dialogue, these facts liken him deeply to past horror villains such as Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Moreover, the film’s instrumental theme utilises suspenseful synthesiser music to accompany the images - this is closely similar to the popular cinematic music of the 1980s, including previous aforementioned slasher films. So here we have evidence of the general look and sound of the film contributing towards its overall pastiche of the slasher horror genre.
To summarise, Terrifier is a film which has assumed the role of a deliberate revival and repetition of both the slasher and grindhouse subgenres of cinematic horror. It was created by a horror fanatic who is starting out in the filmmaking industry and who has taken heavy inspiration from the works of some horror films from the last few decades. This inspiration has transpired into Terrifier through not only narrative but also the strong visual excess of body horror, gore, killing and mutilation shown on screen. I can only predict that there is more of this horror nostalgia fuelled cinema to come in the next few years in the hopes of successfully keeping the horror genre alive.
Total Word Count: 1559
The opening credits sequence of Terrifier. An establishing montage of weapon and costume preparation is seen by our 'slasher killer'. This is accompanied by synth music and perfectly captures the spirit of the film.
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Carpenter, J. (Writer). (1978), Halloween [Motion Picture]. Universal Pictures.
Clayton, W. (2015). Style and form in the Hollywood slasher film. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Fisher, A. , & Walker, J. (2016). Introduction: 42nd street, and beyond. In A. Fisher & J. Walker (Eds.). Grindhouse: Cultural exchange on 42nd street, and beyond (pp. 1–12). Bloomsbury Academic.
Klein, A. A. (2011). American film cycles: Reframing genres, screening social problems and defining subcultures. University of Texas Press.
Kristeva, J. (1980). Powers of horror: An essay on abjection. Trans. Roudiez, L. S. (1982). Columbia University Press.
Leone, D. (2018, March 27). Damien Leone and his special effects works of art, ‘Terrifier’. Thirteenth Floor. https://www.ttf13.com/interviews/2018/3/27/damien-leone-and-his-special-effects-work-of-art-terrifier
Leone, D. (Director). (2016). Terrifier [Motion Picture]. Dark Age Cinema.
Miller, V. (Writer). (1980). Friday the 13th [Motion Picture]. Paramount Pictures.
'Opening Titles', Terrifier, 23:05 01/07/2020, Horror Channel, 100 mins. 00:05:19-00:06:53. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/190334?bcast=132263677 (Accessed 27 Jan 2021).
Reyes, X. A. (2016). Horror film and affect: Towards a corporeal model of viewership. Routledge.