‘The Willowbrook’ Trailer Invites Influencers for Recovery

Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) may have met his match in Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam), but he’s not facing them alone.

Terrifier 2, now playing in theaters across the country this weekend, gives Art a mysterious new ally in the Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain).

Writer/Director Damien Leone and David Howard Thornton spoke with Bloody Disgusting about Art’s new friend and the tremendous performance behind the character.

Photo credit: Jeff Harriss

Leone shares where the Pale Girl came from and how the Terrifier fandom evolved her:

“She’s been this secret that we’ve been dying to speak about because she is so exciting. I always had this idea that when I was going to resurrect Art, there would be this physical apparition. It wasn’t just going to be this evil force, or whatever brought him back. I wanted it to be a character. So initially, this character was always going to be a creepy little girl to represent this demon, perhaps even Satan itself. We’ll explore that later. But she was supposed to be in a sundress with flowers, just like an early ’60s get-up. Then the year before we went into actual principal photography, it was Halloween, and I was getting tagged in all of these pictures of people, men and women, dressing up as Art and a lot of female Art cosplays.

“I had 20 of them, and I said, ‘You know what?’ I said, ‘I got to jump on this before it’s too late. This is amazing because girls love dressing up as Art just as much.’ I said we’ll make it a little mini Art the Clown character. Amelie McLain, who plays her, was amazing, just this little girl. I gave her very little direction when I was auditioning, and I just said, ‘Can you make creepy faces in the mirror and smile and big white eyes to all these weird things.’ She sent me the video back, and she was having so much fun and just looked great doing this. I said, ‘She’s going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to get her and Dave together in the same room and see them go at it.’ The response to her has been pretty positive so far; we’re excited about that.”

Leone describes McLain exploring her creepy new character by emulating Thornton’s performance.

“It was interesting,” the filmmaker says, “seeing her as an actress, exploring and trying to figure out how to play this character. Of course, I know what I would like her to do and give her direction, but I also like them to go off and play and feel free. On the first day, when she was opposite Art, you could see her trying to mimic Dave and starting to see if she could play with his facial expressions, which made her feel more comfortable. You could see how she was discovering who the character was for herself and what she could bring to it from what Dave was doing. So, watching that from the sidelines was very fun.” 

Photo credit: Jeff Harriss

Thornton loved working with McLain, whose role in the movie helped expand upon his character as well. The actor explains, “I think the Pale Girl character in this is a new way of evolving the character further because he has a guide this time around. Someone that’s actually telling him what to do and where to go, but also giving him the freedom to have his fun, too. There’s definitely a dynamic there that we haven’t fully explained yet. We’re inferring a lot of things in this film, and I think we’ll further flesh out the Pale Girl character, whatever that is, in future films. But I liked having something else for him to play off of other than just victims. That was fun, especially with Amelie, our actress that was playing her. She was just great. She was so easy to play off. It’s unusual to find a child actor that is so willing to go to crazy places and can play off someone else that easily. It was a lot of fun working with her.”

Thornton continues, “She is so observant, so observant. I just, I was blown away by her performance in this. She’s so good—the things she had to go through for this. I know I go through a lot with my makeup alone, but she had to wear those scleral lenses. Oh. I can’t stand stuff being in my eyes. In the first one, I had contacts for most of it until they ripped one night, and oh. I don’t know how she dealt with that; she did it without a complaint in the world.”

But who or what exactly is the Pale Girl? Thornton only hints at the answer and pinpoints a clue to look for in the film. 

“That’s been the thing that’s been hard to keep a secret, is her,” the actor shares, “because I think she’s going to cause so many questions with people and theories. She shapeshifts, too. I don’t know if you noticed something. We reveal what shape she’s taking in the movie. There’s a very brief newspaper article about a missing girl named Emily.”

From Bloody Disgusting, Cinedigm, and Iconic Events, Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 is NOW PLAYING in theaters across the country. And it’s making some fans lose their dinner… 

Photo credit: Jeff Harriss