Art the Clown has become a pop culture phenomenon in recent years. From action figures to ugly Christmas sweaters, the clown slasher is everywhere these days and now he’s also causing havoc in Prime Video.
Released by our DREAD distribution arm, Terrifier proved to be the little indie movie that could. And thanks to the overwhelming success of the newly released threequel, Terrifier 3, the series’ first installment is dominating the streaming charts once again.
In fact, according to Just Watch, DREAD’s Terrifier is the most-viewed feature across all streaming platforms today, via Prime Video other platforms. On top of that, Terrifier 3 claimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, outperforming the financial flop Joker: Folie à Deux. What a time to be alive and a horror fan.
The success of the Terrifier franchise surely shows that there is a still a market for extreme gore pictures. With the ‘torture porn’ and ‘New French Extremity’ movements having long since wound down, there is a noticeable absence of boundary-pushing visceral content at the local multiplex. Clearly, Terrifier creator Damien Leone understands the demand for subversive genre content. And he is enthusiastically supplying fans with his signature brand of gory excess.
The origins of Art the Clown:
Leone originally debuted Art the Clown via his short film The 9th Circle. The filmmaker followed that effort up with another short film called Terrifier. The shorts were eventually included in Leone’s feature film directorial debut, All Hallow’s Eve. The flick is a collection of shorts, all of which feature Art the Clown.
Mike Giannelli played Art in the early shorts but it was David Howard Thornton who played the character in Terrifier and each subsequent follow up to date. Thornton really seems to understand the character and his portrayal of Art is a big part of why fans connect with the slasher series.
If you’ve got Terrifier fever and want to revisit the twisted first chapter in the wildly successful franchise, you can currently find the film streaming for free (with ads) on at least 8 different platforms.
The setup for this extreme slasher pic goes like this:
A crazy clown stalks and tries to kill three women in a wretched old apartment building on Halloween night.
That’s all we have for you at present. Keep an eye out for more updates on which films are owning the streaming charts as we discover them. Also, don’t forget to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter (X) so you never miss an exciting update.
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