Although 2024’s Terrifier 3 is one of the year’s most hotly anticipated new horror movies.

Despite the franchise’s deservedly ferocious reputation, there are a few boundaries of good taste that even Art the Clown doesn’t often cross. This may seem hard to believe for anyone familiar with the events of Terrifier and Terrifier 2, but the villain’s earlier onscreen appearance included at least one taboo-breaking shock that wasn’t repeated by his later outings. Terrifier 3’s surprisingly positive early reviews prove the sequel might keep the franchise’s critical hot streak alive, but it is not yet clear whether Art the Clown will go back to committing this uniquely shocking crime in his forthcoming film.

Art the Clown May Kill Child Characters In Terrifier 3

Terrifier 3’s Mall Santa Sequence Doesn’t Bode Well

In Terrifier 3, Art the Clown may return to killing child characters for the first time since 2013’s anthology horror movie All Hallow’s Eve. It is exceedingly rare for slasher movie villains to do this, with even Halloween’s Michael Myers and Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees preying primarily on teens and college students. Although the killing sprees of Myers and Voorhees take place in the suburbs at Halloween and summer camps, both locations filled with children, most mainstream slashers steer clear of depicting the deaths of children. This uniquely shocking taboo makes it harder to root for the killer.

It is not unlikely that a scene of Art the Clown working as a mall Santa in Terrifier 3’s trailer will end by breaking this unspoken genre taboo.

However, Art the Clown’s screen history proves that the character is a substantially nastier customer than earlier slasher villains and his movies are a more extreme, less mainstream brand of horror than major studio slashers. ittedly, 2022’s Terrifier 2 did have a sillier, more over-the-top tone than its grim predecessor, but it still included drawn-out death scenes like the horrific fate of Allie. As such, it is not unlikely that a scene of Art the Clown working as a mall Santa in Terrifier 3’s trailer will end by breaking this unspoken genre taboo with shocking violence.

Terrifier’s Art the Clown Hasn’t Crossed This Major Horror Boundary Since 2013

All Hallow’s Eve Saw The Villain Kill Two Children

Art came close to killing a child when he tortured Sienna’s brother in Terrifier 2 but, for a series obsessed with pushing its audience’s buttons, the first two Terrifier movies stopped short of this. In contrast, 2013’s All Hallow’s Eve ended with the genuinely shocking revelation that Art had escaped from a cursed VHS tape, entered the movie’s framing device, and killed a babysitter’s two young charges in their beds. While this scene was outrageous, it was still unsettling. If Terrifier 3 really is 2024’s scariest movie, viewers should brace for this shock in Terrifier 3.

Terrifier 3 will be released on October 11, 2024.