Terrifier 2 is a worthy edition to the killer clown sub-genre of horror, and while Art the Clown is a very memorable villain, he’s also a character who has undergone significant changes in substantial ways throughout his appearances. Art the Clown's initial appearances chart back to two of Damien Leone's short films, The 9th Circle and Terrifier from 2008 and 2011. The clown from Terrifier made such an impact in these bite-sized doses that he’s slowly transitioned from short films to feature-length movies to terrorize audiences. Art’s motive has always been to drug, kidnap, and torture women, but the ways in which he executes this evolves throughout the shorts and features.
In these short films, Art the Clown is a reasonably grounded killer who just sports a terrifying clown look. He's treated like a human. However, All Hallows’ Eve, a horror anthology film that prominently features the clown from Terrifier in its stories, begins to push the character into more exaggerated and supernatural territory. This is only exacerbated by Terrifier 2 when Art the Clown is resurrected by a mysterious entity. Here are all the changes the clown from Terrifier has undergone as Art evolved from a circus-themed murderer to a supernatural terror.
How Art The Clown's Character Has Changed
All Hallows' Eve warps Art’s look in each of the anthology segments. The clown from Terrifier retains his human appearance in the first movie, but in the other two he looks increasingly more abnormal and demonic, going full supernatural by Terrifier 2. Art's teeth are rotting, plus his head and proportions are skewed and become more intimidating in a way that loses the human touch. Additionally, Art's not one for words, which plays into his mime-like clown appearance. His only noises are deranged laughter. This also lends credence to the idea that he could be some kind of demonic serial killer rather than a human in disguise.
In 2013's All Hallows’ Eve, Art gets stabbed in the eyes and in the back, yet he carries on basically unphased, which is already a level of superhuman strength and supernatural undertones that weren’t clear from his initial appearance in the short films. This is perhaps best represented by the conclusion of All Hallows’ Eve, wherein the videotape of the clown from Terrifier seems to gain sentience and is able to interact with the people who are watching it.
Terrifier Leans Into Art The Clown's Supernatural Side
This is all taken even further in Terrifier, Art’s first solo feature and a movie that features one narrative rather than the anthology approach. Terrifier, Art's magnum opus, pushes the character into even more monstrous territory. He still drugs and maims his victims, but he also shows a cannibalistic streak by eating some of their faces. The biggest jump here is that Art is shown to be able to reanimate himself upon death, and appears to have some kind of immortal status. It's possible that Art is an evil entity who has been willed to kill, similar to Michael Myers and the Halloween franchise's Curse of Thorn. This is a huge shift in terms of Art now being an unstoppable force, which clearly transcends any typical serial killer.
Terrifier 2 Makes Art Fully Supernatural
Audiences got to experience even more of Art the Clown's horrifying antics, such as the controversial bedroom scene, in Terrifier 2 — but this time, he had an accomplice. At the end of Terrifier, Art shoots himself just before he is abpit to be apprehended by the police, only to return to life in the morgue and strangle the medical examiner. It's revealed in Terrifier 2 that Art was resurrected by a sinister entity, and he meets the ghost of his first victim, a girl dressed up in the same clown makeup he wears known only as the "Little Pale Girl." While not everyone can see the Little Pale Girl, she and Art decide to team up and go on a nice long killing spree. Art the Clown's subsequent resurrection places him in the league with other supernatural slasher killers like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. After all, a patient gives birth to his decapitated but still living head in a particularly gruesome scene. There's no arguing that the clown from Terrifier is 100% supernatural horror by the time Terrifier 2 rolls around. With Terrifier 3 on the way, it'll be interesting to see if the killer clown changes even more, possibly aligning the villain with creatures like Pennywise from IT.