One Halloween night in 2013, a babysitter and the kids she's watching return home from trick or treating and discover a mysterious VHS tape mixed in with their Halloween candy. The VHS tape contains three different short films with one common element. Each of them features a character that goes by Art the Clown. The first short is called the 9th Circle. And the first time we see Art the Clown, he's creepily, smiling at the camera in a montage where he's just one creepy clown amongst many demons, shadowy figures and whatever this is. The first time we see Art in action. He appears seemingly out of nowhere to harass a young woman waiting for her train in Realmsville Station. The woman ignores Art. But as we will come to learn, Art the Clown isn't someone who can be easily ignored. He literally carries a bag of tricks around with him to get people's attention. (Art honking his horn) After politely asking him to stop, she decides to ignore him. So he saddles up next to her and hands her a flower which is crawling with bugs. Her terror makes Art laugh hysterically, but also silently. Then, as she tries to run away, Art injects her with a sedative and takes her prisoner. The horn honking, the silent laughter, and the involuntary injections will remain some of Art's signature moves throughout his existence. But there's a huge difference in this short compared to everything that follows. Here, Art is literally working on behalf of the Devil. His victim wakes up alongside two other women in a dungeon filled with the aforementioned demons and hideous creatures. So is Art a demon? It would seem so here. But later on there are also indications that he might be a disturbed human gifted with some supernatural abilities. He feels pain and he does die, albeit temporarily. The VHS tape that appears in Little Timmy's Trick or Treating Hall is an anthology which means that three separate semi amateur filmmakers made Short films that incorporated Art the Clown. If this is true, then he must be something of an urban legend in this world. He's a known entity or a myth that people know about. So then who or what is Art the Clown? How can I analyze the history of a character who is left intentionally obtuse? We don't know where he comes from or what he's motivated by, because he never speaks. He's just a horrendously, violent, sometimes goofy clown who hides behind his face paint. Even he does not seem entirely sure what he's capable of. Lucky for me, I've analyzed a horror villain just like this before. Art isn't the first brutally violent, mysterious and mute serial killer with an obscured face. That would be the original slasher Michael Myers. In fact, Myers was also something of an urban legend in his town, Where local children referred to him as the Boogeyman. But as we dig further into the Art the Clown character, you'll see that the similarities between Art and Michael go deeper than general mannerisms and overall perception, I think Art the Clown could be a Michael Myers for a new generation. To find out how, stick around to the end of this video. This video is sponsored by Factor. ♪ Metal Music ♪ Welcome to Horror History, where you'll find fun little surprises in every bite. Today we are discussing Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise. Art the Clown has evolved quite a bit over the years. Damien Leone, the creator of Art the Clown and the director of the Terrifier movies, claims that the idea for Art started with a creepy scene that he envisioned between a woman and a clown on a crowded bus. In this imagined scene, the rest of the passengers gradually exit the bus, leaving the clown alone to terrorize the woman. This idea evolved into the scene in the train station that we just talked about from The 9th Circle. The 9th Circle is not only the first short film featured in All Hollows Eve, it's also the first short film that Damien Leone made that featured Art the Clown Clown back in 2008. Leone described his approach I threw in everything clowns, witches, demons, monsters, everything up against the wall, hoping something would stick. Art the Clown certainly stuck, but if we want to understand what made him stand out, we should understand his inception. Leone has stated in interviews that he was very aware of Pennywise when he created Art the Clown. Leone knew he couldn't top Stephen King at Pennywise's pArticular brand of creepy clown, so he created Art to be the polar opposite. Pennywise has hair and round features, while Art is bald with gaunt features. Pennywise is colorful. Art is black and white. Pennywise speaks, Art does not. Pennywise doesn't use weapons, but Art will use any weapons he can get his hands on. Instead of copying him, he used Pennywise as a sort of anti-inspiration. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't any similarities between Art the Clown and Pennywise. There is a hitchhiker scene in Leone's 2011 Terrifier short film that reminds me a lot of the scene from the first It movie where Pennywise flags down a driver and asks... -[Pennywise] Don't you want it? And there's even one scene where Art's eyes glow white, very reminiscent of Pennywise's Deadlights. Whether intentional or not, there certainly is some crossover between these evil clowns. As far as appearances are concerned, Leone claims that Art the Clown's look was also partially inspired by a clown that appeared in his favorite TV show, The Twilight Zone, In an episode called - Five Characters in Search of an Exit. This clown doesn't chop anyone's limbs off, but he definitely looks somewhat similar to Art. Thankfully, Leone stops short of giving Art a flower pot for a hat, but he does later try on these very stylish sunglasses. Audiences wanted more Art the Clown after the 9th Circle, so Leone put him at the center of his 2011 short film Terrifier. Leone put the short on YouTube where it got noticed by producer Jesse Badgett, who convinced Leone to put the 9th Circle and the Terrifier shorts together with one other short in a horror anthology that eventually became All Hollows Eve. Art the Clown is the glue that holds All Hollows Eve together. His brutal acts of violence, combined with Leone's expertise in special effects makeup, helped the film stand out and garner demand for the feature length Terrifier in 2016. This was one story, and it was Art's story from top to bottom. Or I guess more appropriately, from bottom to top. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. The myth of Art the Clown continued to grow along with Leone's budget, And in 2022, Terrifier 2 really put Art the Clown and the entire franchise On the map. There's now a third Terrifier in the works, and Art has begun to pop up in popular culture. They've put his face on ugly Christmas sweaters, and he even made a cameo appearance on Pete Davidson's show, Bupkiss. Art the Clown went from being an underground YouTube slasher to sharing an IMDb page with Edie Falco and Joe Pesci in the span of a decade. I think the secret to Art's growing popularity is the simplicity of the character. He's a creepy, horrendously, violent clown dressed in black and white. We don't know much about him. He's a blank slate of a mute monster that only comes out on Halloween, putting him in the same camp as Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise. We don't know much about Michael Myers except for the fact that he's the antagonizing force in Laurie Strode's life. However, it's this open ended brand of evil that makes Michael versatile enough to tell a variety of different stories over the years. Halloween 2 is about dreams and nightmares. H20 is about avoidance and facing one's fears, and the most recent trilogy is about intergenerational trauma. If you attach too many specifics to a character like Michael Myers, it would limit the kinds of stories that could be told around him. Instead, his most defining characteristic is that he's brutal and evil, much like Art the Clown. Storytellers have done this for years. Before Michael Myers, characters like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man were used to tell all sorts of stories that reflected the culture of their time period. Outside of horror, there are characters like Mickey Mouse. The audience hardly knows anything about Mickey, except for the fact that he's a friendly mouse that somehow owns a dog and has a girlfriend. Or is it wife? See, we don't even know that for sure. This allows Disney to do whatever they want with Mickey. He can star in Steamboat Willie, he can be used to tell a classic story like The Three Musketeers, or he can be the centerpiece of something more experimental, like Fantasia. Mickey Mouse is simply a delivery system for happy stories, the same way that Art the Clown is a delivery system for hyper violence. See, they're the same. Mickey equal Art the Clown. So with all of this in mind, let's dig in and go over everything we do know about Art the Clown to start to unravel some of his mysteries. In order to do that, we've got to take it back to Halloween night 2013 and the rest of the content on that mysterious VHS. (Impact) Art the Clown appears in all three of the short films on the VHS tape, and he slowly makes his appearance known in the home of the two kids, Tia and Timmy, much to the horror of their babysitter, Sarah. We've already covered most of what Art does to the woman on the train platform in the 9th circle, but there are a few more things that I want to point out first. In this short, Art looks a little different. We can actually see the skin of his neck between his mask and his costume. This could be a minor thing or an oversight, but it does make Art initially seem more human. Art doesn't seem human for very long. Right after he injects the woman with a sedative that knocks her out, Art appears in a more demon like form with lit up eyes, the first and last time that we see him this way. After the scene on the train platform, Art doesn't show up again until the very end of the film, when he honks his horn yet again. Everything that takes place in the 9th circle between the glowing eyes and the flashback to the horn honking seems to take place in Hell. This makes sense because the 9th circle is a reference to Dante's Inferno, which is essentially a journey through the nine circles of Hell, with the 9th circle being the deepest level where the Devil resides. The Devil actually makes an appearance and drinks the blood of a fetus in the short film. This begs the question, is Art the Clown a demon? If you only saw Art in this very first short film, you'd probably think so. There are allusions to angels and demons later on in Art's timeline, But overall, this direct line to the Devil is mostly abandoned. The connection to the Devil, the glowing eyes, the imperfect costume, and the fact that Art is played by a different actor in these short films can all be chalked up to artistic license. Remember, the character in these shorts isn't literally THE Art the Clown. They're just interpretations of the idea of Art the Clown, a character from urban legends. So the idea that Art is demonic could merely be a theory by this filmmaker. -[Timmy] See, it's just a scary movie. -[Timmy] Let's watch it. Yes, that's me. That's me. Also worth noting, Michael Myers was also interpreted to have occult origins in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. The premise of this chapter in the Michael Myers story is that Michael was cursed as an infant by the demonic cult of Thorn, and that's why he must kill his own family. This wasn't a popular storyline, so that aspect was not included in future timelines. Art's direct link to the Devil is also deemphasized as his story progresses. He's evil enough without the Devil, and as we're about to find out, he's got plenty of paranormal and supernatural abilities of his own. (Impact) It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's Halloween season, which means it's also the most wonderful time of year in terms of food. Thanks in part to my sponsor Factor for bringing those fall flavors. 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So check it out in the description if you're interested. ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ After Sarah decides that the kids have had enough freaky videotape for one night and sends them to bed, the real Art proves that he's not limited to just the world of fiction by hiding in Tia's closet and freaking her out. -[Sarah] No, it's just make believe. -[Sarah] Demons, witches, monsters that doesn't exist. -[Tia] But he wasn't really a monster, if you think about it. -[Tia] Like a vampire or werewolf. -[Tia] He was just a man in a costume. -[Tia] Someone like that could really exist, right? Like a serial killer. This seems intentional. The suggestion that Art might be human actually makes him scarier in the real world. Sarah goes back downstairs to watch more of the videotape in what I assume is the one house in America that still had a VCR hooked up in 2013. I guess finding a DVD or Blu-Ray in your Halloween candy isn't nearly as creepy. Maybe Art would have reached more people with a Blu-Ray that just comes in a VHS box, like these Stranger Things physical releases. At least that would explain why we have a VHS tape displaying video in widescreen. Anyways, the second short on the tape barely features Art the Clown at all. He's very much shoehorned into this story. Basically, at the beginning, a woman mentions her Artist's husband, Who painted a terrible face that earned him some attention in the Art world. The husband claims that he must have been in some kind of trance when he painted the face because he doesn't remember doing it. Long story short, a rather short film, even shorter. When the painting of the terrible face is revealed at the end, it's Art the Clown doing his signature smiling face. The whole painting feels a little bit forced, but it's worth talking about because it introduces a different kind of supernatural element to Art's character. Can Art the Clown possess people like a demon? Does he possess the minds of Artists exclusively? Could this be why he's named Art in the first place? This might seem like a little bit of a stretch, but this isn't the last time that Art will torture the mind of an artist. Back in the real world, Sarah is disturbed by Art's smiling face and turns the movie off. She hears something upstairs and assumes it's the kids, but when she goes to check on them, Timmy claims that they've been in bed the whole time and tells Sarah to stop checking on them every five minutes. I heard you creeping around outside the door and turning the handle. Again, we don't actually see Art in the house, but it's obvious that he's probably lingering around, and Sarah starts to get freaked out herself. If this terrified babysitter business seems familiar, it may be because Laurie Strode Was babysitting Tommy Doyle and Lindsay Wallace when she first encountered Michael Myers in Halloween. Sarah's curiosity outweighs her fright, however, because she goes back downstairs to watch more of the tape. The third and final short film is the Terrifier short film from 2011. It's finally Art the Clown's time to take center stage. The first time we see Art in the short, he's getting kicked out of a gas station for supposed smearing piss and s**t all over the walls. Not the last time he would destroy a public restroom, and he notices a woman filling up gas as he walks away. Art looks slightly different here than he did in the 9th circle. His neck is no longer visible, his mask is longer and tied down with a collar of sorts, and he's got a more pronounced bump on his nose. Leone said that Art's new look in Terrifier was intended to make him look more zombie like and a little scarier. He also carries a much larger garbage bag. A little later, Art interrupts an interaction between the gas station attendant and the woman, who we learn is a costume designer. Art lures the attendant back inside the gas station to dismember and kill him. He's about halfway through beheading the guy when the costume designer stumbles into the scene and freaks out. And here it is. Art the Clown's very first documented act of horrific violence. Keeping up with our Michael Myers comparison, let's look back at his first murder as well. It also took place on Halloween, and Michael was wearing a clown costume. Perhaps the most direct link between the two characters. The woman speeds away in her car and makes a frantic 911 call when she sees Art on the side of the road with a sign that says Circus. -[Costume Designer] That’s impossible. That’s f*cking impossible! She's right. That would be impossible. And this is her first piece of evidence that Art possesses supernatural abilities, in this case, teleportation. After nearly crashing her car in panic, Art appears again. But apparently his supernatural abilities don't include opening locked car doors. (Art tries to open the locked door) Art must have taken another victim earlier that night, because the costume girl comes across another motorist who is dismembered and defaced, literally. The faceless driver looks very similar to some of the witches featured in the 9th Circle, though I don't necessarily think the filmmakers are trying to say that Art's victims are banished to the hell depicted in the 9th Circle. The costume designer drives away yet again, but little does she know Art the Clown has stowed away in the backseat of her car. You can see she just leaves the door open when she goes to check on the other car. Not the smartest, but one thing is for sure Art's attempt to suffocate the costume designer by pulling saran wrap around her face is a dumb one. She punctures a hole in the saran wrap and slams on the brakes, sending Art flying headfirst into the dashboard. Art is stunned, giving her time to find a brief refuge in the woods, locking herself in an old barn. We know Art is no match for a locked door, but that doesn't mean he can't find other means of entry. Art emerges from the ground and attacks the costume designer with what would become one of his favorite weapons a bunch of sharp objects attached to a chain. However, the chain breaks faster than a breath of the wild weapon, and as Art struggles with it, the costume designer grabs a small blade and sticks it in his eye before jamming a knife in his back. She escapes and manages to flag down a vehicle driven by a young man with a face. Art rises from the ground and, with a knife still in his back, Chases after her in a car of his own. He's a surprisingly skilled driver. He pulls up next to them and shoots the driver in the head, all while silently laughing at what he's done. Art's use of a firearm is a departure from what you'd normally expect from a slasher. Michael Myers used a variety of weapons, but never a gun. Leone has stated in interviews that his choice to allow Art the Clown to use guns is a deliberate one. It's part of his larger mission to continually break the rules and expectations with Art in order to keep him unpredictable. And it certainly seems to have caught his victim by surprise. She careens off the road into a tree, and Art takes her back to his lair, where she wakes up on a surgical table to find that he's been hard at work mutilating her body. He points and laughs at her as she discovers that her limbs and breasts have been removed and several words have been carved into her like pig and many others that may rhyme with punt, mitch, and glut. And this is where the Terrifier short ends. So what do we learn about Art here? We know he has some supernatural abilities and that locked doors are a weakness for him. He killed two men and a faceless third person whose gender we can't say for sure. The thing that I notice is how he really locked in on the costume designer the moment he saw her. He hunted her down, tortured her, and carved some very female targeted insults into her flesh. So does this mean that Art has a problem with women in particular? Is he less the Michael Myers of his generation and more the Elliot Roger? I don't know if there's enough evidence to say for sure, but it sure seems like it, Based on these first couple of appearances. He has a tendency to target women and just kill the men that get in the way. Michael Myers is very much the same way, going after Laurie Strode, Jamie Lloyd, Kara Strode, and Alison Nelson as his main targets throughout the years, but also stabbing anyone else who gets in his way, male or female. Art would continue to primarily target female victims going forward, But that's also most horror movies. So this text carved into the costume designer is probably the strongest evidence we have. What is clear is that with Art the Clown, your best bet is to expect the unexpected. This is especially true when he makes his first appearance outside the VHS tape and in the real world. (Impact) ♪ Creepy Music ♪ Sarah, the babysitter, scrambles to turn off the TV, but the remote won't work. Art saws a body and stares directly through the television at Sarah. He's blurring the lines that separate the real world from the world within the videotape. And this is just the beginning. She turns off the TV and answers the phone. The woman on the other end screams for help and yells about a murder at a gas station. It's the costume designer making the exact same 911 call that she made in the movie. The TV suddenly turns back on, and Art the Clown now appears to be literally trapped inside of it. After seemingly trying to break out of the TV screen, she sees the image of the living room that she stand again with Art sitting behind her, seemingly to reflect this. He materializes in the real world, but Sarah smashes the tape before he can make contact with her, and he disappears. Tia screams upstairs, and Sarah goes to check on her, but what she finds turns her entire world inside out. Art stands at the top of the stairs, laughing and covered in splats of red. In this instance, the real world takes on the same grainy look as the Terrifier short film, indicating that Sarah is now in the horror movie. And as she saw in the VHS tape, anything goes. Art points to the children's bedroom, where Sarah discovers the kids beheaded and chopped to pieces. Art signs his name and blood on the bedroom wall, effectively introducing himself and perhaps signing his latest masterpiece. Maybe this is why he's called Art, because he makes spectacles of his kills and signs them like works of Art. I certainly think it's a work of Art, but then again, have you seen my apartment. But interestingly, this is another thing that Art and Michael Myers have in common. Michael also likes to make Artwork out of his victims with extravagant displays and elaborate settings. Think about the scene from the first Halloween of one of his victims, arranged under the Judith Myers tombstone. The carousel display he set up in Halloween kills, or even his signature head tilt, almost as if he's admiring his kills in an Art gallery. Michael Myers doesn't sign his work. But then again, Haddonfield is a small town and people know his name. (Numerous people saying MICHAEL) This final sequence demonstrates that Art the Clown exists not just within the short films on the videotape, but also in the real world within the moviee. And to put another hat on this hat on a hat. As this story comes to an end, Art invades the screen of the viewer the same way he invaded Sarah's screen just moments earlier. This, The Ring-esque move suggests that Art may exist in our real world as well. It's a final touch that adds a little bit more mystique to Art the Clown. Six years pass before Art makes his presence known again in 2019. You're probably asking yourself, if Terrifier came out in 2016, why does the movie take place in 2019? Let's break it down. Art always attacks on Halloween night, which of course bleeds into November 1st. In Terrifier, we see a cell phone that says it's Friday, November 1st. November 1st only falls on a Friday in 2013 or in 2019. The next chapter of Art's story takes place exactly one year later. And in that story, in a child's bedroom, we see a poster for an album by Aenimus called A Dreamcatcher. This album came out in February of 2019, so it could be on a kid's wall in 2020. That being said, there's also this newspaper clipping which claims that it was published on Saturday, November 1st, which is obviously contradictory. So it's pretty likely that the filmmakers don't have a timeline in mind. But for our Horror History purposes, it's more likely that there could be a misprint on this newspaper rather than an error by the cell phone. So we're going to go with 2019. So with all of that being said, we still don't know exactly what Art was up to in the years since we last saw him. But it's safe to assume that he was out there butchering people on the Halloween nights between 2014 and 2019 as well. We know Art murdered a little girl at a carnival at some point before Halloween in 2019. After this happened, the carnival was just abandoned there, and it seems that Art is living out of it. We eventually see a bloody bathroom there in 2020, which basically serves as his lair. Based on the size of the mess, I'd say he took other victims here as well. It's too much carnage to have just been from one child. I would know. I mean, I mean, I wouldn't know. It's safe to assume that it happened on Halloween like the rest of his murders. As for the little girl, don't worry, we'll meet her soon. And while this probably isn't an intentional parallel or anything, Art living out of an abandoned carnival for the other 364 days a year leading up to Halloween feels a lot like Michael Myers hiding out in the sewers during Halloween Ends. Anyway, whatever he was doing in the meantime, by the time we see Art in 2019, he looks a little different. So let's pause for real world context. Mike Giannelli portrayed Art the Clown up to this point, and the thing about Giannelli is he's not an actor. He essentially got the part because he was a friend of the director Damian Leone, and more importantly, a good sport. Leone said that when he cast the 9th Circle, his first priority was finding someone who would be comfortable sitting in makeup for 3 hours a day. Giannelli had helped Leone with his makeup test before, so he got the job. He wasn't an actor before portraying Art the Clown, and he hasn't acted since. For the first feature length, Terrifier, Leone put out a casting call, and that's how he met David Howard Thornton. Leone said that the difference between the two actors is that Mike Giannelli was a guy dressed as a clown, but David Howard Thornton actually is a clown. Leone describes Thornton as a real life Roger Rabbit with comedy and clowning chops and a lankier body. Okay, back to Halloween night in 2019. Art prepares for Halloween the same way that most of us do. By getting into costume. He puts on his gloves and face paint, and we actually get a distorted view of his unpainted face. This getting ready montage is probably the most compelling evidence that Art is actually supposed to be somewhat human, but there is still an air of mystery around him. A demon probably wouldn't have to take the time to get into costume, but no normal human would ever have teeth quite like Art's. Whatever the case, Art prepares a few choice weapons and heads out the door. Later that night, he's out in the streets, where he follows a pair of drunk girls, Dawn and Tara, into a pizza place where they attempt to sober up before driving home. Art vies for Tara's attention and takes a selfie with Dawn before heading to the bathroom to make another horrific mess. I guess the events of the Terrifier short film really do come from a place of truth. This time, he even signs his name with the resources he has available. I guess a true artist can make something beautiful with whatever tools He or she has on hand. And I'm not just saying that because I've used the same camera for every episode of Horror History. Art slashes the tires on the girl's car and heads back to the pizza place, where he beheads the restaurant owner and kills the pizza cook, whose last act on earth, aside from getting stabbed in the face a thousand times, Was cleaning up Art's excrement. Dude didn't exactly go out on top. While waiting for a ride, Tara heads inside of a creepy apartment building to use the bathroom, leaving Dawn to wait in the car alone. A breaking news alert mentions the murders in the pizza restaurant, and the details are especially troubling. -[Reporter] Police are on the lookout for a tall thin man wearing a
black and white clown costume and carrying a large garbage bag. But before Dawn can properly process this, Art pops in next door in the passenger seats. -[Dawn] Oh, my God. -[Dawn] You're never gonna believe what I just heard on the radio. (Screams) As much as I'd like to ream yet another character for leaving the car door unlocked, if I had a friend that was just running in somewhere to use the bathroom real quick, I probably wouldn't lock it either. He would keep her alive for now, but move her to an unused room inside the apartment complex, where she's stripped and hung upside down for the time being. Then, near the entrance, he finds Tara on her way out. Or rather, Tara finds him completely frozen. I think this is the most tense scene of Art's 2019 rampage, and like many aspects of his character, he does it by reversing expectations. While other villains might go for a scare with fast movement and loud noises, it is the lack of movement here that is unsettling. That's why I brought up the importance of casting David Howard Thornton. His clown and mime skills translate really well to suspense and horror. After breaking the standstill, he chases her into some kind of indoor car lot. But Art, like Michael Myers, doesn't really run, relying on being methodical and persistent rather than quick. It's part of the psychology of what makes him creepy, which I'll expand on in a little bit. He eventually tracks Tara down and slices her ankles, but she manages to stab him in the side and escape, just before he can gouge her eyes out. Art searches for her yet again. One interesting thing about Art's stalking is that he seems to be following her scent. That's just a minor specific, but it's one of the many traits that make him a little bit more than human. When he eventually catches up to Tara, he injects her with a sedative before she can get the attention of the exterminator, who had let her into the building. Art takes Tara to another area, where he ties her up and toys with her, feigning several attacks with an axe, then a saw. He seems to really get off on her fear. Eventually, he backs off, and just for a second, it seems that Art may be showing Tara a little bit of uncharacteristic mercy. But of course, that's not the case. She would soon find that she is his literal captive audience and that the show was only just beginning. (Impact) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ Art walks across the room where, Ever the showman, he tears down a sheet to reveal Dawn hanging upside down with her legs apart. She is gagged and topless with her hands tied behind her back. Starting between her legs, he saws her in half, hot dog style. This is arguably one of the most brutal scenes of all time. As he saws, he continually checks in on Tara, laughing, all the while. Art is putting on a show. And the fact that he forces Tara to watch gives us a clue as to his motivation. Clearly, he set up this entire scenario so that he would have an audience. Maybe this is why he first appeared on that mysterious VHS tape six years prior. He wants people to watch him do the terrible things he does. He's a clown and a mime, after all. Clowns and mimes need audiences to perform in front of. Even the way the sheet is set up before revealing Dawn almost looks like a stage curtain. By making his kills more gruesome and hard for others to watch, Art maybe gets more out of it for himself. Of course, with showmanship also comes drama. Tara manages to wiggle free and stab Art, and though he makes no audible scream, the pain is written all over his face. He bounces back quickly and follows her into a garage, where she beats him with a 2x4. Art is on the ropes, but just as it appears that he may actually be defeated, with one more blow to the head, he pulls out a gun and shoots her in the leg, in the side, and finally in the face. It's a cheap way out of the situation, but it does sort of follow Art's rule of doing the unexpected. He discovers Dawn's phone while reloading his gun in the other room, and he sees a text from Victoria, Tara's sister, who the two had called to pick them up. He may be mute, but apparently he understands English and how to use a smartphone, Instructing her to come around to the back. When he returns to Tara, who is somehow still alive despite being shot in the face, He finishes the job, but then notices someone is watching him. It's a strange, delusional woman who lives in the building and carries around a baby doll, taking care of it and acting as if it's a real baby. For some reason, she's listed in the credits as Cat Lady, even though she has a baby doll, not a cat. We do hear cat noises when Tara first runs into her, but that hardly seems like a justification for making that her whole entire thing. I do have a better theory about who she is, which I'll get to a little bit later. On the way to reach the so called Cat Lady, he crosses paths with the exterminator And smacks him unconscious with a hammer. Unlike the time Michael Myers killed a man in a jumpsuit and proceeded to steal that jumpsuit, Art lets the exterminator keep his clothing, but he would be due for an outfit change not long after. Instead of killing the baby doll lady, he steals her doll and treats it like a real baby. And when she discovers this, she pleads with him. -[Cat Lady] Is there kindness in you? Somewhere in your heart? Have you ever felt a mother's touch? She touches him tenderly on the face, and he leans into it and starts sucking his thumb. I don't know what the fuck that's all about, but I think it's safe to say that Art does indeed have issues with women. And while we probably won't ever get a backstory on how these issues came about, We can assume that they stem from some kind of trauma. Let's take his 1970s counterpart, Michael Myers, as an example. In a previous video, I discussed how Michael may have been traumatized by seeing his sister Judith perform s*xual acts when he was young, and this was the root of all of his issues and likely the motivation behind killing her in the opening of the original Halloween. It seems that whatever the cause, Art's issues around women go even crazier because he cuts off the baby lady's scalp and breast to turn himself into a maternal figure, which is how he greets Tara's sister, Victoria, when she comes into the building to search. Art does a Bugs Bunny pretty lady routine before attempting to break into the locked closet where Victoria's hiding. Once again, he struggles with the locked door before going outside to decapitate the exterminator's co-worker who had come for backup. He pulls the guy's head off without much difficulty. Honestly, if Art hadn't gotten to him, the guy's head was probably coming off before long one way or another. Back in the warehouse, he sneaks up on Victoria and tries the old suffocation via saran wrap routine, just like in the Terrifier short. It takes a while, but like the woman in the short, Victoria realizes she can tear a hole in the plastic. And I love how dumbfounded Art looks that his plan failed so close, and she uses this moment of confusion to stab him in the foot with a giant nail that's lying around. The chase continues into seedier and seedier looking areas of the supposed apartment complex. Victoria eventually discovers Tara's body decorated with the circus sign from the short film, but Art finds her and whips her with his classic chain full of sharp objects, not realizing the exterminator, that is the original exterminator is sneaking up behind him to knock him out. After regaining consciousness, Art catches up with him and stomps his face in with his big clown shoes. Who's the exterminator now, Mike? The last person to go after is Victoria, but she stabs him in the eye and escapes into some kind of restricted area with big swinging doors, kind of like the barn doors from the short film. Art can't squeeze through, once again proving his inability to pick a lock to be his greatest and most exploited weakness. So he's left to improvise the last time we saw him burrow under the ground. But that was just the short film, so it's hard to say if that's realistic for him. This time, he opts for a simpler solution. He steals the exterminator's truck and drives it right through the door, knocking Victoria out cold. This is the second time he's driven a car, which begs the question, Who the hell gave this guy a license? Strangely enough, Michael Myers also knew how to drive. In the very first Halloween, he escapes from a mental institution and drives 150 miles back home. There have been entire articles written about this. When did Michael learn how to drive? When he spent his life at a mental institution. Between this and his ability to use a cell phone, Art seems more and more human. But that would all change before long. First, he goes cannibal. He climbs on top of the unconscious Victoria and licks the fresh strawberry syrup off of her face. He seems a little bit more invested than usual, taking the time to enjoy the taste, then fully chowing down on her face as the police arrive. He doesn't really react to the police until they're right on top of him with their guns drawn. And even then, he seems more annoyed than he is afraid of them. A locked cell probably qualifies as a locked door that Art won't be able to get out of, so he opts for the alternative, the last trick up his sleeve, or more accurately, up his sock. He takes out his pistol and shoots himself in the face and dies. Of course, that's not how it ends. For the entirety of his story in Terrifier, which is probably most people's first exposure to Art the Clown, there's nothing to suggest that he's anything more than a psychotic serial killer wearing a clown costume. He can get hurt, but he's resilient and he keeps coming after his victims. Michael Myers is handled the exact same way in Halloween. That is, until the end, when he takes a hail of bullets and somehow still disappears into the Haddonfield night. The final twist is that he's invincible, and this is one of the biggest characteristics that Art shares with him. So instead of jail, he's taken to the coroner's office alongside the exterminator whose head he stomped in. When Art's body bag is opened he's doing his signature smile, staring up at the coroner with his one remaining eye. The lights in the hospital flicker and electronics go haywire, indicating that there are indeed otherworldly powers at work here. Then he finishes the guy with this... (Art strangles the coroner) I somehow don't think it's a coincidence that Art sits up the exact same way Michael Myers does, after regenerating from a major injury. He would later slit the man's throat as well. When he checks out his injuries in the mirror, he kind of looks surprised and uses some of his brain juice to sign his name in the mirror. His reaction makes me think that this is the first time that he's respawned, and even he did not expect it. After smashing the guy's teeth out with a hammer, he pulls the coroner's eye straight out of its socket and places it into his own empty eye cavity to try it on for size. An eye for an eye. Or I guess more accurately, an eye for nothing. (Art turns and reveals his new eye) Victoria, by the way, does survive the incident and becomes something of a media sensation, partially due to the fact that she has no face. After an interview with a journalist known for her exploitative and sensational nature, she savagely attacks the journalist backstage. This shows that the evil force driving Art the Clown might be contagious, which sets the stage perfectly for Art's next chapter. (Impact) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ After taking out the corner early in the morning on November 1st, he scours his supplies and steals some fluoroantimonic acid, aka, The strongest, most corrosive acid in the world. It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. You know? I'm sure he'll find a good use. Art evades the police again and heads to the laundromat, where he strips naked and washes his outfit. Because when you live in an abandoned carnival attraction, you gotta give up things like in-unit washer and dryer. The power in the laundromat goes off momentarily, and this is where Art meets a new friend. Her makeup, clothes and teeth look a lot like Art. In the credits, she's referred to as the Little Pale Girl. But based on this newspaper headline, her real name seems to be Emily Crane, the same little girl I mentioned before who Art kidnapped and murdered at the carnival sometime prior to 2019. Now, this might be a coincidence, but do you remember the Cat Lady with the baby doll from earlier? Well, guess what that baby doll's name was? -[Cat Lady] This is my daughter, Emily. -[Cat Lady] Say hello to the pretty young lady. So if this isn't a coincidence, then the Cat Lady, who should be called the Baby Doll Lady is the mother of Emily Crane, aka. The Pale Little Girl. Art really did a number on that family. Either way, we know that the Pale Little Girl now mostly exists inside of Art's head, because when another man in the laundromat notices the bizarre scene, He sees only Art playing Patty cake by himself. The onlooker doesn't even get to tell anyone about this strange scene before Art puts a broom through his head and finishes his laundry. He does a remarkable job with his laundry, by the way, and then disappears for the next year. Over the course of that year, the legend of Art the Clown grew bigger than ever before. The events of 2019 are known as the Miles County Massacre, and the internet is a buzz with speculation about Art and what he's all about. There are even photos and sketches of him floating around online. We don't know exactly what Art himself was doing this time, but we do know that he's been plaguing the mind of at least one person, the father of the Shaw family, whose teenage daughter Sienna ended up being Art's main target the next Halloween. Sienna's dad had a brain tumor that kept it growing. It drove him to psychosis, and in his madness, he feverishly drew portraits of Art and his victims, then eventually went mad and killed himself by driving into a transformer. I would surmise that Art was the one who caused the brain tumor, or at least the dad's obsession with drawing him and his victim. Remember, in the second short film on the VHS tape, an Artist is possessed to draw a terrible face without having any recollection of it, and it turns out to be Art's face. Maybe Art has some ability to invade the dreams and imaginations of other artists. In fact, the night before Halloween, he seems to invade the dreams of Sienna. The dream takes place in a commercial set known as the clown cafe, where teenagers dressed like kids sing along to a very eerie song about the clown cafe which is actually just a food truck. Art rolls up on his tricycle and hands out treats, giving Sienna the gift of a human heart covered in worms and black blood. And this is where her dream becomes a nightmare. He pulls out a tommy gun and massacres the entire place, sets fire to everything, Then turns his flamethrower on Sienna, who shields herself with a sword once given to her by her father. When she wakes up, her bedroom is on fire, along with the homemade angel costume that she was going to wear for Halloween. It's interesting that Sienna is a cosplayer, not only because this is another type of artist, but the woman from the Terrifier short film was also known to be a costume designer. It seems that Art's supernatural abilities have been taken up a notch after his revival. We knew that he was evil and brutal like Michael Myers before, but now he's waking up in body bags like Mark Hoffman and invading dreams like Freddy Krueger. Not only that, but the fire art started in Sienna's dream somehow became real in her bedroom, just like what happened to Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4. The point is, Art is more powerful now than ever before. It's unclear why Art is going after Sienna specifically, but there is a lot of heavy handed good versus evil symbolism going on between Sienna and Art. Sienna designed her own angel costume, and Art kills people and lights them on fire, kind of tying back into the hell symbolism last seen in the 9th circle. Sienna's dad also drew some not so subtle images of a woman in angel wings beheading a demon that looks a lot like Art the clown. Whatever this actually means, it's clearly some kind of prophecy that Art seems to be taking seriously. That morning, Art affixes some sharp things to blunt objects in preparation for his Halloween festivities. While the Pale Little Girl watches Victoria's interview about the Miles county massacre on TV, Art gets a kick out of Victoria's mutilated face, but doesn't like what she has to say. Later that day, they harass Sienna's brother Jonathan at school by tearing apart a dead possum and throwing it in his direction. Jonathan gets blamed for mutilating the possum corpse, which gets him in even deeper trouble with his family, who are already concerned about his obsession with serial killers, specifically Art the clown. Later, Art stalks Sienna and her friends at a Halloween store. He leers at Sienna and creeps her out, but she naturally just assumes that somebody dressed as Art the Clown is trying to scare her. By the way, if you ever find yourself in this situation, check the teeth. Art follows her to the cashier station. He tries out sunglasses and various other items, and there's even a little bit of a repeat of the first scene that we saw of him from the 9th circle, –[Sienna] Please don’t. ( Art honks his horn in Sienna’s ear) He's scolded by the employee and doesn't take kindly to that. After locking them in the store, he acts like he's going to buy the horn and instead smashes the cashier's face with a bottle, rips out his eye, and beheads him. He even poses with the cashier's head to have a little fun with some passerby. -[Kid] Wow. -[Kid] Look at that mom! -[Mom] Yeah, that's wonderful, honey. Yes. Me. That's me. Once again, this scene is demonstrating Art's desire to have an audience. Next, Art shows up to trick or treat at Allie's house. This is Sienna's friend, who he ran into briefly at the Halloween store. He doesn't like being told that he's too old to trick or treat, and who would? But when Allie notices the real seemingly used weapons in his bag, she goes inside and wisely locks her door. As usual, Art finds another way, this time smashing the glass door in the back and making himself at home. Allie freezes upon seeing him, but when he spots her, he decides it's time for a little makeover. (Impact) ♪ Haunting Music ♪ After removing Allie's scalp, her back, and her left arm, he rushes back in and covers all of her open wounds with bleach and salt. Later, Allie's mom returns home to find Art tearing her daughter apart like a pick and peel Twizzler. And the worst part is she's still alive. We know that Art always loves an audience, and that's no different here. He literally slaps his knee and laughs in delight at her horror. And speaking of audiences, this image, like many of the creepiest scenes of Art that I've discussed throughout this video, is a prime example of why audiences find him so creepy. It's an example of Incongruent Affect. In psychology, Incongruent Affect is when a patient's feelings do not match up with their appearance or do not match what is appropriate for the situation. The term is literally composed of the word incongruent, Something that doesn't match up and affect pertaining to one's emotions. You might feel it if you saw someone laughing at a funeral or showing no emotion during an argument. Incongruence stands out to us and bothers us. It's a survival mechanism which primarily helps us spot predators who are trying to deceive us. It's troubling on a human level, and it's jarring when it’s used effectively in movies. Many people find all clowns creepy. The painted on smiles don't match the real human mouths underneath them, and that bothers us. When there's a real person doing a job to pay the bills under that makeup. The happiness on the outside doesn't always match the reality that we know, so we don't trust it. Art takes this to another level. You'd expect someone to react to a horribly brutal murder with shock and disgust. So when we see Art the Clown laughing and slapping his knee, It gets a reaction out of us on a deeper level. If this all sounds familiar, it's because I talked a lot about this concept in another episode of Horror History, the one where I broke down the history of Michael Myers. In Myers' case, the blank expression seen on his mask makes him look Stone cold and doesn't mesh When combined with the horrible crimes that he's often seen committing. He seems clinical or almost indifferent to the horror he creates. Art the Clown isn't just indifferent to his insane crimes, he delights in them. The whole thing is just amplified by his perfectly placed little hat. It's disturbing to the viewer on a visceral psychological level, Which is very effective. If, say, you're creating a villain to carry a horror franchise. That's not the last we see out of Allie's mom. Later that night, Art serves trick or treaters candy out of her head. It's interesting that Art doesn't kill these trick or treaters or everyone he encounters. He sometimes even goofs around with kids. Michael Myers also spared the lives of some kids that he encountered at the school in Halloween. So do Michael Myers and Art both have a soft spot for kids? Well, Art certainly doesn't. He beheaded Timmy and Tia back in 2013, and it wouldn't be long before Sienna's little brother Jonathan found himself under attack. He started by vandalizing the Shaw family's car, which is pretty light stuff by Art's standards. It seems like Art wanted Jonathan to be blamed for this, so he used believable materials that a teenager would use instead of his usual Bodily waste products. Sure enough, Jonathan takes the blame while Art waits inside the car while the mom cleans it. When she finally notices him, Art pulls out a tiny shotgun and blasts her head clean off. When Jonathan returns home, he finds his mother sitting at the dining room table without a face, and Art does another Bugs Bunny-esque housewife routine. Art brutalizes the mom a little more in front of Jonathan before chasing him with a syringe. Jonathan runs into Sienna's room to retrieve the mysterious sword that she got from her dad, but Art catches him and puts him under. With the boy and the sword in tow, Art returns to the base camp at the carnival. Meanwhile, Sienna is off at a Halloween party, and it seems like Art is able to invade her mind the same way that he invaded her father. The Pale Little Girl appears to her on the dance floor, which freaks her out, Causing her to leave the party with her friend Brooke and Brooke's boyfriend. This is part one of Art's plan to lure Sienna to him. Part two involves stealing Jonathan's phone and mimicking his voice. The two of them act like teenagers making a prank phone call, and they convince Sienna that her brother's in trouble at the abandoned carnival, instructing her to meet at the Terrifier, a walkthrough attraction decorated with imagery of clowns and demons, including one black skinned entity that kind of bears a resemblance to Art. So which came first, Art the Clown or the Terrifier attraction? I think the answer lies in the past. The attraction was probably inspired by the same urban legend that inspired the short films found on that mysterious VHS tape. Either way, this quest keeps Sienna busy. So in the meantime, Art attacks Brooke and her boyfriend, who are waiting in the car. Brooke manages to kick him in the head and escape, but Art isn't far behind. Calmly walking after her as always. She comes across his lair, another bathroom that Art has absolutely decimated with his signature, Art was here on the wall. As she begs for her life, Art holds his weapon high in one hand, but in the other, He's got the jar of acid that he stole from the coroner's office. See? I knew he'd find a use for it. He throws the acid on Brooke and bashes her ruthlessly, which culminates with Art, removing Brooke's beating heart and eating it. This is the second example of Art eating his victims. And if I had to guess, it's less about nutrition and more about being as disturbing as possible. Or maybe he just listened to too many Lady Gaga lyrics. ♪ He ate my heart. ♪ Art waits in the bathroom for Sienna, who runs in looking for Brooke, and upon finding her, becomes Art's newest audience member. Art is finally ready to square off with Sienna when Jonathan joins the party and distracts him. So Sienna takes advantage of this and plunges a nail ridden 2x4 into the side of his leg. This is Art the Clown's episode of Horror History, but this sibling relationship is really the heart of this particular story. Art is just a guy who hates Sienna for some intentionally vague reason, possibly having to do with good versus evil and her father's drawings. But this story is about family dealing with loss and working together as siblings, like I suggested early on. We're already starting to see Art being used as a generic vehicle to tell different types of stories. Leone has said in interviews that Terrifier 2 was his first real attempt to tell a meaningful story around Art the Clown. This isn't just a sign that he is maturing as a filmmaker, it's proof of concept that Art has what it takes to carry a franchise and be a lasting horror icon like Michael Myers. The chase and fight with Sienna and Jonathan continues deeper into the Terrifier haunt, where they see all sorts of demonic imagery. Art eventually sneaks up on Jonathan by posing as one of the animatronics and goes town with his makeshift chain mace. When Sienna hears the commotion, she tries to fight back, but eventually just crawls on top of her brother to shield him. The not so subtle Angel vs Demon imagery hits a fever pitch here. This is all going on, by the way, in the church scene in the walkthrough attraction, But the power dynamics shift when Sienna catches one of his attacks and turns his chain back against him. Art appears to be finished when Sienna stabs him through the forehead with a fence post, but everyone knows that's not enough to kill Art at this point. Art pounces on Sienna from behind and chokes her out. He almost finishes her when Jonathan steals his gun from his ankle holster and shoots him with it. Reality gets blurred here as both Art and Sienna fight to regain consciousness. The Pale Little Girl takes the form of Sienna's mother and tries to comfort her. However, it soon becomes clear that this is just another form of hallucinogenic manipulation, as she had seen in her dream and at the Halloween party. -[Jonathan] Sienna, get away from her. -[Jonathan] That's not Mommy. Control slips away from Sienna when Art chokes her and throws her into a pit. As he looks down on her, her landing position resembles that of a fallen angel and the area lights up red like the fires of hell. The archetypal roles have now been reversed. Within this pit there is yet another pit, kind of like in Dante's Inferno, where there are multiple circles of hell. There are horns honking and voices wailing from inside the pit, a little reminiscent of the hell we saw in the 9th circle. He tosses her into the second pit, which sends Sienna back into the world of the Clown Cafe, where she drowns in a dunk tank of sorts while the zombie kids sing the distorted Clown Cafe theme song. Art tries and fails to wake Jonathan up, then just decides to feast on the child's legs. But his meal is rudely interrupted when Sienna, rejuvenated by her love for her brother, returns from the realm of the Clown Cafe and stabs Art with her father's sword. Once again, Art is on his heels, and he's the one trying to escape. He looks up at Sienna standing over him with a knowing look in his eye. Sienna's dad drew pictures of Art being beheaded by an angel, and finally, Art recognizes that this moment has arrived. In fact, I feel like he almost offers his neck up to her right here as he flashes one last signature smile before getting his head hacked off. After learning of his invincibility the previous year, he's not too worried about his mortality. Art's lifeless head lays on the ground for a little bit until the Pale Girl comes by and picks it up. She cradles it like a baby, flashes her own demon eyes at Sienna and Jonathan, and takes Art's head away. This may suggest that she's actually more than a piece of Art's imagination, but my guess is that this will be something answered in a future installment. Back at the psychiatric hospital, Art's only surviving girl from the first Miles County Massacre, Victoria, is in the middle of some kind of episode, and a nurse comments that she's been humming the theme song from the Clown Cafe all day. She scrawls some disturbing messages all over the walls, using a lot of the same words that were carved into the costume designer way back in the Terrifier short. And lastly, she writes the words Vicki plus Art with a heart around them before going into labor, which involves her pulling her own guts out of her stomach. When it's all said and done, she sits on the floor of the cell, holding the smiling, severed head of Art the Clown like a newborn baby. It's one of about a thousand examples of what you've probably noticed is the main focus so far when it comes to Art the Clown, the gore. In fact, a lot more attention seems to go into making Art as ruthless and blood soaked as possible, rather than making his story compelling or even making his lore make any sense. The Terrifier films almost feel like they're made to be kill counted, which doesn't exactly make them easy to analyze for something like Horror History. As you probably noticed, I had to do a lot of works to try to make any coherent sense of this character, because thematic consistency and logic will always be thrown out in favor of a really cool kill. Hopefully, the legwork put into this episode helped you appreciate Art in a new light though. I obviously like a good story, so I haven't been that crazy about the Terrifier movies to this point, but there's something that I like about Art, maybe not as a character, but as an icon. You can't argue with the fact that these movies have found an audience and that's hard to do. Leone may have stumbled into something more, and the idea of using Art as the main draw in a better thought out story at some point is still pretty exciting. It is actually his simplicity that makes him so versatile. The same was once true for Michael Myers. John Carpenter purposely didn't do much to flesh out this character for his audience in the 1970s, he referred to Myers simply as the shape in the original script for Halloween, and that's how the character is actually listed in the film's credits. But Michael Myers doesn't need much backstory. We don't need to know anything about him except that he's the embodiment of evil And that he hunts Laurie Strode and the people she cares about. Like Art the Clown, Myers doesn't use words to express himself because he doesn't need them. If Michael Myers explained that he was jealous of the attention that Laurie got from their parents as a baby or something, we'd know that he was just some lame guy driven by hurt feelings. Instead, Carpenter let moviegoers ponder these questions on their own. Why is Michael Myers so relentlessly evil? Is he human? Or is he something more? The fact that we don't have answers for these questions is actually what made the character endure. Art the Clown scare factor operates the exact same way. We don't know what forces are at work to make him invincible, or if it's even possible to kill him. I kind of want to know what would happen if the people of Miles County tossed him into an industrial shredder. We still don't know his motivations outside of seeming to have a prejudice for women, or why he delights in being so vile. Since we don't know anything about him, he could potentially pop up anywhere and target anyone. Most importantly, he could be placed at the center of any kind of story, As long as that story takes place on Halloween. The original movie, All Hollows Eve, is even named after the holiday, Just like Michael's debut 35 years before. For these reasons, Art the Clown really could be the Michael Myers for a brand new generation. With a third Terrifier on the horizon, This would be a perfect time to check out my Horror history episodes on Michael Myers. Or if you're still looking to clown, check out my Pennywise episode. You'll find that one on the left. Remember to subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week. Ring the Deathbell for notifications, and I'll see you in the next one, Assuming we both survive.
