How Did Art the Clown Rise to Horror Icon Status?

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Art the Clown has become a mainstream horror icon

After the mainstream success we have seen in 2024 for Terrifier 3, (Read my Terrifier 3 review), do we have a new fresh horror villain for people to dress up as at Halloween in Art the Clown? 

Art the Clown is on his way to being the next big icon in horror, if he isn't already, and while he has always had a cult like following, the success of Terrifier 3 has garnered a whole set of new mainstream fans.

Damien Leone is the writer, director, special effects artist, and editor of the Terrifier film franchise, and it’s pretty clear that Leone loves himself some horror. 

Over the course of the three Terrifier films, you can see Leone’s craft improving, along with bigger budgets, and each Terrifier film gets more intense with each installment.

The evolution of Art The Clown

Art the Clown’s journey didn’t start with Terrifier though, as he first appeared in a short film by Leone called The 9th Circle in 2008.

The short film gained popularity, and in 2011 a Terrifier short film was made, which got the attention of  producer Jesse Baget and eventually led Leone to expand Art’s story in All Hallows’ Eve in 2013, an anthology that would later evolve into what we know as the Terrifier franchise.

Art’s popularity really took off though when Terrifier hit Netflix, and from there, Art quickly gained a bigger cult following. 

Damien Leone had this to say about the idea behind Art The Clown.

A lot of times when I'm writing,  I'll come up with a creepy scene first and then build a story around it. That's how Art the clown was born. I had this idea about a young woman coming home from a Halloween party late at night on a city bus. 

Little by little all of the passengers get off until it's just her and a creepy dude dressed as a clown who slowly begins toying with her. His antics become more and more severe and eventually, he's trying to stick a syringe in her hand. 

Ultimately, this scene became the opening scene in The 9th Circle short film which is now the opening segment in All Hallows' Eve. The only difference is we substituted the bus for a train station waiting room since it's very difficult to get permission to shoot on a moving city bus.

Art, as we all know, is brought to life and played by former mime enthusiast David Howard Thornton in the Terrifier franchise, but Thornton wasn’t Leone’s first choice for the role, as he was originally going to be played by Mike Giannelli, who played Art in "The 9th Circle" and ''All Hallow's Eve''.

But when Giannelli turned that role down as he had no interest in pursuing the role apparently, and only appeared in "The 9th Circle" and ''All Hallow's Eve'' because he was friends with Leone, Thornton came along, and his ability to make audiences both laugh and scream is part of what makes Art so memorable. with a unique energy that he uses to toy with his victims, taking his kills from creepy to downright deranged.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Thornton had this to say.

I had never auditioned for any film roles before, and I wanted to get into film. I then came across this audition for Terrifier, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s like an evil Mr. Bean'. I would love a chance to play a character like this'.

So I submitted myself for it, and my agent actually fought me on it. She was like, ‘This is such a low-budget independent film. You really don’t need to do stuff like this

There was this line in the first film that really helped me nail who the character is, and it’s what the cat lady said about him: He thinks what he’s doing is funny because he’s laughing, 

He’s not doing any of this out of revenge. He’s not angry or anything like that. He finds killing people to be a source of entertainment for himself, and that really helped me solidify him because he’s the anti-clown.

Even while we were filming and after we were filming [the first Terrifier], I was waiting tables in New York City and just barely scraping by. The film then came out, and it changed my life. 

David Howard Thornton plays Art the Clown

The Terrifier movies also wouldn’t be where they are without the support of horror fans, as both Terrifier and Terrifier 2 were partially funded through crowdfunding campaigns.

In 2019, Terrifier raised $50,000 in just under three hours on Indiegogo, with fans eager to support the franchise’s next chapter.

Leone wrote a message to supporters, thanking them for making the movie possible and saying how important the horror community is to the film’s success and the Terrifier franchise has proven that horror fans will rally around projects they believe in. 

The first film in the franchise ended up taking an estimated $420.000. 

Terrifier 2 raised even more, over $200,000 this time, well above its initial goal, and this support allowed Leone to push the boundaries, and make the sequel even bloodier and gorier, which helped the film take an estimated $15 million.

Please note however, these figures are just for what was crowd funded, and while many places report these figures as the exact budget for the films, I have read before that this isn't entirely true, and it was just partially funded this way, but I don't have a definite answer, but either way, they were both massive successes.

And then came Terrifier 3, where Art would hit the mainstream, and we all know how that went, don't we? Well, if you don't, it went on to make a lot of money, this time with an estimated $2 million budget and an estimated $90 million income as of writing, and Terrifier 3 was a huge hit and the talk of 2024 in horror.

How many more films in the franchise will we get though? 

Well, Terrifier 4 has been confirmed for a 2026 release, and already has an IMDB page, and Damien Leone has hinted that he might do a Kill Bill style two parter for future films, but that was said a couple of years ago in an interview, so who knows what he is thinking now.

He has also confirmed we will get to learn about Art's origins in Terrifier 4, too, and this franchise could potentially roll on and on, and why wouldn't it after the success of Terrifier 3?

This demon is going nowhere in a hurry.

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