Terrifier 2 (2022)

A sizeable improvement on the first film.
'Terrifier 2' features a very good lead performance from Lauren LaVera, who is the major plus point for this movie. David Howard Thornton merits praise, of course, as Art the Clown too. I noted in my review of the original that I wanted more from Art and this certainly gives more. Everything does feel stepped up a notch.
I must say, though, that the run time is too long. I did lose interest towards the conclusion, a length similar to its predecessor would've been perfect; two hours plus really isn't necessary for a film like this, with respect. At least we get some good ol' gory violence throughout.

I didn't love the first of these (2016) but I thought that maybe after a few years they could improve on the formula. Sadly, not to be. It's more or less the same as the last one, only this time our menacingly rampaging clown "Art" is targeting would be trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Personally, I'm with him all the way as that's an habit that deserves all it gets with irritating spoilt kids marauding the streets demanding candy. Utilising to best effect his natural disguise, "Art" alights on "Sienna" (Lauren Silva) and her geeky brother "Jonathan" (Elliott Fulham) and a-slashing we all go. Unfortunately, the acting and writing aren't up to much but that's not so bad as the repetitively procedural nature of the gory violence. From one implausible scenario to another and with characters who make the most stupid of decisions when facing a crisis, we plod along relentlessly with loads of screaming and histrionics. It's just like one of those video games where the dead never stay dead for long, and so with this immortality comes a sense of ennui as the plot struggles to engage or innovate and ends up like an extended edition of "Scooby Do". The sinister characterisation of the baddie has long since lost any sort of impact and I"m afraid that I just found this an exceptionally long and dreary old watch that was yelling franchise at us from fairly early on. Terrifying? Well no, not remotely.