Another Horrortoberfest season comes to a close and on this Halloween, I decided to end with the first feature length appearance of what has become a new icon in horror, Art the Clown. I’ve yet to delve into the Terrifier series beyond seeing some of the kills in clips but finding out director Damien Leone has been pushing the character for a decade shows the belief that he has in Art as a character. He ends up being the unifying thing between the segments.

The framing narrative for our 3-part anthology series is a woman babysitting a couple kids on Halloween when one of them finds an unmarked VHS in their candy bag. Obviously the kids manage to cajole the adult into letting them see what’s on the tape and this kicks off our segments as well as causing weird stuff to happen around the house. I like the wrap-around story here more than most things like the V/H/S series where it barely matters. Also the other segments (two thirds of which were shorts that Leone had already previously made) feel less professional than this. I get that they are going for a more grindhouse aesthetic but it ends up feeling cheap rather than grimy.

The first segment is Leone’s previous short work The 9th Circle with some added footage. In it, a girl is drugged and kidnapped by Art the Clown and wakes up under a subway station. There she meets a couple other girls that are also chained up and they try to escape. Turns out the subway is full of mutants(?) or possibly devil cultists. Maybe both. We see a couple people get killed before our main girl gets raped by the devil (though only implied). It’s a weak short that goes for 70’s grime but really just feels like someone doing a bad job of aping that style. Since we don’t spend time with any characters and the plot isn’t particularly engaging, it just sort of happens and then ends and whatever.

You would think that would be the worst segment but the second one manages to absolutely outdo it. The only brand new segment for the movie, this one follows a woman who has just moved into a brand new house away from the city with her artist boyfriend. Then a crash happens and all the lights and phone go on the fritz because it’s time for an alien home invasion. Having just watched No One Will Save You this season, I’ve seen what an amazing alien home invasion looks like. What it doesn’t look like is a guy in the cheapest alien get-up flouncing around a house while someone runs around screaming. There’s no tension. The whole thing feels like cheap filler. Even the Art the Clown bit is just his face as a painting. This segment blows.

The third and best segment is the original short film version of Terrifier. Here Art is front and center and this serves as a showcase of what the movie could be. It’s weird to see Art as being supernatural in this since he generally just seems to be a murder man in the other movies. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, he chases around a young woman trying to get home and is fully capable of teleporting around and tunnelling up from the ground. The look and silent creepiness of Art goes a long way to elevate what would have been a fairly ok short slasher segment. It’s no surprise Leone decided to put his movie eggs into that particular basket.

In all, this isn’t a very good movie. You have 1 decent segment with 2 stinkers and a good wrap-around story. It’s fine for anyone that’s an Art the Clown lover but honestly you’d be better served just watching the short film and skipping the anthology.

Score: 2.5 out of 5