Interview: Damien Leone Discusses The Future of Horror and Art the Clown
Horror movies are absolutely dominating this year. Different filmmakers express their love for the genre in different and unique ways while telling stories that deeply resonate with audiences to cling to. 2022 has also seen the return of genre fairs within the genre. Independent studios like A24 and soonest NEON are straying away from the slow-burn “elevated horror” films they distribute and are not afraid of releasing horrors seen by a crowd. One of the slow up-and-comers entering the genre-scape is writer/director Damien Leone.
Damien Leone has nearly created a cinematic universe of his own utilizing his character ‘Art the Clown’, but recently, horror fans get the taste of Leone’s slasher epic with Terrifier 2. FilmSpeak sat down with the director about the making of the film while also asking what’s next on the horizon. If you’re fortunate enough to see Terrifier 2, and you can stomach the crowd-sickening gore, you can tell Leone has a pure love for the practical forms of horror. Though stressful and gruelling, the finished product is a visual achievement for the audience, and Leone being the operator behind it all is a massive feat. When talking about future projects, Leone delightfully said: “I already have an outline for Terrifier 3, but my dream project would be to make an epic George Romero-esque zombie film.”
When talking about being on set for the practical effects sequences, Leone not only gives a shoutouts the main cast, but also notes: “There was a lot of pressure, and a lot of work and just being uncomfortable.” While he does seemed pressured by the work, that is not to say he does not love the experience, especially when it comes to the film’s story. Throughout the interview, Damien discussed the influences on his latest killer clown chaos. Leone chimes in saying, “big influences for this would be a supernatural tone. I try to capture a little essence of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. [But] in terms of just the scope and how generous I wanted to be in terms of the kills and violence and just being relentless and in your face, the original Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time. Just the way that movie constantly delivers the goods, I wanted to do that for the audience. One of the most polarizing aspects of the movie is the fantasy sort of mystical element, especially regarding the Sienna character I grew up loving sword and sorcery films from the early 80s like The Beastmaster, Red Sonja, Conan the Barbarian, and especially Excaliber, so there’s a lot of that injected into this movie which might weird people out.”
Terrifier 2 opened in theatres this past weekend and played box office spoiler, taking Top Gun: Maverick off the top 10 grossing films of the weekend.
Check out the full video interview, below:
