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Terrifier 2

FILM · 2022 · USA

Terrifier 2

26 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

  • Terrifier 2 — production image

26 Interesting Facts About Terrifier 2

Interesting Facts (22)

  1. #001

    David Howard Thornton, who plays the silent Art the Clown, performed the voice-over for the "Art Crispies" cereal commercial during the dream scene.

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  2. #002

    The film was a fully independent production. Money was raised from various sources without the help of a studio, and writer/director Damien Leone created all the special effects himself to keep costs down. He was able to be uncompromising in his depictions of violence and gore because there was no studio making demands or insisting on cuts.

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  3. #003

    The scenes shot in the "Terrifier" haunted house were filmed at a real haunted house called Fright Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The producers used what they already had.

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  4. #004

    Although the film's effects are 99% practical, director Leone used digital effects in some scenes. When Ricky is killed, Leone digitally placed the actor's face on a fake head. This was done to show the eyeball opening and closing and the face twitching. The other instance was in the bedroom kill scene. Leone digitally places the actor's real eye onto the puppet so that the eye opens when it wakes up.

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  5. #005

    Because Lauren LaVera trained in martial arts, she performed most of her own stunts in the film.

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  6. #006

    After Art the Clown kills Brooke, he was to be seen smoking one of Brooke's cigarettes, similar to how some people smoke after sex. That was the only reason Brooke was made a smoker.

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  7. #007

    The Pale Little Girl's prosthetic teeth were switched from top to bottom and vice versa to make her more unsettling.

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  8. #008

    The acid that Art the Clown takes from the morgue and later throws in Brooke's face was fluoroantimonic acid, known as super acid and one of the strongest acids in the world. Direct contact with it would probably kill you.

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  9. #009

    After making Terrifier (2016), writer/director Damien Leone rejected claims of misogyny. For Terrifier 2, having been raised by women who taught him to love horror films, he spent a great deal of time investing in the character of Sienna because he wants the audience to root for Sienna rather than Art the Clown, but he also noted that viewers mostly identify with the killer subconsciously and that in the 2020s it is nearly impossible to create something that offends no one.

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  10. #010

    The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) was originally going to be a girl in a floral dress inspired more by Italian horror and Edgar Allan Poe, but after the success of Terrifier (2016), writer/director Damien Leone saw photos emerge of people dressing as Art the Clown for Halloween, among them several women and a little girl. He knew he had to do something with that, so the girl was redesigned as a little-girl version of Art.

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  11. #011

    Although Art is silent throughout the film, in the scene where he forces the door to get to Jonathan, he can clearly be heard grunting or growling as he breaks the door.

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  12. #012

    Filming on Terrifier 2 began in October 2019 and was nearly complete before the COVID-19 lockdowns.

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  13. #013

    The events of Terrifier 1 take place in 2017, and those of Terrifier 2 a year later.

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  14. #014

    David Howard Thornton was disgusted when he had to pull out the insides of victims' bodies. He said they were cold, slimy and revolting.

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  15. #015

    Writer/director Damien Leone stated on Instagram that Sienna is a character he had been trying to bring from page to screen for many years. The writer/director says: "She is my favorite character I've ever written and seeing Lauren LaVera bring her to life has been a dream come true that I will always cherish. I can't wait for you Terrifier fans to see her in action. I promise you will not be disappointed." He adds that LaVera was born to play Sienna.

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  16. #016

    The trick-or-treat scene is a tribute to Tiny's Halloween short film series.

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  17. #017

    In the Halloween store, while Art poses with the cashier's head, a clown figure dressed like Pennywise from Stephen King's It (2017) stands behind him.

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  18. #018

    In a recent interview with Astronomicon, Terrifier writer/director Damien Leone discussed the future of Terrifier 2 in the post-coronavirus landscape and even raised the idea of releasing a film in a "Road Show" style.

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  19. #019

    The "Zoltar" fortune-telling machine from "Big" can be seen in the Halloween store.

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  20. #020

    The man at the party who asks for a selfie is wearing a Mooby's shirt from Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob universe.

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  21. #021

    The film was dedicated to Stefán Karl Stefánsson, a friend and mentor of David Howard Thornton, and he will always be number one.

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  22. #022

    Criticizing Jonathan's plan to dress as Art the Clown for Halloween, Sienna says it is tasteless and that people do not dress as Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson for that reason. The film's screenplay was written before the Netflix series Monster (2022) became popular and some people began dressing as Dahmer for Halloween.

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Production Story (1)

  1. #023

    Initially planned for a limited release over a single weekend, the film reached the top 10 at the box office for many weekends and stayed in theaters past Halloween. It grossed over $10 million domestically on a $250,000 budget, a 3,900% return on investment that made it the most profitable film of 2022.

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Behind the Scenes (2)

  1. #024

    Director and special effects creator Damien Leone stated that the most complex kill scene to shoot was Allie's murder in the bedroom. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, they had been shooting the scene for 2 days and all filming had to be temporarily halted. Leone used the time to redesign the kill and prepare the special effects for when they could resume shooting. All previously shot material was scrapped and the new scene was filmed over two weeks. Leone says Casey Hartnett screamed nonstop throughout the long take, which really sells the fear. For the closing scene in which Allie's mother discovers Art dismembering Allie's body, Leone built a life-sized animatronic puppet of her. The entire room was a set, and operators used rods under the bed and behind the wall to move the puppet. He used rubber gloves with tubing in the chest so it appeared to be breathing. David Howard Thornton, who plays Art the Clown, said that when he first saw the realistic puppet come to life, he was so frightened that he nearly soiled himself.

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  2. #025

    Samantha Scaffidi was almost completely blind when she took on the role of the grotesquely disfigured Victoria. There was a small hole in her fake right eye that she could see through during filming; the eye could be removed between takes.

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Easter Eggs & References (1)

  1. #026

    When Brooke's boyfriend Jeff first arrives at the Halloween party, he is dressed in a ghost costume made from a white bedsheet and a pair of glasses, a direct reference to the original horror film Halloween (1978), in which the character Bob dressed that way for the party.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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