Art the Clown

Art the Clown is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the Terrifier franchise and related media. Created by Damien Leone, the character first appeared in the short films The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011). Both shorts were included in the anthology film All Hallows' Eve (2013) which marked the character's feature film debut. In these early appearances, he was portrayed by Mike Giannelli before his retirement from acting. He was replaced by David Howard Thornton, who portrayed Art in Terrifier (2016), Terrifier 2 (2022), and Terrifier 3 (2024).

Art debuted as a background character in Leone's directorial debut short film to test out different horror concepts. Audiences responded most to Art, leading Leone to develop the character into a recurring slasher villain over the next decade. Art became a pop culture figure and iconic evil clown after the critical and commercial success of Terrifier 2. The character's background remains ambiguous, although all of his appearances show him possessing supernatural abilities. His archenemies are the final girls Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), with Leone writing Sienna and Art to reflect biblical undertones of good and evil.

Film
The character made his debut appearance in the short film The 9th Circle (2008), which follows his pursuit of a young woman named Casey (Kayla Lian) in an empty train station on Halloween night. Merely a supporting character in this film, Art abducts Casey and brings her to a satanic cult for a sacrifice to Satan.

Art's second appearance was in the short film Terrifier (2011), where he stalks and torments a young woman who witnesses one of his murders at a gas station. The character made his feature-film debut in All Hallows' Eve (2013) which incorporates the prior two short films as segments on VHS tapes that the film's protagonist Sarah (Katie Maguire) watches with the children she's babysitting on Halloween night. Art enters the real world and murders the children for a terrified Sarah to find.

Art's second feature-film appearance was in the slasher film Terrifier (2016). In Terrifier, Art inhabits the fictitious Miles County, New York and pursues partygoer Tara Heyes (Jenna Kanell) and her sister Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) on Halloween night. After killing Tara, he targets Victoria, the lone survivor. She fights against Art until he runs her over with a pickup truck and eats half of her face off, leaving her disfigured. Before he can kill her, the police confront him at gunpoint, and he commits suicide.

In Terrifier 2 (2022), a sinister entity known as the Little Pale Girl resurrects Art and accompanies him in his pursuit of Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother. Their father was an artist that died from a brain tumor. He envisioned Art and his victims in his sketches before they happened and drew Sienna as an angel-warrior-attired heroine designed to defeat Art and gave her a sword before his death. Sienna, who made a Halloween costume based on her father's sketches, battles Art in an abandoned carnival. Art is defeated after Sienna decapitates him with her father's sword. However, he is brought back to life after Victoria Heyes, who is in a mental hospital, gives birth to his living head.

Literature
Art the Clown was featured in a comic book retelling of the 2016 film that told the story over three books.

Concept and creation
Leone's idea of Art originated from his concept of a woman getting off work and taking the city bus home, where a clown gets on and sits across from her, taunting her. He envisioned Art as a combination of being uncomfortable and comedic to viewers—but with the character becoming "progressively more intimidating and aggressive." Art got incorporated into Leone's directorial debut, the short film "The 9th Circle" (2008), merely as a background character, as Leone states, "I threw in everything, clowns, witches, demons, monsters, everything up against the wall hoping something would stick."

Art appeared next in Leone's follow-up film, the short film Terrifier (2011), which followed Art's pursuit of a costume designer that witnessed one of his murders at a gas station; he had a more substantial role in this film after people who viewed the "The 9th Circle" expressed interest about him to Leone. Film producer Jesse Baget, who saw the short films on YouTube, approached Leone about including them in an anthology film. Leone saw this as an opportunity to direct a feature film of Art, and he ultimately agreed. It would evolve into All Hallows' Eve (2013) and included a wraparound story of a babysitter that becomes the target of Art after one of the children she's watching receives a VHS tape depicting Art after trick-or-treating. This anthology film would further implicate Art being a supernatural entity, although his background remains ambiguous. Actor Mike Giannelli, who is a friend of Leone, portrayed Art in all of these appearances before retiring from acting.

After the release of All Hallows' Eve, Leone wanted to create a feature-length film focusing solely on Art as he believed the 2010s lacked an iconic horror villain, particularly an original clown character. He aimed to make Art the opposite of Pennywise the Dancing Clown both in characterization and appearance; Art is bald, does not speak, uses weapons, and wears black-and-white makeup and clothes. Following Giannelli's retirement, David Howard Thornton was cast in the role. Leone describes the difference in casting as, "Mike may as well have been a guy dressed as a clown, whereas David is a clown. If you know him in person, he is a walking cartoon. He is Roger Rabbit in real life, and you'd never believe that he's Art the Clown, but he knows how to flip the switch and bring it to a dark place." Thornton saw a posting on the digital casting website Actors Access for a "tall, skinny, comedic actor that had experience in clowning and comedy". As he was familiar with Art the Clown through All Hallows' Eve, Thornton asked his agent to submit him for it; after improvising a kill scene during his audition, he got cast in the role.

Reception
In a positive review for the magazine Starburst, Sol Harris wrote "Art is a truly enigmatic and memorable villain. He frequently veers into the territory of being genuinely unpleasant to watch, which makes him feel somewhat separate from the stable of horror icons such as Freddy Krueger and Chucky. Special acknowledgement should be given to David Howard Thornton for a truly wonderful performance and one that easily stands toe-to-toe with the likes of Curry and Skarsgård." In a more middling review, the blog Film School Rejects praised Thornton's portrayal and use of body language but panned Terrifier and deemed the character a misogynist with a deep hatred for women.

Popular culture
In 2018, apparel company Terror Threads released an ugly Christmas sweater of the character. American rapper and singer Ghostemane cites the character as influence for his studio album ANTI-ICON (2020). David Howard Thornton later reprised the role of Art the Clown in the 2023 comedy series Bupkis in the episode, "Show Me the Way".

In the RPG Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, an enemy by the name of Needles appears. Needles resembles Art in both appearance and in referencing the movies, such as sawing off a character's head and using a handgun. Needles will stalk the player and other contestants of the titular Termina festival and murder them in various ways unless dealt with.