Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th… but before we reach that date, Leone has already confirmed that he intends to make a Terrifier 4. This one might be the last, though, because Leone doesn’t want his franchise to wear out its welcome.
“The whole reason why this was successful is because it’s just been very true to me,” Leone tells SFX magazine in the new issue, which features Terrifier 3 on the cover and hits newsstands on October 2.“I’ve been able to just be autonomous with it. Really, it’s my true vision, for better or worse, but I really do believe that’s one of the reasons why it’s successful, that there’s no interference. Hopefully it’s just the singular vision of the artist that’s really coming through.”
“My big fear is of going on too long and wearing out my welcome,” he considers. “Because that does happen to all of my favourites. Almost always it happens to the slasher franchises where they make 10 of them. I want to have a solid franchise, whether it be a trilogy – or maybe a quadrilogy if I have one more in mind – where it starts, where it ends, and you can walk away with a satisfying conclusion and closure and say that was pretty cool. I know what that is. So that would be the goal.”
Leone suggests that a fourth instalment of Terrifier could be the last, however. “I think so,” he says. “I have the whole story mapped out. I had it mapped out since part two, honestly, which is huge. Knowing where you’re going to end it is probably the hardest thing and I figured out the ending to this a while ago.”
I respect that. I was looking at his filmography the other day and it is overwhelmingly Art the Clown related, so I was worried he might try and milk this but he clearly has better ideas. If he can get a reputation for making low budget films (most of the budgets have been the equivalent of loose change in Hollywood) and making many times that back (50+ is great and the buzz around the third feels like he’ll do it again) then he’ll always be able to get funding without handing over creative control. That has to be the dream for a lot of horror directors.
As I’ve said before, there’s room for lower budget films (especially horror movies) that make a large return on modest budgets and it gives studios more room to take a few risks but it does need people in charge with a good eye for the right project. Luckily, A24 and Neon, amongst others, seem to have good “spotters” for such projects, so I expect big things.