+3
So, Terrifier 2
You already know if you don't want to see this. The violence is ungodly. I can't help but hope this is well beyond anyone's line of what is acceptable. But....I actually sort of liked it and....I also don't know if the film entirely works without that violence. That maybe it needs to go well beyond the line of violence as cathartic entertainment into a territory where the violence is simply based in cruelty and, as such, a terrible indictment against anyone who says they sorta liked it.
The violence is unquestionably dehumanizing. The victims, who in this sequel are actually given semi likeable attributes (unlike the original which never even considers the victims as anything we can truly relate to), are then suddenly turned into props for Art the clown to basically turn them into a pile of flesh. His acts of carnage have no real basis in reality. Anything he suddenly thinks to do to them, he can accomplish in the flash of a few frames. No effort, no real suspense and frequently not even much of a struggle. In this way it is easy to view what is happening as the kind of violence which might occur in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. We are meant to maybe marvel at more the insanity of it than the cruelty. And because the filmmakers don't want his canvas to be limited to just a few moments of mutilation, much like a wile e coyote, his victims seem comically immortal, always alive for whatever new thing he thinks up.
But...because there is so much viscera, because we recognize the people in his hands as being real people, we also can't shrug off how beyond meanspirited all of this is. Especially as we watch our seemingly newly minted slasher icon mug for the camera and take such glee in what is happening. It leaves the audience in a limbo where we can't possibly enjoy the violence, but there is the weird uncomfortable space where we get the sense we are supposed to be cheering it on. And maybe this is what is so...fascinating about the whole thing.
It certainly both helps and muddies the intentions of what exactly the film is aiming for when the scenes of Arr (when he isn't doing something unbelievably horrifying) are nearly (if not actually) at the level of charm and sly irrereverence Robert Englund perfected as Freddy. Except I think this performance may even be better. I saw this a couple of days ago now and I keep thinking of it and....finding myself really taken in by the whole vibe of this character. He is frequently funny, frightening, deeply disturbing and weird. And I haven't even talked about his imaginary friend yet.
So I just dont know. I hate this movie in many many ways. And the actual story that is happening around the main attraction is, while not terrible, severely lacking.
But for a two and a half hour movie that I consistently found despicable and depressed that I put it on, it was also almost always either car crash interesting or giving me some gross sugar rush of the most transgressively awful violence I have seen in a main stream film.....ever?
I can't possibly recommend, but this one is sticking with me. And that's something
Last edited by crumbsroom; 12-17-22 at 10:10 PM.