Conference Programme

Abstract: The Terrifier franchise (2018-2024) is easily the most successful twenty-first-century slasher, even as its legacy is defined by gross-out marketing (see, for instance, the barf bags provided free with every ticket to Terrifier 2). Unlike many other films in the dwindling slasher genre, Terrifier moves beyond the fear of death to the fear of something worse–living beyond one’s ability to survive. In Julia Armfield’s personal essay 'Guts', she writes, “To watch a horror movie is to know that something bad is going to happen. To have a body is really the same thing.” In the Terrifier franchise, something bad is always just about to happen, and once it does, it just keeps happening. Our villain Art the Clown draws out these deaths, and every instalment so far has featured at least one iconic scene that pushes audiences and victims to their limits.

This presentation would take the form of a video essay exploring how these scenes, where characters continue to live and breathe even as their bodies are turned into sashimi, use prolonged experiences of negative affect to create both a fear response as well as a comedic one within the audience. Pairing an analysis of contemporary responses to the Terrifier franchise with psychological and psychoanalytical theories about the affective experience of horror ranging from Linda Williams’ articulation of body genres to Dolf Zillman’s “excitation transfer theory,” I argue that Terrifier works because it expands the fear of pain to looney tunes proportions rather than leveraging simply the fear of death. The ultimate result is a surprisingly uplifting effect, like the release of tension that occurs when a joke reaches its punchline. That is, if you can avoid throwing up for long enough to feel it.

Bio: Dorian Cole is a doctoral student in American Studies at Harvard University. They graduated from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware, where they specialized in the history of the Ouija board. Their work has been featured in Toys and Stories in Interplay (ed. Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. West), Writing Artifacts (ed. Cydney Alexis and Hannah Rule), and Horror Capital: Labor, Ideology, and Aesthetics as Cinematic Nightmare Fuel (ed. William Chavez and Valeria Dani). Dorian’s current research concerns the history of popular culture with a focus on horror studies and macabre curiosities.

Abstract: The Terrifier franchise has gathered significant popularity and success, having made over $102 million worldwide. Terrifier 3, the latest instalment in the series, has passed the threshold of being one of the top 10 highest-grossing non-rated movies ever. The film's success continues to be of interest to horror movie critics. Understanding the characters through a neurodivergent lens may shed light on this franchise's growing acclaim and attraction among its’ fanbase. Film and media studies have long looked at how neurodivergence, such as autism, is being represented or coded within films such as The Social Network (2010).

However, few media scholars who study neurodivergence and films investigate how the archetypes of the slasher and final girl within the horror genre embody or convey neuronormative assumptions. Observing how these archetypes relate to experiences of neurodivergence can contribute to our understanding of both neuronormativity and how it is being understood and subverted within the horror genre. Drawing on and modifying McDermott’s (2022) “neurotypical gaze”, this author seeks to show how the Terrifier films contribute towards a “neurodivergent gaze” through the characters of Art the Clown and Sienna Shaw. This analysis will include a close reading of the films Terrifier 2 and 3 to observe how the character’s attributes and behaviors relate to neurodivergent ontology and how these ontologies cinematically construct the archetypes and characters of horror. Deconstructing the media text from these films will enhance our understanding of how neurodivergence and neuronormativity relate to the horror genre, and how horror can connect with a neurodivergent audience.

Bio: Esperanza Padilla (Espi) is a sociology PhD candidate at the University of California, San Francisco. Diagnosed with autism & ADHD later in life, her research interests include digital spaces, disability studies, queer theory, neurodiversity, storytelling, collective narratives, community knowledge and resistance. She earned an associate’s degree in art history because of her love of visual media. A horror fan since her youth, Espi continues to fixate on the patterns and aesthetics of horror movies. Outside of her schooling, Espi has been inspired by the Terrifier franchise to develop her skills as a digital artist and storyteller. Currently, she is training to be a digital storytelling facilitator through StoryCentre Canada. Espi’s digital stories, Through the Looking-Glass and The Odyssey of a Neurodivergent Castaway, can be viewed online through the YouTube channel of the Institute for Community Inclusion at U Mass of Boston.

Abstract: The Terrifier franchise is a pop culture phenomenon that has captured horror fans' attention with its aesthetics, violence, and unapologetic focus on gore and practical effects. However, a closer look reveals its connections to Giallo, a genre defined by graphic horror, enigmatic killers, and surreal narrative logic. Like Giallo, the Terrifier films revel in excessive bloodletting and feature a killer, Art the Clown, whose eerie, almost supernatural presence and brutal methods evoke the mysterious murderers of the classic Italian horror genre.

While Art is front and center in the franchise, he is hidden and concealed by his makeup and mask, a visual embodiment of one of Giallo's characteristics—obscuring its killers' identities. This duality enhances his mystique and positions him as both a subversion and an evolution of the genre.

The franchise's supernatural and sometimes fragmented storytelling further echo Giallo's disregard for conventional narrative coherence, favoring mood and visceral impact over logic. By analyzing the films’ use of Giallo’s stylistic excesses—hyper-stylized gore, theatrical violence, and enigmatic killers—alongside their grindhouse-inspired rawness and narrative subversions, this presentation highlights how Damien Leone has crafted a series that pays homage to Giallo while reinventing its conventions for modern horror audiences.

Bio: Brandy Clark holds a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Composition from Missouri State University (degree conferred in 2018). She is a former teacher and lifelong horror fan who loves the eras of the 1970s – 2010s and especially loves the Terrifier franchise for the uniqueness it brings to the horror genre. She runs Retro Horror School on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch under the moniker Terrorific Lady, where she teaches people about horror and horror concepts in a fun and respectful environment.

Abstract: The Terrifier franchise has evolved from a low-budget indie horror gem to the highest grossing unrated film of all time, developing beloved characters and a dedicated fanbase. With it, and along the way, the spotlight on the killer clown trope has grown bright.

From the gripping “Creepy Clown Craze” of 2016—the year Terrifier was released—to the recent fetishizing of Art the Clown as sex symbol, the perception of clowns in and outside of horror has changed dramatically over time, and rapidly in the last decade.

“Folklore of Fear: The Evil-ution of the Killer Clown Motif” will briefly and broadly explore clowns in history, lore, and mythology, while bringing the Terrifier franchise into context with its time. Themes will include:

1. The changing social roles of clowns, jesters, and mimes throughout history, with insight from members of the International Clown Hall of Fame in Baraboo, Wisconsin

2. The symbology of clowns in pop culture and folklore, from court jesters, fools, and tricksters to Bozo, Pennywise, and Poltergeist, with insight from historian John Borowski

3. The perception of clowns at present, examining the Terrifier films as safe spaces and whimsical outlets for exploration of gore, shock, and sexual taboos, with insight from folklorist Ari Spence

“Folklore of Fear” will offer Terrifier fans a deeper appreciation and understanding of the killer clown motif and challenge them to unmask their own darkness…the kind sitting dormant and covered in cobwebs in the attic of all our psyches.

Bio: Amelia Cotter is an author, researcher, and storyteller with a special interest in the supernatural, history, and folklore. Her books include Where the Party Never Ended: Ghosts of the Old Baraboo Inn, This House: The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost, and Maryland Ghosts: Paranormal Encounters in the Free State.

Amelia lives in Chicago but is originally from Maryland, where she earned a degree in German and History from Hood College. Her research generally focuses on hidden history, ghostlore, and urban legends. Amelia presented “The Legacy of Lore: Why Our Ghost Stories Matter” at the inaugural Paranormal Research Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 2024. She is a member of the Society of Midland Authors.

Amelia has appeared on Coast to Coast AM, Travel Channel’s Hometown Horror, Really Channel’s The R.I.P. Files, and in the documentaries Scary Stories and Tinker’s Shadow: The Hidden History of Tinker Swiss Cottage.

Abstract: It is impossible to attribute the Terrifier franchise's transformation from an independent horror oddity to a worldwide cult sensation to its gore or shock value alone. It has not gained such traction simply thanks to the “casual” horror film fans, either. This video essay aims to look at the Terrifier series through the lens of Jenkins’ theory of participatory culture, and present that the hyper-engaged online fandom, absorbed in its fascination with the movies, creative, and participatory, has made Terrifier a significant cultural phenomenon. In addition to posting response videos and gore compilations, fans actively participate in the mythology of the franchise by creating character analysis, fan fiction, cosplay, and fan art on sites like Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and Tumblr.

Art the Clown is repainted, personified, and mythologized in addition to being viewed, revealing a sort of collective obsession through these digital fan rituals. This turns Terrifier from a movie into a participatory universe, a horror text preserved and fuelled by fan work. Moreover, such treatment of the character solidifies his place among horror icons such as Michael Myers, Ghostface, or Jason Voorhees, and ultimately results in him being labelled as “the new slasher boyfriend” of the horror fandom at large.

Bio: Adriana Kołodziejczak is an MA student of American Studies at the University of Gdańsk. She holds an MA in Movie and Audiovisual Studies and a BA in American Studies. Her research focuses largely on horror, fandom culture and queer theory. She spends her days working at an arthouse cinema, and at night, she works behind the scenes as a guest handler at conventions and festivals as well as a movie translator, bringing her love of movies to life in a variety of ways.

Abstract: As the access material producers for Terrifier 3, having created the descriptive subtitles and audio description for the UK theatrical and DVD/Bluray release, Matchbox will explore the processes and importance of access materials that bring Art in all his bloody g(l)ory to blind and Deaf audiences. We will break down the considerations undertaken when capturing the audio elements of the film within descriptive subtitles, and the process of accurately and impactfully translating the visual horror into audio description. In doing so we will examine the visual and audio landscape of the film and how access materials enhance and expand the experience of horror, violence and gore for Deaf, blind audiences and general audiences. Terrifier 3 and their dedication to access will be put into the wider context of (lack of) access provision for Deaf and blind audiences, particularly for horror fans, with Matchbox sharing insight into growing trends and expectations of access and the ways in which Terrifier 3 has risen to the challenge of inclusive terror for all.

Bios: Matchbox Cine is an independent exhibitor, producer and distributor specialising in the “orphans, outcasts and outliers” of cult cinema. Matchbox hosts standalone screenings and event series focussing on strange and unseen cinema and produces the festivals Weird Weekend, Cage-a-rama and KeanuCon. Since 2019 Matchbox Cinesub, Matchbox’s access materials production arm, has made descriptive subtitles (aka captions, SDH, HoH) and/or audio descriptions for over 4,000 films and short films, working with film-makers, producers, distributors, festivals and venues, within the UK and internationally. Megan Mitchell is Matchbox’s Producer, overseeing distribution activities, access consultation and AD scripting and voicing. Calvin Halliday is Matchbox’s subtitler and AD scripter.

Abstract: Of all the video game franchises it could have crossed over with Terrifier has a major intersection with Call of Duty. What allows a semi-realistic first person shooter series with inherently political focus on explicitly modern warfare to cross over with supernatural slasher movies is that the two genres are not that far off in one specific subtext layer.

Ironically thought of as escapist media, both first person shooters and horror movies had more political impact over the years than many of the movies and games with specifically political focus. The rich tradition of horror itself allows for political subtext almost by default. First person shooters, naturally escalating the realism of warfare, eventually had to tackle more realistic and frightening scenarios.

Analyzing the broader spectrum of political and apolitical subtext in the entirety of Terrifier franchise as well as Modern Warfare section of Call of Duty franchise specifically, the paper uses symptomatic reading, logical-intuitive analyses, confirmed and debunked context commentaries by creators of both franchises to bridge how political subcontext in both also makes them oddly more attractive internationally.

Bios: Mykola Borysovych Yeromin, PhD (Candidate of Political Sciences), is a associate professor of Department of International Relations of Educational-Scientific Institute of Psychology and Social Science of Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (Kyiv, Ukraine), with which he is also affiliated as a researcher. He writes and presents widely on issues of audiovisual media, its role in the international political communications, specific types of said communications and is an author of more the three dozen publicized works in Ukrainian and English. He is also an award-winning filmmaker (usually under a stage/variant name Mykola Yeriomin), writer and a freelance music composer.

Illia Synelnykov is a Bachelor of History who graduated from Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National Univeristy in 2017. His assorted interests include ancient and modern history, video games, warfare and parkour.

Abstract: 

The subject of this study is that low-budget horror films can carry the titles of cult, bad and unwatchable at the same time. In this respect, it has been observed that independent productions have increased in addition to mainstream horror films, especially in recent years. Accordingly, the films All Hallows' Eve (2013), Terrifier (2016) and Terrifier 2 (2022), all of which were directed by independent horror director Damien Leone, were discussed. Where these three films stand in terms of cult, bad and unwatchable were evaluated by visual data analysis in the light of the relevant literature. As a result, it has been observed that these films have similar qualities and that these qualities are suitable for these categories.

When it comes to cult cinema, Mathijs and Mendik (2007) mention 4 elements that should be taken into consideration: The first of these is anatomy, the style and content of the film are discussed here. The second is consumption, audience reaction and critics' reaction covers this area. The third is political economy, which refers to the ownership of the film and how it is marketed. Finally, cultural status provides information about how the film affects its environment (p. 1). Three films of this research will be examined in the cult section using these elements.

Bad is an aesthetic. By saying "it's so bad it's good", Sconce addresses the budget-related deficiencies in these films, the creation of their own effects, and the exaggerated acting (2019). He states that bad horror movies betray the effect of reality (2019, p. 667). Although the author here describes the 70s and 80s as the golden age of evil, contrary to what he thinks, this aesthetic prevails in All Hallows' Eve, Terrifier and Terrifier 2, which were shot after 2010. Bad lighting, exaggerated acting, incomprehensible angles, limited locations and a scenario where nothing is resolved are present in all three films.

Ugly shows what is unwatchable. Baer, Hennefeld, Horak, and Iversen explain what falls under this category in the introduction to their book on unwatchable movies. One of the elements they mention here is the display of graphic violence and watching movies through fingers (2019, pp. 1-3). Movies that are too disgusting or excessive to watch are included in this class. In fact, there is a moral stance here. What is unwatchable is both a moral and a personal choice. The three horror movies that constitute the subject of this research will be discussed in this context, as they contain images that are very difficult to watch.

Bio: Tugce Kutlu completed her undergraduate education in Radio, Television and Film as a valedictorian at Ankara University, received another BA in International Relations from Anadolu University. She completed her MA in Film Studies at University College London (UCL) under a scholarship, wrote her dissertation on grief in the 21st-Century horror films supervised by Professor Susanne Kord at UCL and was awarded a Distinction. She wrote her dissertation on the 21st-century Turkish cinema and power relations for her second MA at Ankara University. Her works have been published by academic journals. She has been to numerous academic conferences, presenting her work. She was also a part of the Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History Project, led by Alison Peirse. She has recently started PhD at Ankara University. She is a research assistant at the same faculty. Her research interests include horror films, European cinema, power relations in cinema and grief/trauma studies.

Abstract: This paper examines the narrative and formal strategies through which the Terrifier saga constructs its unique spectatorial experience, focusing on the aesthetics of abjection and trauma. We analyze how the films create encounters that transcend mere disgust, instead inhabiting that disturbing space between subject and object where meaning collapses. The psychological impact extends beyond simple revulsion, encompassing a disquieting attraction and compulsion to look and interact.

Damien Leone’s approach brings forward an attractional dimension aimed not at intellect or identification, but at affect, disgust for disgust’s sake, and a purposeless “trash” aesthetics that mocks the formal and conceptual rigor of “elevated” horror directors like Eggers, Aster, Peele, or the political gore of Ducournau and Fargeat. The saga’s objective is to reclaim the playful viscerality of the haunted house, explicitly shown through the Terrifier carnival attraction, which unfolds as an audiovisual horizon where characters and audience metatextually experience the deconstruction of narrative unity. This gives way to an abject experience centered on the performativity of murderous gestures and the Grand Guignol-style abjection of the body – a manifestation of what Kristeva identifies as neither subject nor object, but a third category of being.

The paper primarily explores Art’s unusual slapstick corporeality, typical of excessive, surreal, and violent comedy. The spectatorial horizons of expectation focus not on narrative outcomes but on the reconfiguration of the clown’s performative language in different contexts, each constructing a distinct number: from domestic environments to shopping malls, from “trick or treat” to Santa Claus. These sketches mirror early cinema’s theatrical numbers, whose attractional nature centred on the spectacularization of subjugated bodies.

Leone reclaims horror’s potential to create an affective experience which can be paralleled to what Foster developed as the “traumatic Real”, namely, an encounter with the fundamental rupture of meaning that destabilizes the viewer’s everyday reality. In so doing the saga generates iconic moments ready for transmedia exploitation while disturbing viewers’ psychological boundaries between self and other, real and symbolic.

Bios: Enea Bianchi (PhD) is Research Associate at the “ATOPOS International Research Centre” (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil). He taught for four years Italian Aesthetics and Arts at the University of Galway (Ireland) where he obtained a PhD in 2021. He is currently co-editor of the book series Contemporary Issues in Aesthetics (Brill) and in 2022 he was elected delegate-at-large for the International Association for Aesthetics. Since 2012 he also works for the editorial board of the journal of cultural studies and aesthetics Ágalma. He has published mainly on contemporary aesthetics, philosophy of sport, disaster studies and Italian philosophy, in journals including The British Journal of Aesthetics, Journal for Cultural Research, Studi di estetica and The Polish Journal of Aesthetics among others. His book The Philosophy of Mario Perniola was published by Bloomsbury (2022).

Leonardo Magnante is PhD Student at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dams (Disciplines of Art, Music and Performing Arts) and a Master’s degree in Cinema, Television and Multimedia Production, obtained at the University of Roma Tre. His research focuses on Film and Cinema Studies, Horror Studies, Italian Gothic and giallo all’italiana. He has collaborated as a critic with Film, magazine of the Centre for Film Studies in Rome, and with Mymovies. He has published for peer-reviewed journals such as Imago, Fata Morgana, and Ágalma, where he serves on the editorial board. He has participated in several conferences in Italy and abroad and collaborates with the Molise Film Festival and the Rome International Documentary Festival as a selector.

Abstract:

This paper will explore the evolution of Art the Clown as a character throughout Damien Leone’s filmography, focusing on the supernatural, religious, and folkloric aspects. It will compare the clown’s lore from the films and background information conveyed by Leone in interviews and other sources to established cultural traditions, trying to answer the question: What the hell is Art?

The presentation will follow a chronological line based on the series’ release dates. It will cover visual cues (aspects shown on-screen, such as his “superpowers”) and the in-universe character speculations about his nature and origins. It highlights how the lore is presented incrementally, and the villains cannot be comprehended fully before the third instalment of the franchise.

It will then explore how the final entry to the franchise (so far) indicates a connection to Judeo-Christian mythology and its definition of demons. Some of the clues are the experience of “possession”, the existence of Hell below the characters’ world, and the perversion of Christmas and Christian rituals. I will also propose the identification of both Art and the Little Girl as specific demons detailed in historic Grimoires (such as The Lesser Key of Solomon, Ars Goetia, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, etc.) that inform religious belief, as well as real and fictional demonology.

Bio: Alice Tremea is an independent researcher based in Brazil. She graduated with a BA in Film focused on Production Design in 2020, then received an MA in Art History and Visual Culture. Her research focuses on contemporary Hollywood horror cinema, but she has also published works on gentrification, public art, and issues of representation. She now works in the education sector, with a focus on art-based community learning.

Her upcoming works include a co-authored a chapter about Stephen Summers in a book about The Mummy franchise; as well as an essay comparing representations of vampires to gentrification in NYC for a collection on vampires in America. She has recently presented papers on the role the ocean and sea monsters play in horror at SWPACA and NEPCA 2024, as well as reviewed the original and 2019 version of Child’s Play for the Middle West Review.

Abstract: Damien Leone’s Terrifier series mirrors the thematic concepts of descent into sin and following consequences featured in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno through the lens of Art the Clown gruesomely punishing those he deems sinners. The first reference to Alighieri’s piece in the Terrifier universe dates back to the original short film, appropriately titled The 9th Circle, yet continues to leave its imprint in further Terrifier films. Leone takes the menacing figure of Art the Clown and uses him as a vessel to communicate with his audience about the everyday sin they partake in. We are painted this picture through Art’s victims and the nature of each of their deaths relating to one of the circles of hell mentioned in the Alighieri story. Instances of this connection are either portrayed through these characters' treatment of Art or their often relatable actions throughout their respective films. We see this through many of these characters acting in gluttony, lust, or wrath which are sins mentioned in Inferno. This is then paired with how Art chooses to kill them where their death is often an allegorical depiction of their sin. In every case, Art showcases an extravaganza of the most intense and horrifying murders, pandering to us, the audience. Art, in short, acts as the Virgil to our Dante while simultaneously playing the role of Satan for all the victims in these films, offering their punishment. Victoria and Sienna come into play in this narrative by their rejection of sin. When these two final girls risk everything to protect their siblings, they refuse to submit to the 9th circle of hell, being treachery. This leads to them becoming some of the sole survivors of Art’s terror and why they wear the burdensome thorned crown of saviours in the Terrifier Inferno.

Bio: Nadia Jasso is a 22-year-old undergraduate literature student at the University of Houston - Clear Lake (UHCL) where she also currently works as a writing consultant. She has done several presentations and panels at her university regarding pop culture and media including “Dark Academia: The TikTok Subculture Leading the Gen Z Classic Literature Renaissance” and “Center Stage Feminism: Beyonce and Taylor Swift.” She has also published two short stories for student literary magazines and is president of both Sigma Tau Delta and the Creative Writing Club at UHCL. When she is not writing, she can be found binging horror films and reading classic novels.

Abstract: This paper aims to consider the dark aesthetics of Damien Leone’s Terrifier (2016) as it draws upon and expands its homage to 80s slasher films. More specifically, I will seek to explore Terrifier’s conceptualization of “art” as both an entity of demonic performativity and perverse speculation on the raw materiality of the human organism. Blurring the boundaries between performance and destruction, Art serves as a provocateur of abjection and material experimentation beyond the limits of bodily endurance.

Bataille’s theories of violence and the erotic are here plied to illuminate Terrifier’s extreme depictions of corporeal disintegration. Bataille’s concept of base materialism, which foregrounds the irreducible materiality of existence, obliquely reflects the film’s obsession with the body as both the material of horror and fulcrum for a perverse and transgressive aesthetics. The erotic charge of Art’s brutality reconfigures violence as a transgressive force that not only challenges anthropocentric moral frameworks, but reveals in visceral detail the raw life of the organism remade in the image of hellish jouissance emblematized in the works of such artists as Hieronymus Bosch.

Via an attempt at posthuman reading, Terrifier emerges as a unique commentary on the aesthetics of horror art-making. It reveals the genre’s potential to interrogate humanity’s conceptual boundaries and moreover, to think the perverse limits of art against common aesthetics. By aligning the film’s brutal materiality with Bataille’s thought and posthuman theory, this paper argues that Terrifier exemplifies horror’s unique ability to confront the inhuman sublime.

Bio: Jason Wallin is Professor of Media Studies and Youth Culture in Curriculum at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of A Deleuzian Approach to Curriculum (Palgrave MacMillan), Arts-based Inquiry: A Critique and Proposal (Sense Publishers) and co-producer of the extreme music documentary BLEKKMETAL (Grimposium, Uneasy Sleeper).

Abstract: 

“He thinks what he is doing is funny because he’s laughing. But I know it’s not funny because they’re all dead.”

(Terrifier 2)

Art the Clown has cemented himself in contemporary popular culture through the extraordinary trajectory and love for Damian Leone’s Terrifier franchise.

The significance of the clown as an archetype can be expressed through both his costume and make-up (Bala, 2013). This paper will therefore explore the visual aesthetic of Art the Clown with a particular emphasis on his clothing choices and the construction of his identity. It will discuss the origins of the vengeful clown beginning in the 19th century, which rose from the ashes of the tradition of the harlequinade (McConnell-Stott, 2012).

Art’s visual aesthetic has changed dramatically since his first appearance in the short film The 9th Circle (2008). His look has been steadily curated and developed, and this progression is clearly apparent through the examination of Art in films such as All Hallows Eve (2013), continuing to be refined in his most recent appearance in Terrifier 3 (2024).

This transgressive figure of Art the Clown is a welcome addition to the modern horror genre, an antithesis to the established evil clowns of the twentieth century such as Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT or the Joker from the Batman franchise.

Art specifically constructs his identity as threatening. This subversion of the clown through his clothing choices and presentation of self makes for a visually striking and unnerving villain. He actively exaggerates his expression through the combination of simple monochromatic make-up, prosthetics and garment choices.

Uncanny and unsettling yet ultimately mesmerising, this paper argues that Art the Clown’s self-expression is identified through his clothing and make-up. This is an integral part of the examination of the phenomenon that is the Terrifier franchise.

Bio: Jennifer Richards is a Tutor (Research) on the MA Fashion Programme at the Royal College of Art. Her work explores a wide range of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices. She interrogates the idea of the meta discourse, language, ritual, identity, and the body. Her work explores the themes of identity and construction of self through the discipline of fashion, with a particular focus on Horror and the Gothic. Recent research publications include articles on aesthetics, performance and the body within film and visual culture.

Abstract: The world of Terrifier is set in the fictional Miles County, a suburban town on the outskirts of New York, USA. Although Miles County was depicted in a limited and constrained manner with few locations due to the low budget of the first film, the diegetic spaces in Terrifier reflects embedded American family values and the façade of societal development—an aspect especially underlined in the third film of this saga.

The spaces in Terrifier 3 (2024) evoke a stereotypical American paradigm of progress, reflected in the harmony of households, the shopping mall, and the university campus, locations that also align with the conventions of the slasher genre. However, the presence of Art the Clown, whose exaggerated killings expose the fragility of these national ideals, suggests they are a constructed fiction. In contrast, the settings associated with Art the Clown (delipidated abandoned buildings, gritty bathrooms and filthy public toilets) propose a stark juxtaposition to this urban fantasy.

In this presentation, I will examine the cinematic spaces in Terrifier 3 as a representation of the American ethos seen in the “perfect” family home, the mall and the university campus and how the demonic presence of Art the Clown disrupts the domestic and public settings, exposing the “fakery” of the modern American progress. This analysis will incorporate semiotic interpretation of space, narratological theory, and the conventions of the slasher genre in Damien Leone’s film.

Bio: Gabriela Montiel holds a degree in English Literature from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. Her dissertation focuses on intermedial and metalepsis practices across lyrics, music, and the music video in the album The OOZ (2017) by King Krule. Her research interests include Intermediality, Intertextuality, Modern and Postmodern Literature, and Sound Poetry.

She has participated in several symposiums addressing topics such as Surrealism, Film, and Poetry. In addition to her academic pursuits, Gabriela contributes to Worked Music, a digital platform where she publishes interviews and album reviews. She is also an active member of PoéticaSonora MX, a project dedicated to investigating sound and its relationship with poetic and aural expressions. An avid horror film enthusiast, her favourite movies in the genre include Lake Mungo (2008), Grave Encounters (2011) and The Conjuring 2 (2016).

Abstract: The Terrifier franchise like all other slasher films relies heavily on the display of blood and gore on screen, and the horrors of seeing the human body being mutilated, quartered, and destroyed beyond recognition. As Xavier Aldana Reyes argues, in slasher films, the sight of the body being mutilated on screen generates a corporeal reaction from the audience. The audience develops a sort of affinity with the victim, and vicariously experiences the physical trauma that the character is shown to be going through. The Terrifier films likewise incite a sense of physical revulsion and disgust at the sight of the bodies that are brutally violated by Art the Clown. However, the trash bag that Art the Clown always carries around, hides more than it reveals. In the first film, for example, when Tara and Dawn are being stocked by the Clown at the diner, Tara wonders what the trash bag contains. This takes place at a time when the Clown has left his bag and gone to the washroom in the diner. Even in the physical absence of the Clown therefore, the bag generates tension in the characters and the audience solely by the possibility of what it might contain. This paper will study the affective sense of horror that Art the Clown’s trash bag creates by hiding its contents. I will argue that although it is evident that the trash bag is used by the Clown to carry his weapons of mutilation and torture, by choosing to keep this element of gore hidden, the movies heighten the tension, and build up the anticipation for those scenes where the actual element of gore is portrayed on screen. This element of ‘hidden gore’ makes the scenes of Art the Clown’s torture more effective by exploring the possibilities of what his large trash bag might contain.

Bio: Diganta Roy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English in Falakata College, West Bengal. He is currently pursuing his PhD on ‘The Cultural Translation of Horror in the Adaptations of Dracula’ from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His works include ‘Floating Fears: Understanding Childhood Trauma in Stephen King’s IT’ published in Encountering Pennywise Critical Perspectives on Stephen King’s IT by The University Press of Mississippi, ‘Retelling the Holocaust with Children: A Pedagogic Study of Stephen King’s Apt Pupil and Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic’ published in Holocaust vs. Popular Culture Interrogating Incompatibility and Universalization by Routledge, and others. He has also contributed a chapter titled ‘The Kick and/or the Crucifix: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and the Kung Fu Craze of 1970s’ to an edited collection on Hammer Horror Films, edited by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, and published by Routledge in 2024. His areas of academic interest include horror literature, popular fiction, and Gothic Romanticism.

Abstract: Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise is notable for subverting the slasher subgenre’s narrative conventions. An example of this subversive nature is Victoria Heyes, Art the Clown’s first survivor. Institutionalized after attacking a reporter, Victoria becomes possessed by an Entity that uses her body to assist Art in his crimes. This paper proposes an analysis of Victoria's trajectory as a form of identity theft, in which her reputation and image are destroyed by the Entity, drawing a parallel with the real case of Cari Farver.

When Victoria is possessed in Terrifier 3, there is a clear distinction between her voice and the Entity’s: during the hospital killings, Victoria briefly regains control, pleading for help before the Entity resumes its rampage. This struggle culminates in a scene where Victoria, or perhaps the Entity, slits the body's wrists, marking the human’s death and the creature's full domination. From then on, Victoria's voice disappears; however, other characters still perceive her as Art’s accomplice, a misconception reinforced by the film’s credits, which list actress Samantha Scaffidi only as Victoria, despite her portraying the Entity too. This perception also extends to the audience: many fans call the villainous duo "Art and Vicky", even if Victoria died before Terrifier 3’s main events.

Victoria's situation is reminiscent of real cases of identity theft, like the murder of Cari Farver, whose reputation was destroyed by her killer, Liz Golyar. After the murder, Golyar kept sending threats to Farver's inner circle, impersonating her, and posting on the victim’s social media. For years, Farver was seen as a criminal, though she was already dead. In Terrifier 3, when the Entity uses Victoria's body to commit crimes, it reinforces the perception that she is evil. This identity theft becomes an extension of the psychological torture Victoria endures. The physical death is not enough: she is erased, replaced, and villainized for acts that are not hers. In this way, the Entity prevents Victoria from ever being remembered as a victim, which may be considered the ultimate form of violence.

Bio: Raísa Nogueira Medeiros is a Master's student in Legal Systems and Human Rights, History and Anthropology of Law at the Université Paris Nanterre, France; Bachelor of Laws from the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Brazil; a lawyer registered with the Brazilian Bar Association, and fiction writer. In her undergraduate dissertation, she analyzed the character Amanda Young from the Saw franchise through the lens of criminal responsibility. Her current research examines the intersection of the History of Criminal Law and Literature, with a particular focus on 19th-century France.

Abstract: The "final girl" is traditionally a marginal character, typical of 80s slashers, who dies quickly. Initially viewed from a male gaze of desire, she gradually transforms into a heroine with whom the audience can identify and empathize. Ultimately, she manages to overpower and annihilate the killer, in this case, Art the Clown. The theoretical framework we aim to address is related to the idea that the "final girl" serves as an agent reflecting social and cultural changes in contemporary society's perception of women. We aim to offer a comparative perspective that analyzes, starting with Sienna Shaw (Terrifier 2 and 3), how these protagonists manage to survive and defeat the killers but transform into "something else," mutating their identity into a new, mystical, and partly esoteric one that allows them to "play" on the same field as Art, who evolves into a practically immortal and pandimensional demonic being.

This paper aims to make a theoretical comparison between Sienna Shaw, a final girl who "emerges from a water tank," signifying her transition to "something else," and Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, 2018), who is not a typical final girl (she dies quickly and brutally at the hands of a psychedelic psychopath) but transforms into a mystical demiurge of brutal revenge through her partner's actions. Both protagonists, in their own way, become mystical executioners of the sadistic tormentor who pursues, captures, and tortures them, leading them to rapidly transition into final heroines, thirsty for blood and justice.

Bio: Ana Belén Rojo Ojados, Phd in Sociology Studies (UPNA, Universidad Pública de Navarra) and graduate in Art History by Universitat de Barcelona, is currently professor in the Humanities Department of ESDAPC, Escola Superior d’Arts Plàstiques i Disseny de Catalunya (Spain). Ana Belén has more than ten years as art and design history teacher in various design schools in Spain. Ana is also a researcher in design history, sociology, culture and anthropology of design, and she directs her research to topics that are still uncommon in the field of design, trying to shed light and stimulate other researchers in the social sciences applied to design and design research. She is the author of one of the most important texts written in Spanish on tattoos and extreme body modifications, among other impact research.

Abstract: While Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise (2016-present) emphasizes its practical effects and heightened gore sequences, but my focus lies in the sequences that are centred on the destruction/mutilation of genitals. While the first film’s controversial hacksaw scene was labelled misogynistic by some detractors on its initial release, I want to highlight the scenes of penile mutilation. In focusing on the extended sequences of penis mutilation, I will locate the certain reflexive nature of this, as well as the grotesque comedy at play, specifically through the over-the-top nature of the violence, and I will compare to the other sequences of female genital mutilation.

Sequences I will be close reading are Jeff (Charlie McElveen) and Cole’s (Mason Mecartea) death scenes in Terrifier 2 and 3. For Terrifier 2’s sequence I will highlight the playful editing of Jeff’s costume to his method of death, as well as the abrupt nature of the violence when it occurs. For Terrifier 3, I want to look at the over-the-top, Grand Guignol-esque nature to his death, and the way the camera focuses on the destruction of his nether regions.

Comparing these sequences to the death scene of Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) in Terrifier, as well as Vicky’s (Samantha Scaffidi) glass masturbation sequence in Terrifier 3, I will look at the ways these differ in tone and grandness to those of the men. At the same time, I will place these sequences into the grander scheme of the entire franchise and its engagement with gender and violence.

Bio: Jonathan Falcon is currently an MA student at San Francisco State University. His focus lies in the horror genre, touching on interests such as gender and violence and their depictions onscreen, slashers and their remake counterparts, and splatter/gore and its relationship to camp. He plans to continue into academia after completing the program at SFSU.

Abstract: 

“Tell me the difference between someone’s favourite horror film and someone else’s favourite art film. There really isn’t any” – David Cronenberg

It would be difficult to deny that gore is one of the core attractions of the Terrifier franchise. The extended scenes of carnage present in the series are central to its distinctive visual style and have been key to both the popularity of the films within the horror community and criticisms of the series more broadly. In journalistic commentary, the Terrifier films have been described as ‘gratuitous for gratuity's sake’ (Graham, 2018) while others argue that they are ‘a reminder of what horror should be’ (Griffiths, 2016). Regardless of which end of the scale critics fall on, certain sequences – notably the death scenes of Dawn, Allie, Cole and Mia – have become unmoored from the films they are housed within to become focus points of debate and discussion. Clearly, regardless of how they were received, these scenes are moments that demand viewer attention.

This keynote lecture will argue that these specific kill scenes and other moments that forefront visceral gore within the Terrifier series invite sections of the audience to engage in a mode of aesthetic appreciation for both the construction of their effects and their presentation of materiality in a media landscape often dominated by digital ephemerality. I will explore how these sequences forge a connection between horror past and present, acknowledging the practically created gory excesses that have long defined (and have often been used to trivialise) the genre, while pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in contemporary filmmaking through strategic use of digital technologies.

Damien Leone’s appreciation of the history of practical effects within the horror genre, and his work in setting the tone for the series through his creation of the effects in Terrifier (2016) is certainly key to the appeal of the series for a particular, and discerning, section of the audience and this lecture will explore how this feeds into the tactile materiality of the gore seen on screen within the Terrifier films. In particular, I will consider the positioning of Art the Clown in the dual role of craftsman/showman who meticulously creates a new weapon of carnage in each instalment before often performing his kills to a (sometimes literally) captive audience both on-screen and off. Ultimately, this keynote will position the Terrifier films as a contemporary celebration of practical effects, offering a bold antidote to the visual restraint seen in ‘post-horror’ cinema.

Bio: Shellie McMurdo is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at the University of Hertfordshire, and author of Blood on the Lens: Cultural Trauma and Anxiety in American Found Footage Horror Cinema (2022) and Devil’s Advocates: Pet Sematary (2023). She is currently researching for Splatter Matters: Gore and Practical Makeup Effects in American Horror Cinema (forthcoming). Shellie is co-founder and co-convenor of the BAFTSS Horror Studies Special Interest Group, and has previously published work on Blumhouse, the true crime fandom, and post-peak torture horror.

Abstract: Within the slasher film, motherhood is a trope that can either save or condemn. Since the release of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), gender and motherhood have been used to subvert the actions of the (oftentimes) male antagonist. While the Terrifier franchise does not have a traditional ‘Norma Bates’ figure, it does contain critical showcases of motherhood that influences the franchise. Through the backdrop of Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) and Gal Ventura’s The Dead Mother, The Uncanny, and the Holy Ghost (2015), this piece will explore the theme of motherhood within the Terrifier franchise. I shall highlight this theme through the characters of Cat Lady (Terrifier) and Barbara Shaw (Terrifier 2), and emphasise the ways Art the Clown punishes them for their motherhood and their gendered role. I will also examine how their distinctive torture and death by Art distinguishes them as different from not only the rest of the character roster but from each other. Via Freudian psychoanalytical concepts, I shall analyse the dynamic between Cat Lady and Art the Clown throughout the first film - particularly how she inadvertently forces Art into a vulnerable state, leading the audience to believe that she could be saved. Art’s actions during this scene are telling - not just in how Cat Lady approaches motherhood but how Art initially reacts to motherhood, giving us a glimpse into what could have been absent in his own parental figures. In comparison, Barbara Shaw is a far more fleshed-out character - we understand her role, her goals, and what drives her actions. And yet I argue that Barbara’s motherhood is far more questionable than Cat Lady’s. Her motherhood is strict, oftentimes volatile, and distrustful. I will argue that this influences and adds meaning to her subsequent death.

Abstract: 

This paper will explore the performative structures of violence, comic and otherwise, enacted by, and on, clown bodies from the live performances of clowns in the circus through to a range of clown performances on screen, in both comedy and in horror.

Focusing on trips, falls and blows and the exaggeration of these through repetition, escalation, sound effects and music, I will first examine the way violence can be constructed and presented as comedy. Comedy violence has a long and colourful history in popular performance and is performed by clowns with joyful anarchy, gifting the audience the vicarious pleasure of witnessing scenes that they would be unlikely to enact and which they know are causing no real harm to anybody involved. There is joy in watching this kind of performance and in witnessing the anarchy, excess and transgression which have long been key signifiers of clown performance.

Despite the entertainment offered by clowns, there has always been an ambiguity about the intention and reception of clowns. Their costume and makeup set them apart as other, the garish fixed grin and oddly highlighted features can be as threatening as they are engaging. Clown features are both colourful and creepy. This creepiness has been exploited the horror novels and horror films which emphasise the unsettling elements of clown appearance and behaviour.

This notion of violent clowns has a long history in performance tracing back at least as far as Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892). Almost a century later in 1986, Stephen King created the character of Pennywise in his novel It, giving a new and sinister life to the idea of the clown who is both unsettling and dangerous. As Ruth Richards acknowledges ‘Clowns within popular culture have come to be associated with a sense of horror, the unsettling, and the macabre’ (2020, 62). The clown as aggressive outsider can be traced from Pennywise through to Art in the Terrifier franchise. Visually the two represent different kinds of clown but each can be identified as the kind of monster which, according to Carroll ‘the makers of horror fictions, in the standard case, want the audience to shudder at” (1999, 149).

I will, therefore, explore the ways in which clown can cause this negative response through a visual creepiness which escalates into an excessive violence which goes beyond joyful transgression or mildly threatening anarchy to an excessive violence which speaks more to trauma than pleasure.