Slasher or Rough Cut?

As usual Mike Flanagan is wrong. That is my opening statement your honour. The frequent subpar Stephen King adapter has been running his mouth all over Twitter saying how Terrifier 2 is the start of a new subgenre he refers to as the 'MegaSlasher'. Bullshit. Can't be letting a guy like that fool you. The millennials Mick Garris is utterly clueless and if you want the proof watch the director's cut for Doctor Sleep. For this cut he envisions himself as making a horror western with a gargantuan 3 hour length. He splits sections off in to chapters to make you think he's in control when really he's firmly out of control.

All he does is copy the book more literally and as you well know this can cause many problems because fundamentally it's two separate mediums with alternate forms of storytelling. Going as literal as he does loses the ability to make visual connections linking particular themes and tonally it becomes sloppy. These miscalculated tonal shifts and lazy structural storytelling are the very reason Doctor Sleep is a mess. Probably even more so than the theatrical. Both are a bunch of scenes stupidly strung together with no clue as how to map it all. There's no flow because you have these beautiful moments of Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting mode battling with addiction and then you have these howlers with Rebecca Ferguson and her stupid hat that belong in some goofy kids TV show. Tonally there's no through line and it's very unsmooth. I'm not even going to go in to his other bland King adaptations cause that's a whole other story. If you do want to see what an epic horror western would look like I'd recommend Na Hong-Jin's The Wailing There's consistency through it that justifies the length. A 21st century Kwaidan. My point though is just don't listen to Mike Flanagan ever. He wouldn't know what an epic looks like and what's a rough cut in need of trimming.

This is exactly how Terrifier 2 has been advertised though with its huge 138 minute length. A far greater run time than your typical 80-90 minute slasher. Ever since it was announced how long the movie was going to be, all I could think was, what would an epic slasher look like? I mean it's a cool idea right. Noones saying it isn't.

So many questions here though as to how such a concept as the MegaSlasher would function. The entire basis of the slasher is limited character development with the focus on the kills. The idea being to keep dialogue to a minimal and to get back to the set pieces as quickly as possible. Story often secondary to the grotesque nature of the murders depicted. To the point you're working backwards filling in time with story and using it as merely an excuse to keep the blood flowing. This method has attracted huge criticism with many condemning the lack of character development and distasteful violence.

Defenders have respected them as DIY punk, anti-narrative, anti-bourgeois transgressive works of art. Feminists have always remained divided with some believing the camera is obsessed with their limbs both sexually and violently. Whereas, others have acknowledged it is normally women left standing after the massacre showcasing their strengths. Carol J. Clover's 'Final Girl' Theory is now completely engrained in the public consciousness and has gone way past acceptance in academic circles.

Personally, the slasher has become something of a religious experience to me akin to going to church. I admire the simplicity of the formula. All I want to know every week is what characters are we dealing with? Do they like to party? And how are they going to be killed off? Watching them decade to decade you get the sense of changing cultures in teenagers from fashion to music. That's the beauty of slashers and genre cinema in general. The form stays pretty much the same but the characters change. Eventually. And in good hands you can see the mocking of emerging trends through the use of black comedy.

What would be gained from an epic slasher? What would be lost? With genuine characters could we have a greater response to the murders and consequently the stakes be raised? Could you weave in more meaning and purpose to give them an added relevance so that they're not so formulaic and forgotten about so quickly? Or would we lose something with their punk status? Would the genre essentially retire itself, losing its appeal because it adheres to too much of a conventional and accepted style and bourgeois notions of good taste?

Well, I think that's enough laying pipe for now. Terrifier 2, how does it do? At first, I was actually quite convinced it had found a way to extend and enlarge the scope of a slasher and experiment with the familiar narrative. A fine example being the Nightmare on Elm Street direction it takes with the surreal dream sequences. Easily one of the best scenes is when our new favourite psychotic killer Art the Clown hands out candy to kids on an indoor playground and then blasts them all away with a Tommy Gun. Hard to complain at such a creative experience which offers slasher fans an even earlier than expected taste of the violence they demand.

You'll be thinking this is the way to go as you can delve in to the psychological and increase the set pieces with little consequence to the narrative. Increasing the death count whilst producing a visual form of character development. In effect, actually satisfying multiple audience members. Clumsily, Terrifier 2 abandons using the dreams and converts back in to just being an overly long slasher. So cast any desires for a Lynchian slasher out of your mind. We're simply not there yet. Maybe one day.

Back in 2016, we got the first Terrifier and for many their initial experience with Art the Clown. There was certainly a character there in having this mime artist who doesn't speak. Thus, allowing these well designed slapstick sequences that felt wholly original. Unexpectedly, this film was rejected by both critics and horror fans. Whilst I can understand the former disapproving, I cannot for the life of me understand why this didn't go down a treat with the horror crowd. I said to myself this was not a film messing about. It only concerned itself with pure thrills and delivering the nastiest of them. I also don't say this regularly but this is one of the only films I believe is so sick and twisted you could fool me in to believing this was a lost film from the grindhouse era. Although the aesthetic was pretty close to the classics, it's mainly in attitude I refer to, it wiped many other slashers out the water in sheer brutality. It was clear as day to see this director didn't care about his characters, they merely served as victims for Art to dispatch. Wearing such a distain on its sleeve like that really got my attention.

Brings me no joy to say this but with Terrifier 2 this director, Damien Leone, whom I admired so much the first time round has proven himself to be a man of compromise. What I don't understand is that everyone is praising this sequel for being this epic but not enough attention is being given to the motives for this change. Leone even admitted that the reason this was longer is because he wanted to address his critics who believed the first was so uncaring about the characters. Therefore, he went and wrote in bigger back stories.

Anyone else just think that's frightfully uncool? Bowing down to his critics? What a nerd. You wouldn't catch fellow shocker Nicolas Winding Refn doing that. Brian De Palma was routinely attacked for his treatment of female characters. Julie Salamon once accused him of being "a perverse misogynist". Now his response to this was just incredible, saying, "I'm always attacked for having an erotic, sexist approachchopping up women, putting women in peril. I'm making suspense movies! What else is going to happen to them!". There you have it. Chad Brian De Palma. Virgin Damien Leone.

To some extent, I could almost forgive it if this Leone was actually able to write. Becomes obvious that the reason this went over the typical ninety minute mark was because of all the back stories thrown in. All of which is inexcusably cliched and dull. There's this family drama with the trauma of a dead Dad. Nothing you haven't seen in the Halloween movies and still inside the tight 90 minute run time. What's hilarious is how much is stuffed in to the first act that serves no purposes later in the final act. Once, Leone can get back to crushing heads and stabbing people again, he feels in familiar territory, gets carried away and abandons anything that was set up previously. So what's the point of it other than to appease a few nerds with limited notions of what cinema is? If everyone listened to them fuckers cinema would never develop. Leone's head is clearly on the nasty sadism, that's what he wants to do and that's what I want him to do, so stop fucking around making a movie you don't want to. Fuck all that emotional baggage and get straight to the point. He hasn't got the tools for anything else so why bother? What, the critics don't like it? Fuck 'em

The great irony here is that Leone spends so much time trying to weave in a feminist narrative, which is so stuffy and actually becomes most effective when you see the female protagonist in her Greek God inspired Halloween costume. Now, I'm fully aware that this whole thing of putting women in outfits and having them look powerful is a really light and silly attempt at feminism. However, what I'm saying here is that the writing is so bad that it came across even less successfully than the extremely simple option of using a silly costume.

Not only can Leone not write but his actors can't act. Usually, these things wouldn't matter in a slasher because it distracts you with other approvable elements. Yet, with this added drama he's rather exposing himself further than necessary. At times, going against everything I've said, this can work in the films favour. Witnessing this overly bloated slasher has an intoxicating effect in the lack of rhythm and it emphasising its own shittier qualities. Draws them out further to become a rare clunky shlocky epic. When this does have its positives is in the hangout scenes such as having a party scene structurally in a place you wouldn't normally have it. Approved of them dancing to Boy Harsher, who appear to be rightly on their way to becoming a sound for modern horror films. In these moments, you feel a love for the craft and any lack of talent is perfectly acceptable because of that. You can tell though that they're not quite trying as hard on the drama scenes so it's hard to get as excited about these as an audience. So it's not like John Waters's Dreamland gang got together and made an epic I'm afraid. Those guys (who are just as terrible at acting) would have found a way to make all the suburban material just as enjoyable as the killings.

Extended dialogue scenes only result in pushing the chase scenes further back and so when they finally arrive your patience is starting to wear a little thin. Where I will forgive everything is in that it does provide a few more Art the Clown slapstick sequences. Got all the time in the world for these. There's one in a joke shop where he is asked to pay for an item and looks in his bin bag for some money. As he searches his bin bag he just keeps pulling out all these gnarly tools and placing them on the counter much to the cashier's confusion. Pure comedy gold.

Oh and there's one set piece in this that is so brilliant, I have to give this a decent score. The protagonists friend's death is extreme to say the least. You can just tell half the budget went on this one scene. If I recall correctly, he came up with this early on and needed some extra funds for it so turned to the public with Kickstarter. As soon as people got wind of what Leone had planned, let's just say the financial target was more than met. Surpassed it in about 3 hours. You get to see the friends skin ripped off her body. Then, Art leaves the room making you think this torture was over but he soon walks back in with a bunch of acid and pours it over her wounds. God, it's overkill. Even for what I can handle. This is the part that has caused the most controversy with walkouts and ambulance calls.

Usually, when I hear of walkouts I assume these days it's overreacting but this is certainly one of the cruellest most sadistic things I've seen in a recent movie going back to the torture porn era. Yet, somehow it comes across even more excessive. Got to admire the audacity. As mad as I am that this isn't the future of the slasher and that the added characterisation is only a means to appease critics, the fact this scene has provoked as much as it has deserves total appreciation. People have been rattled. Always funny to see. WolfCop's cock transformation scene, which caused its fair share of walkouts was a classic but this definitely tops it. I can't even tell you if it's funny. You don't know what to feel watching it. Anyone interested in the art of the visual appearance of splatter will be in awe.

It's hard to accuse Leone of being a wimp when he puts in a scene like that. I'd like to see anyone in the gross out movement top that. Blood filling the walls and just when you think it's gone too far, it goes further. You laugh. You stop laughing. You laugh again. You don't know whether to laugh and all you can say is "Fucking hell". That's outrageous. That's cinema.

He came. He saw. He conquered. I'd happily welcome another chapter in the life of Art the Clown. I love him. Always got time for his antics. My criticism isn't for him. He's my boy. He could never let me down. My criticism is for the package. The length is being praised when too often it robs us of what we actually want. What this movie got wrong is too many scenes with characters we didn't care about or ask for. I can forgive a random assortment of Art slapstick with no consideration for structure but the drama needs to go. Thankfully, Damien has decided not to go with another 2 and a half hour cut. It was the wrong choice and really should have done with a trim before being released to audiences. Oi Damo, in the words of Mufasa, "Remember who you are". You're not Sergio Leone. You're Damien Leone. And be proud of it brother!

Bonus Points:

-The Nightmare on Elm Street dream sequence where our man comes out shooting with the Tommy Gun

-The kids getting razor blades in their breakfast

-Boy Harsher playing at the party

-Art pulling a few jokes of his own on a joke shop owner

-The friends death which is an absolute masterpiece in the fields of gross out and splatterpunk

-Causing mass walk outs and ambulances to be called in

Overall Score: 3.5/5