KEYNOTE LECTURE - Appreciating the Art of Dying: The Craft of Gore in the Terrifier Series

“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 installment 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.