The last chapter in the terrible saga of Damien Leone, Terrifying 3has seen many citizens of Miles County suffer horrible deaths at the hands of Art the Clown and his demonic ally Victoria “Vicky” Heyes, but one supposed death appears to be more of a trick than anything else. While each Terrifying film sees some of its seemingly significant characters die, Terrifying 3The main character’s death came as a surprise to many, as it came out of nowhere. However, this also makes it seem very suspicious given what fans expect from Damien Leone and Art the Clown himself.
The emotional ending of Terrifying 3 saw Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw survive another battle with Art, and although she wasn’t able to kill him, she managed to decapitate Vicky, Art’s yellow-eyed acolyte; In the process, she lost all her remaining loved ones. Art and Vicky killed Sienna’s uncle and crucified his headless corpse in the kitchen of their home, killed her aunt in front of her in an unspeakable way, and her young cousin Gabbie fell into what seemed to be the literal depths of Hell. However, another death left plenty of room to doubt its legitimacy.
How Art and Vicky convince Sienna that Jonathan is dead
Vicky has a very specific token from Jonathan
Sienna Shaw also loses her brother Jonathan to the hustle and bustle of Art and Vicky’s Christmas, and as the only person who understands the long-term trauma that came from her first meeting with Art, Jonathan was the most important person in her life. As horrible as your aunt and uncle’s deaths were, Jonathan’s death is the one that could really break Siennasomething Art and Vicky were probably counting on.
Terrifying Key Franchise Details |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Film |
Release date |
Budget |
Gross box office |
RT Tomatometer Score |
RT Popcorn Meter Score |
Terrifying |
2016 |
$35,000 to $55,000 |
$416,000 |
60% |
53% |
Terrifying 2 |
2022 |
$250,000 |
US$15.7 million |
86% |
80% |
Terrifying 3 |
2024 |
US$2 million |
$51.2 million (and counting) |
76% |
86% |
While torturing a captured Sienna, Art and Vicky present her with a “Christmas present”, which contains a cage full of rats gnawing on a newly skinned skull. Vicky initially told her that the skull belonged to Gabbie, but the pair quickly revealed that Gabbie was actually alive and unharmed until then. That was Vicky’s cue to remove the skull and put Jonathan’s signature glasses on it.implying that it was actually his skull all along. The glasses were supposed to be proof that it was in fact Jonathan’s head and that Jonathan died off-screen.
Vicky previously lied about who the skull belonged to
The skull was presented as Somoene Else’s first
Although Art the Clown cannot speak, The Little Pale Girl/Vicky uses her voice to trick characters over the phone in both Terrifying 2 and Terrifying 3. She also lied to Sienna when she said the skull belonged to Gabbie, thinking that would be the breaking point Vicky needed to possess Sienna. It seems deception is Vicky’s modus operandiwhich gives even more credence to fan theories that The Little Pale Girl may actually be Satan in disguise, as Satan is biblically referred to as “the deceiver of the whole world.”
All this deception makes extremely difficult to believe anything Vicky says. While it’s certainly damning that she produced Jonathan’s glasses to put on his skull, that’s far from proof that it’s his head. While the deceptive phone call Vicky made when Jonathan’s uncle picked him up from college probably indicates that Jonathan was in her possession at some point, it seems hard to believe that Vicky and Art unceremoniously killed him just to reveal the glasses.
Jonathan’s “death” happening off-screen is suspicious
THE Terrifying The franchise has never shied away from showing the deaths of important characters
The biggest indicator that Jonathan Shaw isn’t actually dead is because it happened off-screen. Art the Clown and certainly his demonic companion Vicky take pleasure in the depraved dismemberment of their victims and often carry out their deaths in someone else’s view, sowing fear and dread before killing the witness. With a plan to capture Sienna It seems impossible to believe that Art and Vicky would have missed the opportunity to kill Jonathan in front of Siennaespecially with the ultimate goal of breaking Sienna’s spirit so that Vicky can possess her.
It seems much more likely that Jonathan is captive somewhere or has escaped from Art and Vicky by leaving his glasses behind. While it is true that Vicky was calling the shots at the end of Terriiferous 3, it would be completely weird for Art (and frankly, Damien Leone) to kill off a major character off-screen. THE Terrifying the franchise revolves around Art’s sadism and murderous ingenuity, and there’s no way Leone could have passed up the chance for a truly memorable death scene just for the benefit of the glasses rotating with his skull.