Terrifier 3’s biggest character death is a cop out

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Terrifier 3 (2024)

Although Terrifying 3 Can have a lot of disgusting moments, one of the most important deaths is a striking disappointment. The terrifying Movies are many things, but no one can accuse director Damian Leone’s slasher series of subtlety. Art the Clown’s terrific horror movies leave little to the imagination, shocking viewers with an onslaught of carnage and graphic violence that most mainstream movies would never come close to. Terrifying 3‘s brutal kills are no exception, with Art’s antics becoming even bloodier and more explicit this time around, as the franchise increases its body count once again.

As such, it is an unwelcome shock to realize that the most important death in Terrifying 3 Takes place entirely off-screen. Keeping the act off the screen alone isn’t a complete shock. Art the Clown’s murder of two children in the 2013 anthology movie All Hail’s Eve Also occurs off the screen, as the death of two children in Terrifying 3s controversial opening scene. However, what is shocking is that this character is pivotal to the storyline of the series, but their death is effectively ignored in the sequel. This leads viewers to wonder if it will be reconnected.

Terrifier 3 should have shown Jonathan’s death

Terrifier 3 inexplicably skipped its most important character death

Although Sienna’s brother is a vital character in the franchise’s mythos, Terrifying 3Jonathan’s death takes place completely off-screen. The character is last seen dozing in his dorm room after a tense conversation with his sister that is interrupted by his thoughtful roommate, Cole, and Cole’s true-crime-obsessed girlfriend Mia. Cole and Mia are murdered by Art the Clown in the shower in what may be the bloodiest sequence in the entire franchise. However, Jonathan is not mentioned again until what appears to be his head, mostly eaten by rats, is shown by Art and Vicki in the closing scene.

There are many reasons that this twist does not work. The first is that Terrifying 3Vicky’s creepy new villain initially claims that the skull belongs to Sienna’s niece, Gabby, as she and Art torture and kill Gabby’s mother, Jess. They then discover that the skull really belongs to Jonathan, but Vicky also specifies that she needs Sienna to lose all hope so that she can possess her body. As such, it seems transparently obvious that Art and Vicki are lying again in the hopes of leaving Sienna desperate and hopeless, thus making her easier to possess.

Jonathan’s death happening off-screen in Terrifier 3 goes against the heart of the franchise

The scarier movies are all about upsetting character deaths

in the story, Jonathan’s death taken off screen makes no sense. In terms of pacing, the jump from Art’s time at the fraternity house to his appearance at Jess’s home is confusing, to say the least, as it’s unclear where Vicki was during Cole and Mia’s deaths and whether she was involved. In Jonathan’s death. Furthermore, the fact that Vicki and Art lied about the care of the skull just minutes before when they had no reason to do so makes it much more likely that the couple would repeat the lie when it could potentially disempower Sienna and leave her defenseless.

However, the problem with death does not stop at its practical implications for the narrative. Although Terrifying 3 Was well critically received, the decision to keep Jonathan’s death off screen also jars with the ethos of the series. The pride tasteless terrifying Movies have never shied away from depicting violence on screen and have always pushed the limits of what audiences can watch without prompting involuntary physical responses. The approach should be no different when it comes to killing off a major character like Jonathan, that way Terrifying 3 Taking such a toothless route makes the three hard to believe.

Jonathan’s off-screen death makes it hard to believe

Victoria and Art have already lied about the custody of the skull

As evidenced by discussions of the sequel on Reddit, Jonathan’s death took off the screen immediately made viewers doubt that it was at all. A considerable number of the posters in the above thread expect the sequel to reveal that Jonathan is still alive, even if this is not Leone’s final plan for the series. Indeed, if Jonathan’s death is the real deal and not a misdirection, it may be the most disappointing death in the history of the series. Sienna’s brother is a central character who acts as a foil for her throughout Terrifying 2 And Terrifying 3.

When Sienna simply wanted to be a normal teen in Terrifying 2Her morbidly obsessed brother began to unveil the links between Art the Clown and their late father. When she desperately wanted Jonathan to confirm their supernatural links to the Miles County Killer in Terrifying 3Now it was Jonathan, who wanted to forget their entire arrangement, and Sienna, who needed to reach her brother before it was too late. admit, Terrifying 3The cliffhanger ending gives Sienna a new family member to protect in Gabby, but that only makes Jonathan’s disappointing death more of a problem for the franchise going forward.

Terrifier 4 has to make up for Jonathan’s death disservice

Jonathan needs a comeback or an actual death scene

Whether Sienna’s brother turns out to be alive and returns or his death is depicted in a detailed flashback, Terrifying 4 Needs to fix Jonathan’s disappointing series exit. If the sequel reveals that Jonathan actually died and his death is never mentioned again, the series will take its subversive approach to slasher conventions too far. It was striking, clever and really surprising in 2016 terrifying When Art the Clown pulled a gun on the movie’s apparent final girl and simply shot her in the head. This gag has shades of Michael Haneke’s infamous one Funny games.

The moment shocks viewers by betraying conventional slasher rules, both with the villain’s use of firearms and the Final Girl’s sudden death midway through the story. However, killing off major characters like Jonathan without fanfare is not a similarly subversive move. Instead, it feels more like an oversight or a poorly disguised twist. If Terrifying 4s story opened by revealing that Gabbie died on her way to Hell and was never seen again, this would sap Sienna’s story of any emotional resonance. Likewise, the awkward end of her brother’s story makes Terrifying 3s plot harder to care about.

Source: Reddit