Interview by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor for RadioFree.com
September 27, 2022

A maniac returns from the dead to resume his wicked ways in writer/director Damien Leone's follow-up to his 2016 cult hit Terrifier.

In Terrifier 2, the homicidal Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is resurrected by supernatural forces to continue his brutal and sadistic murder spree. The eerily silent serial killer butchers his way through another blood-soaked Halloween, setting his sights on siblings Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), whose late father somehow holds a mysterious connection to Art.

In this exclusive interview, actor David Howard Thornton talks about his experience of portraying Art the Clown, from finding the voice of a totally silent character to adjusting to uncomfortable physicality on set. A horror fan himself, David also compares Art to genre icons Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Pennywise from a technical perspective, and shares some of the internal backstory he uses in service of his performance.

Terrifier 2 is currently playing in select theaters.

RadioFree.com: Like many viewers, I discovered 2016's Terrifier while browsing on a streaming service and having Art's picture catch my attention. What is it about his look that you think is so immediately captivating and disturbing?

DAVID: [laughs] Gosh...I think it's because he has this Freddy Krueger-ish type of look in a lot of ways. Or the Joker. That gaunt, scary look. Skeletal. He kind of does look like a skull in some ways. I don't know what Damien did, he just captured lightning in a bottle with this character creation. And he made him to be the complete opposite of Pennywise. He's like, "If you're going to do another clown flick, might as well look at the king of killer clowns for inspiration, but do something completely different." So while Pennywise has hair, Art is bald. Pennywise is colorful, Art is black and white. And he has those nasty teeth, too. And he experimented a lot with the shape of the mouth. He thought about doing it as a smile, and as a frown. But it's a neutral face. And that way, it's this vacuous void that can be manipulated into different emotions, which I think is pretty cool.

In Terrifier, Art is a corporeal serial killer, while in Terrifier 2, he's resurrected as something supernatural. Is that a fairly accurate way to describe him, and what sort of discussions did you have with Damien about how the nature of Art changes between the two movies?

Yeah, that's a really good way to look at it. That's a pretty accurate description of what's going on with him. I look at him in the first film as being human, and he didn't even know that he could come back from the dead when he shot himself--he was just going out on his own terms. And then I kind of look at it myself as, like, all these evil deeds that he has done caught the attention of basically whatever demonic forces are out there. And they're like, "We like this guy--let's bring this guy back, because he's fun!" And so in part two, we fully embrace the supernatural side of him. Because we felt with these films, you always have to kill off the villain. And a lot of films wait forever to address why they keep coming back. We're like, "Let's just go ahead and address that from the get-go, and make that part of his story--the whole supernatural aspect and this other character that comes back with him, and is basically a guiding force for him." So that's something Damien and I had really talked about a lot: let's see where we can go with this and flesh him out more. But we also want to keep him grounded in a lot of ways. We don't want him just doing crazy things like levitating and telekinesis or any of that kind of stuff. And I look at [it] more as, like, that other force [is] the one able to manipulate things, Art's basically just [their] wrecking ball. [laughs]

[laughs] I love that idea of a bureaucracy in hell recruiting him...

Yeah, who knows if that's where we're going to go with it. I don't know, but that's what I have in my head, at least for right now. It's like, "This guy would be a good avatar for us on earth, so let's bring this guy back. He's our Employee of the Year."

You mentioned the character who accompanies Art, which is a demonic little girl that adds a new dynamic to the sequel. Does this make him some sort of father figure, or is their relationship more of a "partners in crime" kind of thing?

I see it as more a partner in crime. Because as you see in the film, it changes shapes, too...And I see it as basically becoming the shape of something a certain person is familiar with, is comfortable with, or has some kind of background with. And so that's why it takes the shape of the little girl with Art--there's a story there that we will hopefully get into in future films. But I see it as more like a partner in crime, or his boss in some ways. That was the guiding force for Art in part two. It's like, "I'm going to let you have your fun, but also, I need you to do this errand for me."

Actor Mike Giannelli actually played Art in Damien's 2013 film All Hallows' Eve and two prior short films. In other interviews, you've talked about how that material informed your own portrayal of the character. What elements did you want to preserve from Mike's performance, and what did you want to change for your interpretation?

Well, of course, you want to preserve the whole look of the character--not just the makeup and all of that, but just his demeanor. He's kind of creepy. [laughs] He's very mischievous. And of course, the silent aspect of him. But I wanted to expand more upon that, because he is a clown. Damien kind of looks [at it] as like, Mike was just basically a guy in a clown costume, but my version [of] Art is a clown. He has those clown-like qualities. And I think that's what also separates him from all of those other silent killers that are out there. It's not just a guy in a costume. There's a certain level of playful craziness about him. That's the clown side I want to bring out, especially the physicality of him, because my background is in physical comedy. And since I was given this wonderful makeup that allows for free expression instead of having a static mask like Jason and Mike Myers, I was like, "Well, I gotta play around with this more." Because I think that's going to heighten Art even more because he doesn't talk--I can use my facial expressions to replace his ability to communicate with people. And I want to bring more of that aspect to the character as well.

Speaking to that silent aspect, Art doesn't make a sound even when he's severely wounded. He does, however, open his mouth and gesticulate, which made me wonder if that's all part of his showmanship. In your mind, does he actually experience pain, or is he just acting for the benefit of his victims?

That's a good question. Ummm...I don't know how much I can go into depth with that, but that's definitely some stuff I'm hoping we get to address in future films, of why he's so silent. Because with Mike Myers and Jason Voorhees, even though they don't talk, you hear them breathing, you hear them grunting when they get significantly injured. But you don't hear that from Art. And I think that adds to his creepiness. You would think some guy that got hit in the foot with a metal spike [has got to] scream. And he does scream, but no sound comes out. And that's just so disturbing in itself. But why that is...I hope we explore more in future films. I know why, but I can't say. [laughs]

You have an extensive background in voice acting, which, in many ways, seems the complete opposite of a role like Art. How does all of that previous experience compare to playing a totally silent character?

Oh, that's the true irony of it all. I have a repertoire of over 200 voices, and what I'm known for being is completely silent. [laughs] That was not lost on me as soon as I got cast. Like, "This is brilliant." But yeah, that was definitely a struggle for me, because every role I've played before Art, I have tried to discover the voice, how the character sounds, before anything else. After I discover the voice of the character, everything else--even my posture, my mannerism, all of that--falls into place. And I didn't have that with Art. So that was definitely a challenge for me. But I already had this love of silent film actors, so I had that to pull from. I was like, "Well, this is going to be fun. That's going to be his voice, is his body. That is his voice, and let's just go with that."

Many of the scenes in which Art is brutalizing his victims require a certain level of physicality. From a fight choreography standpoint, what were some considerations you had for your acting partners?

That's something I had to get used to as well, because before I did Terrifier, I never did those kinds of fight scenes. And I'm a giant teddy bear in real life. And especially violence towards women is something I cannot stand--I think that is, in itself, extremely evil. You know, my first night filming Terrifier was the scene where I'm attacking Tara and stabbing her in the ankle, and getting on top of her and strangling her, and trying to gouge out her eyes with my thumbs. So that was really throwing me in the deep end right there. And luckily, the actress that plays her, Jenna Kanell, has a lot of experience doing stunt work. So I was going off of her. I was always constantly checking in with her, which is probably the weirdest thing for my co-stars, because any time we'd cut when we were doing one of these scenes, I'm like, "Oh my God, are you okay? How are you? I just want to check in." And it's got to look weird with the way I look, especially with lots of blood all over me. But that's something I had to get used to doing. And Jenna was even like, "You know, you can actually touch my eyeballs while they're closed and kind of press down..." It gives me something to work off of. "I don't really want to hurt you, but okay." And going forward, I got more and more comfortable with doing that, especially in part two. We had stunt coordinators on set, and they had some apparatuses for the actresses to wear, so when I'm actually hitting them with things, I knew that the blows were being blunted. Which is good, because I don't want to hurt someone with a club. [laughs] They're all so sweet and awesome.

David, thanks so much for your time. It's been a blast diving into horror with you today, and I hope we'll be talking about Terrifier 3 soon.

Oh, I do too, man! This is a dream come true. I can't complain at all about this...Thank you!

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