You may have seen a horrifying black-and-white harlequin with razor-sharp teeth this Halloween season. If you are unaware, this grotesque visage is the face of the Terrifier franchise, a series of movies that follows Art the Clown, the same monochromatic one previously mentioned. 

These films portray an amount of gore only found in gritty snuff films or the wildest nightmares from Ryan Murphy’s creations. As a horror fan, I believe gore and violence can lend themselves to a narrative such as Grotesquerie. But Terrifier lacks the narrative grounds for the gore to build a nice quaint house in red, the color of the weeping wound.

Honestly, I find this forgivable. The bloody work in this film is in a league of its own. The sights and sounds are so grotesque that they make viewers and actors alike feel ill. Truly, this franchise might have some of the most visceral gore recorded so far, and that is an accomplishment.

It is also very refreshing to see a supernatural killer that uses a gun. Funny as it sounds, you don’t really see clowns or demons from hell pull out their registered Glock too often in scary movies. Art as a character is absolutely horrifying. His design is unsettling, and the actors who portrayed him did amazing work.

But the scariest thing about the Terrifier franchise is their crimes against women. 

These movies are about a majorly female cast — nothing new for the horror genre, to be honest. Still, the Terrifier movies take the cake on the most brutal and explicit murders imaginable.

Women sawed in half in front of their friends. Guts and blood. Art cutting off the breasts of a woman and wearing them. Art stalking women. Art attacking women and horrifically murdering them. Rinse and repeat.

All of Art’s most targeted crimes are towards women. And, sure, this could be a glimpse into how some women are actually hunted in real life, turned into victims of violent and bloody crimes. But that’s not the point that the Terrifier movies are trying to make. They’re not trying to make any point. 

Typically, I am a huge believer that art doesn’t necessarily have to mean something. However, when it is composed of so much gore and violence, I feel that a message must be present for there to be any actual artistic value. 

As these movies stand now, they seem to only be made for the perverts among us who get off on acts of violence against women.  

Garrett McEntee is a 19-year-old English sophomore from Benton.