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This rival horror film forced “Terrifier 2” to change its ending

This rival horror film forced “Terrifier 2” to change its ending

Kind of clown (David Howard Thornton) is an endlessly surprising horror antagonist, and as Damien Leone has built his character over a number of films, he continues to grow and comes back stronger. The end of Horror 2 builds on Art’s supernatural nature and shows how difficult it is to defeat him, culminating in a mid-credits scene in which Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) gives birth to Art’s head after he is decapitated in the film’s climax. The main purpose of the sequence is to make it clear to the audience that Art has unfinished business and that his body can be reanimated. It’s bloody and disturbing, but it’s not what Leone originally had in mind. The publication of James Wan‘S Malignant presented a sequence that is so similar Horror 2The original ending states that the filmmaker had to go back to the drawing board.




What happens in the mid-credits scene of “Terrifier 2”?

Image via Bloody Disgusting

Horror 2 ends with Sienna (Lauren LaVera) Art decapitates the clown. However, a mid-credits scene proves that Art isn’t gone for good. The sequel expands on Art the Clown’s backstory and introduces more supernatural elements to his character, although this is taken to the extreme in the final shot of Horror 2. After the credits begin to roll, the film cuts to a psychiatric facility where Victoria, one of Art’s victims from the first film, is being held. We hear her scream as she violently vomits before painting the walls with blood. The camera pans from a heart shape with “Vicky + Art” written on the wall to Vicky nursing a pregnant belly. When her nurse comes to check on her, a shot through a small window in the door shows Vicky cradling and licking Art’s head, which she has just given birth to. It shows the audience that Art is returning to more violence in a sick and brutal way.


The original ending of “Terrifier 2” was even more brutal

Although the ending sequence of Horror 2 is disgusting, the original ending was even bloodier, as Damien Leone revealed in the film’s commentary. In the original version, Vicky is not pregnant, instead she is seen “scratching the back of her head and noticing blood on her fingers.” Her nurse (played by Leah Voysey (who also plays the host of the Clown Café) goes to check on Vicky, and as he inspects the back of her head, her fingers are suddenly bitten off. Victoria “grabs the back of her head and tears [it] opens, and it’s Art the Clown growing like a tumor on the back of her head.” This initial ending ties in with the lore that art needs a host to feed on, and feels much more elaborate than the birth scene. But another horror film beat them to it and the scene had to be completely rethought.


“Terrifier 2” was originally similar to “Malignant”

Emily and her conjoined twin Gabriel on the back of her head in Malignant.
Image via New Line Cinema

This original ending will sound familiar to horror fans, and that’s because it’s the exact plot twist used in James Wan’s film Malignant. The film is about a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis), who is plagued by visions of brutal murders that ultimately turn out to be very real. MalignantThe big third act reveals that these visions are caused by a parasitic twin with supernatural abilities named Gabriel, who lives off Madison. The film succeeds with its practical prosthetic and animatronic effects that bring Gabriel to life – showing his bond with Madison and his ability to take control of his host. An earlier scene shows Madison as a child, with Gabriel attached almost like a tumor before being unsuccessfully removed (although Gabriel’s brain was physically removed, it remained, making the events possible). Malignant appear). The overall design is extremely realistic and unsettling, and it’s ultimately this twist that elevates the whole thing Malignant.


So when Damien Leone saw it Malignant a few months after he shot Terrifer 2It was clear that the mid-credits scene needed to be changed. As he explained in the commentary: “We both did exactly the same thing, and we [couldn’t] “Maybe we do, so we had to reconfigure ourselves,” and that’s how, ironically, the birth scene came about. It’s a shame we never saw Art the Clown in one Malignant-style showdown, but the adjusted ending is much more similar to Leone’s style. It’s simple but frightening and allowed Terrifer 3 to expand on it in truly shocking and memorable ways.

Horror 2 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime in the US

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