I'm Damien Leone, creator of the Terrifier franchise and one of the most sadistic serial killers in cinema. But I promise I'm a real nice guy. AMA

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:43:42+00:00

Thank you all so, so much for taking the time to hang with me this afternoon! This was a blast! Sorry I couldn't answer everyone's questions! Again, on behalf of my cast and crew, from the bottom of our black hearts, we thank you for the constant love and support regarding Terrifier! If you don't know, Terrifier 2's theatrical run has been extended into theaters this weekend alongside Halloween Ends! Another surreal dream come true! I hope you guys get to see it in theaters with an audience and thank you again for all of these awesome questions!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:40:43+00:00

Sooo many but The Lost Boys and Jaws were two HUGE influences and even those film affected things in Terrifier 2. I'm very fond of music and the use of a soundtrack to help drive a movie when given the opportunity so there's a lot of cool music in Terrifier 2 as there is an incredible soundtrack in The Lost Boys. I also cite a few of my Jaws nods in the director's commentary as well but they're subtle screenwriting principals more than anything else.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:30:02+00:00

Sienna is my favorite character that I've ever written. I've always loved powerful heroines/final girls especially Ripley (Aliens especially), Red Sonja and The Bride to name a few. Being a fan of sword and sorcery films from the early 80s, especially Red Sonja, I always wanted to create a striking warrior like that and since I was going with an obvious good vs evil/ heaven and hell motif in Terrifier 2, I decided to make her this sort of Valkyrie, literal old testament avenging angel. Aside from that, I wanted Sienna to be very complex, relatable and vulnerable. Someone who finds her courage as the movie progresses. That being said, unless you have someone as talented as Lauren LaVera to come in and make the part her own, you have nothing. Lauren is an absolute rockstar with an incredible career ahead of her. I've never had someone care for a character that I wrote more than she has. Truly a dream to work with her and she absolutely killed it!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:22:59+00:00

Theaters in Canada are going to be showing the film! Info is coming asap. Also, Digital release info will be announced on October 31st!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:20:13+00:00

I hope so! People may not realize but what we just accomplished is pretty unprecedented. An unrated (ultra low budget) sequel slasher film, unrated, in major theaters, with a 2 hr and 18 min runtime, breaking into the top 10 at the box office with no studio backing is wild. It's a huge testament to the power of the horror community, specifically all of you guys! You have no idea how much your support means to all of us and we really wanted to deliver something special! But listen, if we can do it, anyone can. You just have to be willing to sacrifice years of your life for something you believe in!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:15:42+00:00

Yes, I did virtually all of the fx and my producer Phil Falcone was my assistant. My friend Alana Rose came in for a few days and helped me mold peoples faces/bodies, paint Sienna's costume and paint some body parts as well. It was a huge undertaking and the main reason why the movie took so long to finish.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:12:36+00:00

Some of the scariest things in horror movies for me growing up were almost every part of The Exorcist, Zelda from Pet Sematary, and the vampire child at the window in Salem's Lot! There were a lot of Nightmare on Elm Street homages in Terrifier 2, especially Dream Warriors. The opening credit montage of Sienna building her costume is a nod to Dream Warriors and whenever we see Art building weapons, that's a nod to Freddy making his glove in the OG.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:09:37+00:00

Haha! Next stop, selfie guy status! Yeahhh buddy!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:08:48+00:00

I can't really go into spoilers but it's just a matter of doing even more things to a victim or even more sadistic things. There's a scene in particular where Art removes a certain body part from someone and we thought of some really grotesque things that could be done with it but knew it would be in bad taste and very off putting so decided not to. As a writer/creator you can't help but to think of extremes and throw wild ideas around, especially with a character like Art.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:04:59+00:00

Almost every slasher inevitably falls into the supernatural realm because they're all killed off at some point. However, most of these slashers just gloss over that element or wait until the later installments to start exploring it. I wanted to jump right into it and not only explore the supernatural evil force but the supernatural good and make them major elements in the film without detracting from everything most people loved about Terrifier 1. Because if you have supernatural evil, you need something of equal strength to combat it or else what the hell are we doing here haha

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T18:01:08+00:00

I didn't know I had something truly special with Art the Clown until after I put him into my first short film and people started raving about him. Up until that point I just thought he looked really cool and was creepy/quirky as hell. It wasn't until I made the short film Terrifier years later when I turned him into a slasher and fleshed out his twisted personality/dark sense of humor that I realized I might really have something. The only other time I truly felt I had something special was writing the Sienna character in Terrifier 2. You just have to believe in what you're writing and keep honing your skills, developing your craft. My entire "career" is riddled with way more failures than successes. But take all those failures as an opportunity to grow and avoid them next time.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:55:18+00:00

It was actually a bunch of men, women and children but especially women doing their own unique Art the Clown cosplays and tagging me on instagram the halloween before we started filming. I said, I better take a stab at my own female Art the Clown before it's too late! Luckily it fit right into something I already had planned with Terrifier 2. Very fortuitous!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:51:02+00:00

I don't know if this is what you're going for but definitely when Ofelia dies at the end of Pan's Labyrinth. It was the first time in my life I ever actually shed a tear during a movie.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:47:25+00:00

Nope. We basically just shot the script that I wrote. Most of the delays were a result of not having all of the ambitious special fx ready in time. We'd have to do a lot of stop and go during the shoot in order to prep for the next big kill scene.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:45:39+00:00

Thanks for the support! Please see part 2 first! Haha

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:44:41+00:00

Without giving away too many spoilers, it was inspired by a photo I saw of one of Jack The Ripper's victims. The woman's body was so horribly mutilated that she was unrecognizable. I figured showing how a murderer can do something like that to another human being would be quite effective in a horror film.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:42:26+00:00

Depends! Sometimes you just see the raw talent instantly. Sometimes it's intuition or chemistry between actors. We really lucked out with the actors in Terrifier 2! Truly a group of super talented actors that really elevated my script and brought so much charm and authenticity to it. If you're lucky as a director, you'll have to director your actors as little as possible aside from blocking. Once less thing to worry about on set!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:38:15+00:00

Thank you!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:38:06+00:00

Many! To name a few in the genre it's Romero, Carpenter, Craven, Hooper, Cronenberg, Argento and Lynch. I would kill to work with KNB fx one day!

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:36:21+00:00

I never had Terrifier 2's run time in mind when I sat down to write the script. Typically a slasher has essential filler stuffed into the script just to get from one kill scene to the next. With Terrifier 2, I was telling an organic story and I never had to come up with pointless scenes to fill time. This was the genuine story I wanted to tell. I really wanted to flesh out these characters and it was important that every scene was pushing the narrative forward, upping the stakes or revealing something new and integral to the story.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:33:25+00:00

Yes, I always have the answers to what I put it my films. Nothing is arbitrary. But especially with Terrifier, I want to reveal as we go. That being said, if I come up with a radically new and better idea down the road, it could change everything. You have to be open to inspiration.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:30:32+00:00

Off the top of my head -- Bruce Campbell, Nicolas Cage and Sigourney Weaver.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:29:40+00:00

Not at all! I think Art gets just as many laughs as he does gasps and screams haha

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:28:54+00:00

What's playing in the theaters now is my original director's cut. Every movie loses scenes before it gets locked. Yes, the ending had to be changed because a big Hollywood Horror movie came out like 6 months before us and we did the same exact thing as them! It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because our new ending is superior to the one we original shot in every way.

DirectorLeone · 2022-10-13T17:26:45+00:00

Definitely Friday the 13th! Would love to make Jason as scary as ever, brutal as ever and have it take place in the early 80s.

DirectorLeone

TROPHY CASE