Last Updated on August 26, 2025 by FANGORIA Staff
The third entry in Damien Leone's Terrifier franchise sees Art the Clown (played by the wonderfully imaginative David Howard Thornton) returning to Miles County to wreak havoc on its unsuspecting citizens while they drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve. Set amidst the five-year anniversary of his last attack on Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother Jonathan Shaw (Elliott Fullam), Art brings his trademark brutality back to town in such a wickedly festive fashion that it makes Silent Night Deadly Night look like a Disney movie.
Wildly popular amongst a staggering amount of horror fans, the Miles County Clown has become such a household name that he's actually joined the ranks as one of the reigning icons of the genre, along with classic antagonists like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.
Director Leone's series has developed a habit of owning the box office with each new release, blowing indie expectations right out of the water, and Terrifier 3 is no exception. The film has already earned the credit of the highest-grossing unrated movie of all time, and with Christmas right around the corner, it would appear that revenues for this Yuletide frightfest will be seeing no end in sight.
Aside from how exciting it is that a dark genre film about a scary clown made by a skeleton crew bloomed into two sequels (one of which would eventually beat another jester of sorts at the box office, Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux), the wonderfully fruitful exploits of the first two flicks also allowed Leone to hire more hands to help out on the third addition to his wild little carnival slasher cinematic universe.
As opposed to handling all of the practical effects himself, like he had done previously on Terrifier and Terrifier 2, Leone could finally afford to bring some new skin to the game, including none other than distinguished practical makeup and effects artist John Caglione Jr.
Earning his stripes in the trenches of '80s splatter fests like Friday the 13th Part 2, The Hunger and C.H.U.D., the legend now has more than eighty credits under his belt, as well as a BAFTA, an Emmy, and even an Academy Award.
In other words, at this point in his career, Caglione can quite literally pick and choose whatever projects he would and would prefer not to engage with, a position he fought hard for over many years and won. “I don't mean to sound boastful,” Caglione tells me as we sit down to discuss his work on Terrifier 3, “But now, if there's something that I don't want to do, I don't do it. I just don't get involved in it.” Still, in a delightfully surprising turn of events, it was veteran Caglione who initially reached out to director Leone about the possibility of collaboration.
“I actually asked him through Instagram, because that's a great tool, you can get in touch with anybody,” recalls Caglione about first establishing contact with Leone. “I saw Terrifier 2, and I saw this makeup that he did on this girl that gets her face torn off. It reminded me of a classic design. It's a really beautiful makeup. It's ghastly to look at, but it almost reminded me of a Dick Smith type of character.
“It wasn't just gore and pizza face. It really had a design ethic to it, and it really hit me. I had to reach out to Damien and just tell him how much I loved that makeup, just the idea of it. He got right back to me, and it started a little correspondence where I finally said, ‘Hey man, I'd love to work with you in any way, cause I just love your work,' and when he did the next Terrifier, he reached out to me. He said, ‘I think I have something for you, would you like to do it?' And I jumped at it, of course. So, it's always good to ask people, you know? They're not mind readers. No one knows your intentions unless you ask.”
Coming on board as the Special Effects Makeup Designer for one of Sienna's hallucination scenes, Caglione was responsible for creating the Virgin Mary and Demon makeup effects, appearing together as characters in one of the protagonist's bouts of psychological torment.
“That's very exciting for me, personally,” Caglione grins, “Damien didn't want any digital in this thing. He was like, ‘I want all foam latex, prosthetic makeup, that's why I'm talking to you,' and he made me the Prosthetic Supervisor on this sequence. It was great to be in that position, because I come from the late '70s and '80s, and we were doing Amityville and Basket Case, and he wanted practical effects. So, he reached back to the ancient days, and he found me there. I was like a fossil he dug up.”
In a move that freed up the filmmaker to wear fewer hats and focus a little more on just being a director this time around, Leone enlisted the aid of Tinsley Studio, Callosum Studios, and Caglione to cover the makeup effects in Terrifier 3.
“I went down to work with Callosum Studios in Pittsburgh,” remembers Caglione. “Tom Savini is co-owner with Jason Baker, who runs the shop, and they're great guys. Kyle Roberts, also a fabulous sculptor, worked on the Demon body, and Jason worked on the metal mask that goes over the Demon's face. Damien had very detailed sketches of what that iron mask should look like, and I think he even did a sculpture for Jason to follow. So, Damien was really hands-on over digital, showing us pictures and videotapes of the designs of those things. I worked out of Jason's shop in Pittsburgh, and we prepped for four weeks.
“I sculpted the Virgin Mary face and the Demon prosthetic there. We sculpted most of the body parts with the team, and then I brought most of it back to my shop on Long Island here. I ran the Virgin Mary and some other pieces here. I have a big oven, and I can bake it there.
Then, we shot that sequence up in Nyack, New York. We did it all in one day. We put the Demon head face and makeup on [Michael Vidal] and the Virgin Mary face on [Juliana Lamia], painted the whole thing up, and applied all that with Jason and his crew. We shot it all in one day, no tests. You're actually seeing the first applications in the movie.”
As far as giving direction for the kind of look he'd like to see on his hellish depiction of the Virgin Mary, director Leone trusted Caglione to use his expertise, but provided a strong visionary overview to guide the artist's way. “When I was sculpting the Virgin Mary, he sent me pictures of actual statues,” says Caglione. “He liked the ones that were aged, damaged, and nicked and had a very painted look. That faded painted look that was kind of shiny, like it might've been painted on marble.”
In order to make the makeup appear like a more traditional statue, Leone instructed Caglione to sculpt the hair and the face together as one big prosthetic piece that would then be placed on top of actress Lamia's head, secured in place, and then painted over by Caglione and his associates. “We took a mold of the actress,” the artist explains. “We took a body cast of her, a full head cast of her, and then on that plaster cast, I just went right to town sculpting right over her face, the whole Virgin Mary face with the hair sculpted in it.”
In regards to the look of the Demon, director Leone had something a bit more callous in mind.
“He wanted it more like pustules and sores and that kind of thing,” says Caglione with a smile. “I had it more wrinkly, and a very demonic mouth, a grimacing-looking thing. He wanted it to be more organic. I used the Chavant NSP clay, and I used soft, because I could build it up faster. You work quickly, get your first impression in there, and then start sending pictures over to Damien and see if it's going in the right direction.”
Caglione found one of the many benefits of working with Leone to be their shared background in the effects world. Whereas other filmmakers might experience a communication breakdown when trying to transfer their ideas to the artist's hands, Leone and Caglione quickly developed a sense of camaraderie, as they were able to speak the same language on and off set.
“Damien is a makeup effects guy at heart,” says Caglione, “I've never really been in a situation like that, where I'm working with a top makeup effects guy that can sculpt, and make molds, and design, and apply, and also direct lights. I've never had an experience like it. That's what made it so special for me, because I really admire him as an artist and as a director. He just feels so involved.” When pressed about whether or not he would be game to participate in another sequel, the artist replied, “I'll do it again in a minute for him. Any time, any place, any budget.”
Making his big return to horror after so many years spent working on audacious dramatic properties like The Irishman, The Dark Knight, The Insider, Heat, Donnie Brasco and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Caglione has found a new appreciation for his roots by way of his latest endeavor with director Leone.
“I learned that I love doing horror movies,” reflects Caglione. “I really miss it. I really miss the genre. This has been my return to anything close to it. It was horror movies that got me interested in doing what I do. The Exorcist – when I saw that, that was it. I had to figure out how he did that. The original Frankenstein, Man of a Thousand Faces with Jimmy Cagney playing Lon Chaney – it was always horror. So, it was a real kick for Damien to call me and to do this. And now, look at what's happening with this movie. It's taken over the world.”
Adds Caglione, “I do believe in the universe. I've been thinking for years, ‘Gee, I wish I could go back and do a horror film', and then, I got this gift.”
Terrifier 3 now available to rent and own on Digital.
