'Terrifier 3' Director Damien Leone Says Movie Will Spark More Gore in Hollywood

TMZ

Damien Leone says his new slasher flick "Terrifier 3" is going to spark a horror film renaissance in Hollywood ... predicting his box office success will convince the major studios to loosen up.

Transcript

00:00I got to say, and I say this all the time, I can't do horror films like yours, but the

00:08way people are talking about it, I'm at least curious that I think, do I have to like see

00:13if I can actually sit through it?

00:14Charles is horror curious.

00:16I am.

00:17Yes.

00:18I'm horror curious.

00:19Here's the thing that always surprises me.

00:21It's when people, you know, they say, what's wrong with this movie?

00:24Who would go see this when they're seeing a part three?

00:26I highly recommend you see one and two before you get into this one.

00:30We don't pretend we're anything that we're not.

00:33You'll know exactly what you're in store for, especially with part three.

00:37The opening 10 minutes might be the most disturbing thing we've ever done in this franchise.

00:42So we're definitely letting you know what you're in store for right away.

00:45I remember back in the Exorcist days, I think it was 74, where they marketed it based on

00:52people passing out people, you know, just, I think somebody actually had a heart attack

00:56watching it.

00:57And it was successful that way.

01:00And you don't, I haven't seen that a lot until your film.

01:04So you are embracing the gore here and it seems to be working.

01:09Oh yeah, for sure.

01:10And the one thing I'm very proud of is that this is genuine.

01:14This is organic.

01:15It's not a marketing ploy with people passing out and fainting.

01:19These are actual accounts.

01:20And it started with Terrifier 2 sort of during COVID.

01:25It's when movie theaters just started getting going again and people started fainting and

01:30passing out in the theaters.

01:31And there's one tweet in particular at the time really took off on Twitter of somebody

01:36passed out in the lobby with paramedics coming in and the Terrifier 2 poster over their shoulder

01:41in the lobby.

01:42And that was just, we were off to the races from that moment on.

01:45But we really do push the gore with these films because we're an unrated film.

01:49And it was something I wanted to do with the first Terrifier because it was only a $35,000

01:55movie and I was a special makeup effects artist.

01:57So I knew I had to put things in my film that Hollywood couldn't really put in their films

02:02and it would hopefully get people talking.

02:03So that's been our formula ever since and we're always pushing the boundaries.

02:07I'm just wondering, these conservative studios that are struggling right now, I'm wondering,

02:14do you think you're going to be that seismic change where all of a sudden they're saying,

02:19we just got to go all in for this?

02:21Could this change movies, especially horror movies?

02:25Yeah, I really think it can.

02:26I think it's going to.

02:27I think you're going to see this now renaissance of slasher films that are extraordinarily

02:32gory.

02:33I won't mention names, but I've had now peers and my contemporaries, people I look up to

02:37who make these types of films have reached out to me and they're thanking me and they're

02:42saying, oh, you've given us so much ammunition now to go back to the studio.

02:47Because they're always restricted and they would be a lot more graphic if they could.

02:52So I think you're going to see this boom of really graphic horror films, which means now

02:55I really have to step up my game going forward.

Category

Transcript

Recommended