Terrifier director really wants you to know that his movies aren't political

Art The Clown had audiences crying, shaking, and throwing up over his murderous antics in theaters, but Terrifier director Damien Leone seems to be having a similar reaction to people accusing his films of not being sufficiently bipartisan. “I want to make a very important statement regarding the Terrifier franchise in this ugly political climate we’re living in,” he began a lengthy Facebook post, which he also shared on Twitter (X) yesterday. “As most of you know, some of my cast and crew members have a very passionate political presence on social media with extreme and sometimes harsh opinions which is their right. I’m all for freedom of speech and expression. That being said, Terrifier is NOT in any way shape or form a political franchise.”

While he didn’t name them outright, the post seems to have been inspired by stars David Howard Thornton (Art) and Lauren LaVera (Sienna), both of whom have shared anti-Trump sentiments on their personal platforms. Thornton specifically posted that he “grew up around Germans that stayed silent” and now “refuse(s) to stay silent” on Threads, adding that anyone who “insult(s) the LGBTQ community… can f@ck all the way off.”

In contrast, Leone “did not get into filmmaking to become a politician or promote any political agendas or ideologies, especially through a killer clown movie.” The Terrifier crew has always consisted of both Democrats and Republicans, he specified, and “anyone is welcome to be a part of it regardless of their political affiliations as long as they’re a decent human being.”

That’s a nice sentiment in theory, but it willfully ignores the fact that horror has always been political. (Moreso in book than in movie form, but It, the archetypal killer clown fable, very much deals with issues of class, race, gender, sexuality—you name it.) The fact that Leone chose to respond this way after his stars specifically stood up for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people is also, uh, interesting.