Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is an arcade-style beat-em-up game based on the Terrifier slasher film franchise created and directed by Damien Leone. Relevo and Selecta Play have been tasked with bringing the cult classic to life. As a fan of the Terrifier films, I was really excited for this game, but after playing the demo, I am a bit concerned. 

Do note that there will be minor spoilers for the Terrifier movies throughout. You have been warned. 

Understanding Art (the Clown)

I want to dedicate a section of this review to first talk about Terrifier and its central antagonist, Art the Clown. Considering the amount of personality, humor, and depravity that Art has, he’s a core feature of the films and establishes their identity as a whole. I am aware of the short films that featured Art before the feature length series, where he was played by Mike Gianelli, but his characterization was different back then.

Art the Clown is a prolific serial killer who enjoys tormenting his victims, psychologically and especially physically. He is an unrepentant sadist who has one goal in life: torture victims in the most vicious and hideous ways possible. Terrifier thrives on extreme gore and shocking violence, in a manner that I’m not sure if I would be allowed to describe here. Basically, if you come out of an encounter with Art in a dark alleyway with only one eyeball missing and your guts still on the inside, consider yourself lucky, especially if you’re a woman.

However, the gratuitous gore is juxtaposed with a lot of comedy. Not only does the violence thrive on black comedy, but Art himself often puts up with the clown act for way longer than you’d expect. David Howard Thornton, the actor that plays Art in the film series, makes the otherwise flat and unsympathetic character entertaining by acting as buffoonish and kooky as you’d expect a clown to be. The costume shop bit has been memed repeatedly online. Basically, take the ruthless efficiency and creativity of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers dialed up to eleven, combine it with how Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger plays with his food, and you have Art, just without the quips, since Art is completely silent. But don’t you dare call him a Mime, as that infamous bedroom seen from Terrifier 2 can attest!

A Tame Bloodbath

So, with our villain protagonist established, how is the violence of the game? As you’re reading this sentence, you are likely imagining the awful scenes this Terrifier adaption would entail. A sadistic lunatic who uses a knife as a paintbrush would lead to so many cool finishers.

But the demo itself is rather safe. Tame, even. There is gore, but it mostly comes down to the same half-blown away head graphic with the occasional eyeball or tooth being thrown at the screen. I’m not expecting Manhunt levels of violence from a beat-em-up game, but it’s surprising how the game seems to pull their punches. Really, the only shocking thing you can do is kill some children, and even then, the game holds back on the gore as they only have a couple bruises and a bloodied face. Which is probably a good thing, all things considered, but still admittedly disappointing.    

Clowning Around

What about the gameplay? Well, it’s exactly how you imagine a beat-em-up game to play like. You have a light attack, a heavy attack, a jump attack, and a combo meter that allows for a super move. There are four types of enemies: one is melee, the other is a ranged fight that throws police batons, two heavy enemy variants, and a motorist who quickly drives across the screen. On the ground are various traps and obstacles, as well as a few weapons, one of which being the makeshift nailed club that Art uses in Terrifier 2. In the demo you play as either Art or the Little Pale Girl/Victoria disguise that the demonic benefactor who assists him uses in the second movie, with an option for co-op.

I mention all of this because I think this is what ultimately makes Terrifier: The ARTcade Game feel off. In the films, Art relies on the element of surprise. He prefers to sneak up on his victims or catch them with their guard down. Any time a victim actively fights back, he struggles, to the point where he fights dirty by pulling a hidden gun on Jenna Kanell’s character in the first film. To see him casually throwing hands in The ARTcade Game, as well as picking up random weapons off the ground when in canon he casually carries a garbage bag filled with torture tools everywhere he goes, the less like Terrifier the game feels. 

Final Thoughts

Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is a short demonstration for a beat-em-up game that features Art the Clown. That’s the sincerest way to describe it. It plays alright, though it needs some balancing since there is simply no reason to not hold a weapon at all times. This review mostly talks about the film and how it translates into the game, but that’s because without the license, it is your rather standard beat-em-up first level you’ve played a dozen times before. I do hope that the rest of the game leans more on its source material. 

Terrifier: The ARTcade Game demo can be played on Steam. A release date for the full version has not been announced at the time of publication.