Terrifier 2's 'Birthing Scene' Was A Necessary Creative Pivot Thanks To Malignant
There is no shortage of gore-filled mayhem within the 138-minute runtime of Damien Leone's popular indie horror flick "Terrifier 2," including the shocking end-credits scene that was apparently altered not to resemble anything from James Wan's terrifying motion picture "Malignant."
The sequel to the 2016 feature "Terrifier" has made its presence known as a truly gruesome experience that caused certain moviegoers to require medical attention. Despite deeply disturbing certain viewers, the film, with a modest $250,000 budget, has earned the highly sought-after Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and made over $11 million at the box office. The second chapter of the gory franchise sees Art the Clown on another killing spree a year after the first film's events upping the stakes on the violence and murder with new weapons and toys, leaving behind horribly maimed bodies and a massive amount of blood. In the end, after her mysterious sword heals her, Sienna Shaw finally takes him out.
Unfortunately, the terror doesn't stop when the credits start to roll as another scene pops up featuring Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), the survivor from the previous film. She is locked in a mental hospital and gives birth to Art the Clown's head. The moment is arguably one of the most hard-to-watch of all the vile moments depicted in the feature that was almost set to go down another way until "Malignant" beat them to the birthing punch.
The Terrifier 2 end-credits scene was too close to Malignant for Damien Leone
Director Damien Leone revealed on Twitter that the 2021 movie "Malignant" forced them to change the mid-credit sequences in "Terrifier 2" and find another creative way to showcase that atrociously artful moment. "This entire scene had to be changed into the now "birthing scene" after Malignant came out. We did something way too similar and had to change it. Another blessing in disguise!
The movie "Malignant" follows a woman with a parasitic twin with supernatural abilities whose body was removed at a young age, but the brain remained, eventually taking her over. It seems Art's original return came too close to this concept. it is still unclear why specifically the scene needed to be changed, but it seems the director is satisfied with the change calling it a "Blessing in Disguise." He also revealed he wasn't the only one behind the idea, "The birthing scene was the brainchild of myself and Olga Turka."
The sequel's talented costume designer seemed to enjoy working on the project, especially with the director and, oddly enough, Art the Clown's head on Instagram. "I have to express my immense gratitude to the ever creative, super talented director @damien_leone for trusting me with his brainchild, playing kickass music while we're working and listening to all of my insane ideas (and letting me hold this Art head he made like some kind of weird/awesome trophy)." It's hard to tell if Olga Turka's fascination with the killer clown's head led to how it would emerge in the end. However it came about, the shocking ordeal does potentially set up "Terrifier 3" and ensures that Art the Clown's reign of cinematic terror is far from over.