Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton

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That's when the cannibalism started. Who's that? Eddie, I'm scared today.
Why are you scared? Because I'm afraid that we won't live up to the potential of the moment. I know.
You know? I agree with that. Like, you remember when Tiger Woods, he got in that car accident? Well, it was late.
Yeah, I know. Yeah, I think he was inebriated, but I don't know for sure.
He was focusing on his recoup. Yes.
Which is what distracted him from driving. That's what I'm afraid of.
You were driving like a maniac this morning. I'm in a cutting phase.
So I'm actually, the problem is the creatine makes me aggressive. But today we have something extremely special for you.
Happy Halloween. It's a very special, unique, we've never done this before.
It's just a one-off interview with an actor that fascinates. Someone that brings something extra to the table, as it were.
And we're excited to have this person. We recently...
We're not being paid. No.
To push this. Oh, he's gone.
And we lost him. Oh, we can still hear him.
Alright, well, that's fine. We'll keep going.
That's fine. Oh, man.

I love just how it's spooky even talking to you over Zoom.

We can't even really, just to even bring the audience in,

we had a little bit of a technical kerfuffle,

but it's still frightening because we're watching.

It's like it seems like, I don't know why,

I don't know what it is, but your energy that the tubes are afraid of.

But we have one of our new horror icons.

Yes.

We're very excited to have the actor who portrays Art the Clown, nay is Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

I'm glad I'm actually able to be seen now.

Yeah, we could see you. You look good.

We've been talking and singing the praises about the Terrifier films for the last couple of days. It's like I feel like the entire country is sort of surprised at how much they've allowed themselves to like the films.
It's a bit crazy. Yeah, because when you look at it, you're like, this is for nobody, right? Like, you know, like if I showed this to my mother, she would puke and die.
Well, hey, that's what it's for. Like, how did you like, how did it all begin? Like, if those of you that don't know the Arthur Clown character, it did start in All Hallows Eve.
Correct. So that was an anthology film.

But he was way more, it was kind of more of like a sketch almost in a way.

Yeah, that's what that was.

Those were basically almost like proof of concept movies at the time.

Because Damien was just doing that, just having fun with his friends, making movies.

And they were picked up.

And that wasn't you that's not you

that's some other guy um mike giannelli yeah now is he angry not that i know of i mean we we met

last year finally got to do some comments together and everything like that so he he seems to be

happy he's a dad now so he's got two little ones so he's he's he's got his hands full so i think he's,

you know,

well distracted.

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that's actually, that's actually, that's got two little ones. So he's got his hands full.
So I think he's, you know, well distracted. That's actually, do you think him being Arthur Clown was actually making him infertile? Oh, no.
I hope that's not the case with me. Now, so did you audition to be in Terrorfire? I did, yes, yes.
they put a notice up on Actors Access when I was living in New York. And I just went in and did that.
My agent even fought me on it. She saw no value in it because she was like, oh, it's an independent, low-budget horror film.
It will never get you anywhere. And I was like, well, I wanted experience doing work work in, uh, on film.
Cause I had always just done stage work and voiceover work. And I, I kept on at, you know, just bugging her and bugging her and bugging her to submit me.
And then I, I'm no longer with that agent. Yeah, man.
They're always wrong. They're always, every story is like this.
They're all like, they always said the Simpsons would never work you know like they never did all that shit though so when you before you audition because it's like it says here that you were also in a you were in the grinch musical i was yes i i understudied the grinch uh who was stephan carl he was robbie rotten from lazy town and i also played grandpa who oh wow it was that with the full face was that like, have you always been doing prosthetics? Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I was like a teenager doing children's theater, I was doing prosthetic work and like crazy makeup and stuff like that.
So I'm pretty used to it. They actually asked me that when I was auditioning for Terrifier, if I was used to prosthetics or a lot of makeup.
I'm like, oh yeah. Are you trained as a clown? No, no.
I didn't even go to school for acting. I just, my, my classroom was always the stage and just watching like better actors and just learning from them and adapting.
Amen. Now, so you get into the Terrifier films.
Like I personally, I I feel like some people call them. The first one is probably the closest to a straight up torture porn versus any of the rest of them.
Now, when you are preparing for something like this, like in terms of the amount of the grisly stuff that you have to do, like, I know that like on a set, it's not that emotional because everybody's having a blast everybody's laughing and having a good time so like what do you do to prepare to essentially do wanton violence nothing yeah i don't know what that says about me i just go in there and just do my thing i mean they have given me some like instruction on set you know how to do certain things with certain weapons and stuff like that so you know like on on part three i got on the set training on the proper way to actually swing an axe at a object i guess you could say yes well you because you could tell you really and this is not you progress in the fleshing out of the character of Art the Clown so successfully through 2 and 3. Thank you.
I actually thought it was very interesting. You can kind of see you get more comfortable as you go.
Is it because of Damien Leone or on yourself? feel like when, when you are that style of character,

I played,

I was,

I did a full thing on adult swim where I was fully body painted for many

years.

And on some level,

when you're in that amount of makeup,

sometimes I feel that a director,

as much as I love Dave Willis,

he's like a friend of mine,

you know what I mean?

Like we're close.

At what point I was like,

am I a prop? Like, am I just, am i like literally a piece of costuming or is there a man in here like do you fuck yes i've had directors like that before back especially in my stage days there's this one director would micro direct everything i would do on stage down to like okay i want you to turn your head at this angle on this line. I'm like, oh my god, is any of this mine? Or am I just a puppet here for you? But I mean, Dame is completely opposite.
He's very actor-friendly director. He's willing to hear ideas and like, I would say more, he directs me more on like the killing in the horror aspects of everything when it comes to like more of the comedic bits.
He'll give me some ideas sometimes, but most of the time he's just like, just go play. We'll see what we come up with.
The entire bar scene, he basically let Howard, Brad Stryker, Danny, Roebuck, and I just play for two or three days on set. That was just fun It was crazy because it terrify or three, it's like each scene is a different genre of horror movie.
And like, and that one was like a fun, it was like a fun, like kind of like campy scene. But then the next scene is just terrifying.
Yeah. That's the best part about the movie.
And it really blew my mind, man. Now, one of the things I

love about Art the Clown over, like,

you know, say, like, Jason Voorhees or

something, is that no

weapon is off

limits to Art. We love that he

shoots people. Yeah, I think it's like one

of our favorite bits, is that he also

uses a gun. He uses

the fact that, again, spoilers across

the board. But that's in the first one.
Yes, but in Terrifier 3, the bombing is like, when that happens, I think I was the only person in the theater that was like, awesome! I was like, yeah, yeah, good work! You can blow up the kids. Fuck them kids.
But is there any weapon that would be off limits for art? Or would you know? If I asked you about the lore of art, is that even something that you have control over? No, I think everything's totally within bounds for him to use as a weapon. He likes to play.
He likes toys. So it's like, yeah, it's like, I love that idea with the bomb too.
That was like, that was a brilliant idea that Damien had. And he actually, you actually see me, the bomb being assembled during that one little bit there.
And so many people don't see that. And I'm like, oh yeah, there's the bomb sitting right there.
There was like a thing, there's that little moment where it's like, oh shit, where's that bomb gonna go? Like, that was like the first thought I had. And I think that what you guys do good, which is like, it's a, I know that technically it's like a film trick, but I love the little pieces in the beginning, the seeds, and then you're gonna see each one of these pop off.
Like, each of the beginning is so good in a Terrifier movie because it's setting the tone of this person's going to be dead and that person's going to be dead and that person's going to be dead. You love all this.
You love all these people are all dead. And I that's my favorite.
Oh, yeah. Damien's great at that.
He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping little hints and everything there. I mean, he's been doing that from the get go with the the first film.
He's been dropping little seeds and stuff like that that people still are starting now to pick up on. That's why I get so irritated when people are like, oh, there's no plot to these movies.
Like, oh, no, there most certainly is a plot. Oh, yeah.
There very much is. There most certainly.
There was some, I think, TikToker or something like that recently posted a video going over the plot of 2 and 3, especially, and all these things. I was like, wow, this guy totally gets it.
He totally understands what we're doing. Even Damien commented on him and said, dude, you nailed it.
My first thought when I saw 2 and 3, it was like, that's Elm Street 3 and 4. Yep.
And then we're careening into, you're going to go straight into the lore like in four terrifier four when it does it probably will happen is that it's going to go deep into the lore we're now going to go into art the clown's full world which excites me a great deal oh yeah it excites me too i mean i know a few things that you know he's got planned for part four or part five or whatever he's going because he's still trying to i think decide if it's going to be four movies or five movies because he's got so many ideas i i'm thinking he's kind of probably going to have five movies at least it should be well this is my question though is that do do you get afraid of yourself like it's hard as an actor i i feel like as a as a as a person you're like i'll come back for nine of these. I can do Art the Clown forever.
But do you ever feel like maybe yourself could end up jumping the shark with Art the Clown if you go too far? Is it a thing that if he's doing eight, nine, ten, you're going to be like, maybe it should be a lady. Maybe it should be some other version of the clown.
Well, there was a lady. Yes.
Who's great. She's got to come back.
Right. Who knows? I have no idea.
He's keeping so many things close to his vest right now. So I'm just like, he, he likes to surprise us as well.
So he doesn't tell us things until we read the script and we're like, oh shit, are you kidding me? So I have no idea, but to answer the question, um, yeah, I, I totally get afraid of that. I'm totally afraid of going too campy with things.
Because I don't want him just to be how Freddy became later on after Wes Craven lost control of the character. We literally were talking about this right before you came on.
Yeah, it's the touch. Because the key is the touch.
I've always loved it. Again, Freddy Krueger is probably my favorite icon because he's funny.
but it's the touch the key is the touch i've always loved again freddy krueger is probably my favorite icon because he's because he's funny but it's but you know that the movies aren't as good it's like this double-edged sword where you know the movie is not as good you know that the later elm streets are not as good but i'm like just put put robert engel into my veins it doesn't really matter yeah yeah but that's and that's definitely something we've been very conscientious of since the very first terrifier film we were we're always trying to walk that line of going too campy with the comedy in this and we we do film some scenes where i do a lot more comedic takes on it and then we're like okay that's just too far but like we have it there just in case because you never know you might find something from it you can use and but yeah that's we got i'm like i look at like the the torture scene in the first film where i've got um terror tied up to the chair i did a whole bunch of takes with different um weapons coming out i was doing comedic routines with them there was like this one thing that i had a club with a big huge spike on it. And I did the whole like, you know, big golfing bit from like Johnny Carson or so.
Yeah. But he is a clown.
He's supposed to. This is his act.
You know, he is. There is an audience of one.
And it's Art the Clown. He is obviously having a very good time exactly and that's that's the thing

we we have to still acknowledge that he is a clown so he is having fun but we don't want to go too cartoonish campy with it all we don't want to totally jump back kind of shark we still need to keep it in that realm of believability and horror as well can i also ask becoming now getting this much attention

as a scary person?

Like, do you think that you're like, you're the people that follow you, your fans, do you think that that quality is also changed? Because it's like, I do find that there are people that like, when you're in a dark, darker aspect of of entertainment that there are people that sort of maybe connect with the wrong thing a little bit about what it is that you're doing and you have to deal with, like, scary people. Yeah, there might be a few of those people out there and stuff like that, but it's few and far between.
I've found, like, horror fans in general are by the vast majority are just the coolest sweetest kindest people to ever meet i mean it's actually i think some of the other people they kind of scare me more yeah in real life like comedy fans yeah are there any clowns that you would like study to get mannerisms or is this all just like you? Oh, yeah, definitely. So, I mean, I grew up watching a lot of the great silent comedians and clowns.
I mean, I was watching like, you know, Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and even like Emma Kelly Jr. and Emma Kelly.
And gosh, Mr. Bean was a huge influence on me as well.
Marcel Marceau, Peter Sellers, you know, Don Knotts. I can just go on and on and list all these.
Jim Carrey, just on and on and on. Actually, Stephan, who I understood for Grinch, he was professionally trained in clowning and mime work.
So I took a lot of what I learned from Stephan and put it into art. You can actually watch videos of Robbie Rotten and compare them to Art the Clown, and you'll see probably a lot of similarities with mannerisms.
That's really interesting. Now, is there any music that you would listen to to kind of get in the mood? Do you play circus music or something before you get out there? No, not really.
I mean, not for myself, but a lot of the times in the chair, especially in parts one and two, when Damien was doing my makeup, he was listening to a lot of yacht rock. Yeah, sure.
That's what I think is so funny. People probably think Damien's like this hardcore badass listening to heavy metal all the time.
No, man, he grooves to yacht rock.. He loves yacht rock and eighties music.
We will drive. Like when we're going to set something like two hour, three hour drive, sometimes upstate, we would just be sitting there listening to like yacht rock and eighties music the whole entire time, just grooving out.
That's, that's just how we are. But like for myself though, I will sometimes just for shits and giggles, put on something.
I sometimes would like to like to put on like the song, Denny Elfman's song from the first Batman movie with the Joker's like Waltz to the Death. Oh, yeah.
That's just always that always just puts me that little wacky little mischievous evil clown type of mode. So sometimes I would just think that in my head if I have to go a little bit a little bit nuts i guess you could say yeah do you feel like now that the movie got like terrifier 3 probably got the biggest like budget the most legit budget how is it going from being driven by the director to set who would do the makeup and then you'd shoot obviously probably like five how much such the most shoestring crew possible to like an actual like movie set like how like is there anything you miss or is there anything what's better oh we we still had a lot of the old school feel to it all because we weren't a full-on like traditional movie set where we we didn't have the honey wagons or anything like that.
So it wasn't a big, huge leap, but it was we did have, you know, a makeup team that came in this time. And so that was definitely a nice thing to have there because it allowed Damien more freedom too, because he wasn't having to stop my making and go on the set and do stuff and come back and do my makeup more.
And so that was nicer in that way. But yeah, we're still not like what you traditionally see here in Hollywood on a set.
So we were still had that, that, you know, independent feel to a lot of things. Cause they changed the makeup too, right? Didn't they do a thing cause it used to be sort of despair, different separate pieces.
And then they just made it a whole mask for you. Essentially.
No, it was always a one whole mask, but the original mask wasn't even molded to my face. It was Mike Gianelli's original mold.
Yeah. And so it didn't fully fit my face.
Damien always had to manipulate it. So it would fit my face, but this time a Christian Tinsley, who his team that did our makeup for this one on part three, they actually did a new sculpt and mold of my face.
So it's a little bit more gaunt than the last one was because Damien wanted art to be more gaunt in this one. It looked good.
Oh, I love the look. And they also gave me a scrawl lenses for my eyes this time.
So my eyes were different. In part two two i had my natural green eyes and part one i had contacts for a little bit and then like we had one night where i had a rip in my lenses and so i couldn't wear them for that night and we had to film so we decided from that point on i would just be wearing my my regular eyes and if anybody knows what the hell you know yeah why you're not paying attention to the right thing.
Yeah, exactly. And I kind of just say in my head, like the eye color changed after he got knocked out by the exterminator.
So I was like, oh yeah, the eye, the contacts popped out. And so now that's why.
Sure. Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. I definitely didn't notice.
You know, he's rebirthed. So now he's, he's become more demonic in part three.
So he has different eyes going forward. This is a question that we were talking about before.
Is he a human in the first one? Yes. Okay.
And when does he like, when does it become supernatural? At the very end of part one where he's brought back from the dead. Yes.
And then like, so he was just a man. Yes.
And so the face underneath the makeup, you would assume, would have just been, like, Arthur Clown. So what's Arthur Clown? What was his day like? Yeah, what did he do during the day? Did he have a job? What was that? Oh, you can't say yet? Can't say yet.
Wow! Yes. All right.
I'm glad there is an answer. Yes.

That's one of those things, too. God, that'll be great.
Everyone will be very excited to see that jump in. Yeah.
I will say this, that I know for one thing, for his origin, we don't want to make him a sympathetic character. No.
Good. We don't want him to have one of those tragic backstories where he was abused and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Basically, how I view him in my head is he came out of his mother's womb and strangled her with his own umbilical cord. He's just evil incarnate.
He is just, that's why hell lashed onto this guy. He's like, this is our avatar on earth.
We love this guy. He is pure evil.
Yeah. Yeah.
We love this guy. Yeah.
It's like, it's the same variant of he's from the seed of a thousand maniacs yeah exactly he was just born evil and i that's the thing is like i do generally believe there are some people that are that way they just came out of the womb and they are just fucked up in the head i i knew a kid like that when growing up or i he was this kid that lived across the street from one of my best friends, and I saw him flat out just take glee in killing squirrels. He would shoot them with his BB gum and watch them bleed out, or he would just strangle them himself.
And I was like, this kid's just evil. My mom was like, do not play with that kid ever again.
He's evil. So that's how I view art.
He was just born that way. He just had that tendency from the very get-go where he just loved to kill things.
It brought him joy. I also find that people that have the happiest existence play unrepentant maniacs really well.
And I can tell from the Lego on the shelf behind you that you are you seem like a very happy go lucky man. That comes from, you know, years of struggling.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. That's, you know, I was bullied relentlessly growing up.
But it's like I always how I escaped all that was finding the things that brought me joy and brought me happiness. And so it's like, I, I am a child of heart in a lot of ways.
I guess some people would say, I, I, yeah, I'm like, uh, um, have a, um, what is that? Um, arrested development. People have said that about me too.
And it's like, whatever, whatever you idiot, whatever you fucking butt head, fuck you. You're a stupid face.
Shut up. Shut'm a child well you're fucking you got big ass and stupid feet i hate you so save that in your pocket if you ever need oh yeah i think it's just all that bullying i went through is it's like i think i've been able to channel a lot of that on on set i mean there are even times on set where like you know I'm just not fully giving them what they need for a an attack or something like that and they'll just go hey Dave just pretend it's this um certain person and go and I'm like yeah like oh shit Dave where'd that come from like repressed rage Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray? Imagine this is Rachel Ray.

Exactly. Kevin was like, repressed rage.
Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray?

Imagine this is Rachel Ray.

Exactly.

Earlier you were saying how sometimes you like to put on the song from the first Batman movie.

Yes.

Now, I've heard a rumor that you are gunning to play the Joker at some point.

Is this true?

I am.

No pun intended.

Totally gunning.

James Gunning. Yes.
I want that role so badly. I'm like, that's that's my dream role.
That is a character I have wanted to play fully. I played him on a YouTube series like nine, ten years ago.
And, you know, that was that was that was a lot of fun. And I got a good taste of playing the character.
And I really want to play him in a more official capacity. Because I love the character so much.
And I'm so freaking tired of seeing Hollywood bastardizing this character. I miss Cesar Romero Joker.
Yes. I miss over-the-top, ridiculous Joker.
And you can do that and be sadistic and evil and scary at the same time. And and I like Mark Hamill revolutionized that angle of Joker.
Exactly. Exactly.
He that's that's why Marcus, my favorite version of Joker, because like he truly understands that character.. You can tell he did his research and especially you look at the 80s, 90s version of Joker, that's when he got a lot darker.
Yeah. And actually the very first version of Joker was very dark too.
He was a homicidal maniac then too and it was because back because back in the mid-1900s, that's when they were like, oh, we gotta be a lot more wholesome and friendly, so they made him more campy then. But it's like, I want to return more to that Alan, you know, killing joke.
Have you ever thought about, let me pitch this to you. All right.
You do a thing where your movie is, everybody's calling you the Joker, but it's revealed that it's a musical in a courtroom. Listen, it's a musical in a courtroom and you've never been the Joker at all and the only time that you ever even admitted not being Joker is after you've been group sexually assaulted by a bunch of jailers.
So what do you think? Is that something you'd like be interested in? Fuck no. Man, isn't it crazy that you, as Art the Clown, defeated the Joker this year? That's the only thing I want to remind you, dude.
Technically, you won. Technically, you beat the Joker.
That's insane when you think about it. And what's even crazier about it, it was Art the Clown versus Arthur the Clown.
Yes. Wow, yeah, I didn't even think about it.
Yeah, it was Arthur too. Which was insane.
It's just like... But he was never a clown.
Well, kind of. He was a street clown.
He was sort of. Yeah, he was a street clown.
Yeah, I guess he does. Yeah, I guess if you call yourself one, then you are one.
You know? So, how else has your life kind of changed? Or is it just like like i guess people say shit like this is i know that i'm certain that the money's just rolling in but it's not really rolling it's starting to yeah it's going to trickle which i i'm okay with because like i i spent like 13 years of my life basically struggling to make ends meet waiting tables in New York City. And I hear you, Village Poor House over here.
Where'd you work? Oh, God, so many different restaurants. I started off working at Bubblegum Shrimp Company in Times Square.
Oh, you poor bastard. No wonder you killed people.
No wonder you killed people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jesus Christ. That place is awful.
Oh, the stories I could tell you about that place. You could probably base Art the Clowns, like, off of, like, five people you could meet at that bubblegum.
Oh, yeah, just doing a shift there one night. As Art would be amazing.
Oh, my God. It was horrible.
Can I also ask you, like, this is, like, one of those very kind of practical setty things. What do you do? Like Kate Corcoran, a friend of ours, in her now very famous scene in Terrorfire in terms of the horror films, she's hung upside down completely naked and you cut her from the fucking, you cut her through her cooter through her snooter.
And she knows that that is in there. That's Lex.

See, I call that the up of the crack of dawn scene.

Yes, of course.

Like when you're hanging out on set, like I did it.

I've done a couple of movies with nudity, but it's like, what do you do between set?

Like, is it one of those where like, obviously you're trying to get this wrapped?

Right.

Right.

Like it's because she is physically hanging upside down. And she's a wonderful lady.
Oh, she's the sweet one. I love that.
She's only doing it because she's so nice. She's only doing it because she's so happy.
Yes. She is amazing.
And she's so down for it. But, like, what's the mid...
Like, do you feel like... Was that Damien's kind of role to comfort her, make sure things are moving along? Do you feel like in those functions, like, are you kind of like just trying to stay out of it and get it done as quickly as possible? Are you joking around? Like, how do you handle that? That night I was not joking around at all because that was very dangerous.
What we were doing with her, too. And I and it was freezing cold and there was like 20 degrees.
Oh, my God. So that was miserable for her.
So I was more concerned about just trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible. I'm like that all the time.
I'm like, especially in any of the fight scenes, I'm always trying to check in with my co-stars making sure they're okay and everything. I think they probably get annoyed with me because I'm always saying, oh my god, are you okay? I didn't hurt you or anything like like that but like especially when when it has to do with nudity or anything like that i try to be as respectful as possible i i'm like it's just because that's that's something that's it's it's a very personal thing it's very invasive to be exposed in such a manner and i try to i i was raised to be a gentleman in that way by my father especially and so i so I'm like, I try not even to look at what is going on.

I'm just kind of like, okay, I'm going to like, look over here.

Cause it just feels wrong.

Well, you also, the best part is that, you know, as a bashful, as a fellow bashful man,

when you're in character, it's, it's better because then it's like, I'm Arthur clown.

I can sit here. I can like, I'm much scarier.
Cause like, that's, what's better because it's like, I'm Arthur Clown. I can sit here.
I'm much scarier. That's what's interesting, too.
You think, oh, I don't want to look at these naked ladies. Everybody's staring at you.
They're looking at the evil clown. And you not wanting to look is also terrifying.
Yeah. Arthur the Clown acting bashful is almost even scary.

I become like that vulture from Looney Tunes.

That's just how I was raised.

I'm like, okay, someone's in a state.

That's also how I was just doing community theater.

Sometimes people would have to make a costume change right on the side of the stage because it's a quick turnaround.

And you just had to like, okay, that's going on.

I'm just, I'm going to be respectful and look down or something like that.

Oh, yeah.

I'll always remember in junior high school when I had to choose between drama and hockey.

And I remember talking to the dudes in the hockey team

being like, you know that there's naked women

over in drama.

Yes.

Like here, I'm just surrounded by all these sets of balls.

Sausage fest.

Yeah, yeah.

I was like, I want to go there.

And they all thought I was crazy.

They thought I was homosexual.

But I said no.

Oh, I got that too.

Yeah.

And I was like, no, sirs. I am more than, I am more than just one.
I am all. Oh man, so you, obviously this is Halloween, you're in your busy season, the movie just came out.
Are you, this is also a straight up Christmas movie. And you're going to have to promo this again.
You're going to have to go through all of this again. And then it's going to be – but the thing is, we were talking about with the budget and all this or whatever, forever people are going to be watching Terrifier 3 over Christmas.
I can't wait. It's going to be great.
I once interviewed Macaulay Culkin. He says he gets a million dollars every year from Home Alone every Christmas.
Oh, God. I wish that would happen with me.
That would be amazing. I'd say probably like $60,000.
I'll take that. Yeah, hey, hey.
How about a few Lego sets? Hey, absolutely. You get more expensive each time.
Do you have like a family? I have a dad and a sister back home. I know you come from humans, but I didn't know if you have kids.
No, I haven't gotten lucky enough to find a lady to settle down with yet. It's just I've been too busy.
Hey, come on. Come on down.
Arthur Clown is single. He doesn't know yet how to make sweet love.
Someone's going to have to teach him. I definitely do want to get married and have kids.
I'm actually at that phase of my life now where I definitely do want to settle down and do that. For years, I was working just so I could live comfortably so I could have a family.
Waiting tables in New York City, there's no way I was going to be able to support a family and kids. It's a nightmare.
You just bring them to work. You're getting ready for it because you're making a children's movie.
You're playing Mickey Mouse. Exactly.
Okay, I want to know. Can I ask about, so now, for those of you who don't know, there was a little teaser trailer before Terrorfire 3 for the new, like, I guess it was as soon as Steamboat Willie, the copyright ran out because I got a shirt that says, fuck you asshole with Steamboat Willie on it immediately from our buddies, meth syndicate.
But my question is, is that when you like, so how did that all happen? How quickly did that go down? So the movie's called Screamboat and you're playing a horror version of Steamboat

Willie. Yes.
That's all I know.

And that's all you

gotta tell us, but more just like,

when did all that kind of

happen? This all started happening

last year because the director from that is

also my director from The Mean One.

And he went to school with

the Fuzz on the Lens guys from Terrifier.

So they kind of partnered up for this film

because he's like, he knew this

property was coming out

Thank you. He went to school with the Fuzz on the Lens guys from Terrifier.
So they kind of partnered up for this film because he's like, he knew this property was coming out in public domain in this year. And he's like, well, I want to snap it up before anybody else does because I have a great idea for this.
And why not? So he approached me last year. He's like, hey, I have this script playing Willie.
Will you do it? I'm like, oh, my my god yes of course because it's it's a full circle moment for me too because my first big real leading role was back in eighth grade at my my middle school was i played mickey mouse and mickey's christmas carol and that was the show that made me decide that i wanted to do theater more because i I like making people laugh and everything like that. So it's a full circle moment.
So I'm like, I have to do this. There's no way I'm not doing this.
So that's what we did. And we're like, okay, let's start filming it.
Let's do it. And yeah, it's a lot of fun.
I just did ADR for it last week. So that was a lot of fun for me.
A lot of whistling. I can't wait.
I can't wait I can't wait to see it it'll be like anything that's insane anything that fucks with Mickey I'm happy with it is such a horror comedy is that we're really leaning into the campy horror like comedy type of vibe for this we're not trying to go full terrified just trying to be dark and scary we're like oh no let's we know what we are we're having fun with it and with it. And there's so many Disney jokes in there.
It's a big, huge love letter to Disney and Disney fans. So I think the Disney fans will have so much fun with this movie.
That sounds good. It also has one of my Terrifier co-stars in it, Kaylee Hyman.
Oh, great. Oh, nice.
She's in it, too. She's hysterical.
I can't wait for this. You know, now we're going to be wrapping up here.
I just want to leave the audience with, are you like, so were you a horror movie guy really before all this? I was a little bit. I was more of a comedy guy, though.
I was late to horror. I didn't start watching horror until my senior year of high school because my mom was afraid of horror movies and stuff like that.
So we just didn't watch them in my family. But I saw Scream 2 in theaters because i couldn't chicken out in front of this girl i had a crush on in a show and they all went to go see it so i'm like okay i'm gonna go and i had a blast and i love horror but i never thought i would be doing this though i was like i was always a comedy guy i want to do comedy and you know broadway and like voiceovers for cartoons and that's why i was doing a lot of that before i took on terror TerraFi.
I was doing a lot of voiceover work for children's shows. Dude, it's kind of funny what doors open and what leads you.
This business is very strange. And I do think it's like, I wish that in college, someone had taught me more about like, you know that like, it's not just be a movie star.
Yeah. Is necessarily make it in show business.
You know what I mean? Like you never know where the fuck it is. This thing's going to take you.
No, you just got to. I learned a long time ago.
You just got to go with the flow. Wherever it leads you, just go with it.
And I'm glad I did that because I wouldn't be here. I would still probably be waiting tables in New York City right now, struggling to get by.
Yeah. Think about the things you didn't get that you were angry about, right? Like, or upset or sad about.
Now you're really, you know, you're doing something else. I was up for five or six different Broadway tours right before I got Terrifier, and they all fell through for me.
And I was very frustrated. I was in, like, final, final callbacks for, like, Susan Stroman and Roger Rees and all these people.
And I was like, oh, my God, I'm so close to getting something. And so I won't.
Why won't something stick? And there's a reason for that, because if I had gotten any of those, I wouldn't have been able to do Terrifier. And who knows? Weird.
You are one of the all time horror icons now. Yeah, it's in there now.
Three really solidified crazy. Isn't that ridiculous? It's weird.
It is. I mean, I was just walking down the street here in Burbank the other night just getting dinner.
I had my glasses on, everything. I was a little bit disheveled because I had just gotten off the airplane.
And this one woman just recognized me right there on the street and ran up to me and was like, oh, my God, I have to say something to you. And I'm like, I'm amazed you know who I am.
Yeah. And so eventually you're going to get a lot of like, kill me.
Not coming. Kill me.
Pretend to kill. Pretend to choke me.
Pretend to choke me. And Burbank is a horror town.
Oh, it is. Very much so.
Yeah. Well, so Kenny, is there any, like, what's your favorite horror movie? I really love just Wes Craven in general.
I'm a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan. Also a big Scream fan.
I love slashers. That's always been my favorite genre of horror movies, the slashers.
I think they're just fun. So for tonight, for Halloween, what are you doing? What's your plan? Oh, actually, I don't have any plans because I'm going out of town.
You're traveling? I am traveling on Halloween. I'm so disappointed.
That's a true spooky professional. Yeah, that's a true spooky professional.
It's called a work day. Yeah, it's a work day.
It's the busy season. We call it over here.
Yeah, it's crazy because everybody's like, what are you dressing up as? I'm like, I'm going as myself because I dress up all year long as other characters. I'm going as myself.
You'll have other years where you'll celebrate. Yeah.

Yeah, and then you'll celebrate.

Eventually, you're going to be the point when you're doing Terrifier 15, just being like,

when you're in a full scuba suit

and on the water set, you're just going to be like,

this is the last one.

All right, I'm not.

You're like screaming over a tender green salad

and being like, I'm not doing this again.

You know, like, just cut to that. Just know.
Send up my stunt double. What the hell do I got to do? Goddamn Sydney.
You tell Sydney Sweeney I'm busy. All right? My dick is empty.
Thank you. I can't.
I must work. Thank you so much.
No, it's disgusting. You didn't say it.
I said it. Thank you so much.
David Howard Thornton. This was lovely, man.
Is there anything else you want people to go look for? Well, my other film, Stream, just came out on streaming platforms. It was in theaters a few months ago.
It's called Stream? Stream. Stream.
It's now Streaming. Do you know which one? Just anything? Prime? I know it's at least on Amazon Prime right off the top of my head.
Nice. Nice.
And go see Screamboat when that comes out. I'm so excited for that.
And more importantly, go see Terrifier 3. Oh! Take your family.
And then watch it again over Christmas. Sneak in your kids.
I actually think that this is the one to really sneak in the kids to, but no infants. Someone brought an infant.
Someone brought an infant in Terrifier 3. Why? And they were just like, I guess it's because they can't.
They know that the baby won't. They can't afford a babysitter and they have to see you kill people.

They have to see you kill people.

So isn't that great?

That's got the sticky audience.

We did a screening this past weekend up in Detroit to a huge giant Emax theater.

And there were children in the audience that I even called them out.

I'm like, oh, wait, how old are you?

And they're like, I'm six.

And I'm like, where's your parents? And the mom's over there like, hi. I'm like, okay, your parents are here.
It's fine. Terrifier 3, Terrifier's hard to take.
Yeah, but hey. I leave it up to the parents to decide because certain kids can handle things.
I mean, I look at like Chrissy Fox, who's in Part 3 her daughter, Elle, who I would go to war for. She's five years old and she loves horror films.
She loves horror films. That's how I was.
Yeah. And look at me.
She's great. She's totally fine.
She's the cutest little thing. She travels like we were on an airplane together.
I pass her going to the restroom and Elle just looks up and he goes, I'm watching Abigail.

And she's holding an art and found all in her hand.

That's amazing.

It's the cutest thing.

Yeah,

that's perfect.

Yeah.

Dude.

Thank you so much,

man.

Happy Halloween.

Congratulations,

buddy.

This is fucking amazing.

You,

you're really taking the world by storm.

It's so cool to talk.

It's a wild ride. I'm just very grateful for it.
I will definitely have you back for four. Oh, definitely.
Definitely. We're definitely coming back for four, too.
Hell yeah, man. All right.
Well, hail Satan and happy Halloween. Hail art.
The clown and the genre. The genre of stuff.
All of that.

All of that.

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