The director Damien Leone said he spent 10 years working as a flower delivery driver while writing the “Terrifier” movies. Now, the ultra-gory franchise has made over $100 million worldwide.
The supernatural slasher movies revolve around Art (David Howard Thornton), a silent and brutal serial killer. To some horror fans, Art the Clown is now as iconic as the likes of Ghostface, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger.
The 2018 movie “Terrifier” made $420,000, and 2022’s “Terrifier 2” earned $15 million as the hype around the character grew. Then, in 2024, “Terrifier 3” upped the gore — and the returns. The third installment grossed $90 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.
Collectively, Leone’s twisted creation has now made $106 million.
Leone told Tuesday’s episode of “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” that many aspiring filmmakers ask him about his path to success in the industry.
“My favorite thing to tell them is, ‘Dude, I was writing the script to ‘Terrifier 2’ in a flower van,” he said.
“That was my primary job for 10 years, because I knew I didn’t want to dive into a career that would lock me up or keep me away from filmmaking,” he added.
The director said that the role was flexible enough that he could focus on freelancing within the film industry, while writing “Terrifier 2.”
He added: “I knew I needed a nine-to-five job that I could break away from any time I would get a freelance gig doing makeup effects on a movie or if I was going to go make my own movie, but I would always go back to the flower van.
“I literally wrote the entire movie of ‘Terrifier 2’ when I was delivering flowers. Almost all the ideas came to me while I was driving that van.”
Leone is working on finishing the series with “Terrifier 4,” which will dive further into the mythology surrounding the franchise’s heroine Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and Art the Clown.
He said: “I’m going to wrap it all up in the next installment.”
