Down, Down, to Clown Town

 Hello lovelies~

So tonight I finally sat myself down and watched Terrifier 2, after being too chicken to see it for myself on account of not even being able to sit through the first movie. And honestly? I don't know if this is a common take on the film, but I find it kind of unironically inspiring, albeit for completely personal and subjective reasons.

For those who've been following my posts these past couple months, it's no secret that - frankly - ya girl's been through some traumatic shit this year. I was trapped in an abusive online relationship. I was forced to come out to my transphobic mother when my car broke down. My beloved grandmother died. I've been financially destitute all year long and it's been pecking relentlessly at my mental health. I've dealt with the garden variety bullying and harassment that for some reason always comes packaged with being a transgender person. And so on. 2023 has been an absolute shitshow from the word "go", and I wonder sometimes how I'm even still standing.

Enter Terrifier 2, and its lead protagonist Sienna, who endures a nightmarish amount of trauma within the span of a single day, all at the gloved hands of our leading baddie, Art the Clown. The lengths this man goes to in order to butcher and traumatize Sienna and her friends exceeds even the most vicious and violent horror movie monsters; seriously, this man would give even Freddy Krueger nightmares, and Sienna is one of the only few left standing to endure the horrors that he's bringing with him on Halloween night. She loses her friends, her mother, and very nearly her brother, all for absolutely no rhyme or reason. Art literally just woke up that morning, chose violence, and made it everyone else's problem. And by the end of it all, it's up to Sienna to power through it in order to bring him down.

And you know what? She does! Even after hitting her lowest point, being literally stabbed in the gut and drowning, Sienna wins the day in the end and even gets to decapitate Art before he can kill her little brother, the only person in the world that she has left now thanks to this clown. The odds were stacked so high against her that they were quite literally impossible, yet she still won. SHE STILL WON. Even despite not seeing that strength in herself in the beginning, Sienna manages to prevail over the monster and save the day, even if only by the skin of her teeth and the power of her raw determination.

Art, in contrast, is a figure I was able to project all my personal trauma onto; without a backstory or motivation beyond just doing whatever twisted shenanigans he feels like doing at a given moment, he really is more or less just the world's most abhorrently violent blank slate, which is a big part of his charm and appeal - in addition to making him scarier. Unless you happen to get lucky, there's really no stopping Art from getting what he wants. He's a foe that seems so much bigger than the people he's pursuing, since they're so woefully unprepared for that confrontation. And why would they be? There's literally no way to see him coming, since it's never ever personal with Art. He's not something you can prepare for, and because of that, dealing with him becomes a matter of quick thinking, the will to live, and even sheer dumb luck, not unlike the traumas we've all had to deal with in our own real lives.

Seeing this story play out on screen made me think of my own struggles and battles this year, and how much I've had to endure even when it felt like I couldn't. It's made me reflect on how much healing I'm yet to do, and to be honest it's still gonna be a while before I'm fully recovered, if I ever will be. And unlike Sienna, I don't have the benefit of a magic sword that'll resurrect me in my darkest hour. But I've still made it this far, in spite of literally everything that's been thrown at me, and Sienna's courage in the face of Art's relentless malice is something I found to be so motivational. She's easily my new favorite final girl of all time, and I cannot wait to see how her story progresses in Terrifier 3.

I don't know if any of this was intentional on the part of the filmmakers, but against all the odds, Terrifier 2 has motivated me to keep pressing onward despite how hard this year has been. And for as unapologetically gory and mean-spirited as the series is, I'm legitimately glad that I summoned up the courage to watch it. If you'll excuse me, though, I'm off to ease my mind with kitten therapy videos before bed; consider it aftercare. Goodnight, everybody!