Terrifier, the indie horror film that managed to make 10x its budget while Joker: Folie à Deux flails in the water, is getting a videogame
My hopes are not high.
Terrifier is a horror series that centres around a demonic serial killer clown called Art, who is still causing havoc in Miles County after three films and counting. The third film (which is currently in theatres) was actually a real success as it made 10x its budget with $18 million in its debut weekend. In comparison, while Joker: Folie à Deux did manage to make $37.8 million in its opening weekend, it still hasn't been able to break even. But before we can even think about what a fourth movie may bring to the table, Art is venturing into videogames.
Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is a retro-inspired pixel art sidescroller that takes place in Art the Clown's world from the Terrifier films (via IGN). There's four-player local co-op game with six game modes to choose from. Or if you want to wreak havoc by yourself, you can play as Art in a singleplayer campaign.
"[Art] disrupts movie sets where films about his own gruesome acts are being shot," the developer Relevo says. "Instead of letting the cameras capture the staged terror, Art brings his own brand of real chaos, tearing through hordes of policemen, firewomen, camera operators, stunt performers, makeup artists, and even unsuspecting civilians."
As you work your way through each stage, killing anything that falls in your way, you'll eventually come up against some boss battles, which will apparently "test your skills," according to the Steam page, but I'll believe that when I see it.
The teaser trailer for Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is so over the top that it's actually pretty funny (which is kind of the twisted point of the films). The trailer starts off with a couple walking through a dark alleyway, only for their conversation to be interrupted by Art slicing the woman's head clean off and then giving a slightly wonky version of his signature toothy smile.
After that shaky start, we get to see a small snippet of what the game will actually look like. While the music accompanying the action sounds great, the actual mechanics don't look too interesting—it's just your standard side-scrolling brawler with Sega Genisis-era graphics. But hopefully I'll be proved wrong once Terrifier: The Artcade Game releases sometime in 2025.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.