Terrifier director Damien Leone names the scariest movie ever made

If Terrifier 3 hadn’t already given you a fright this Halloween, director Damien Leone has shared what he believes to be the scariest horror movie ever made – and it’s an absolute classic. 

Leone has established himself as one of the most exciting horror directors on the circuit, not least thanks to his creation of the icon we didn’t know we needed: Art the Clown. 

From Vicky’s glass shard moment to the American Psycho-inspired sequence, his imagination runs riot in Terrifier 3, which has broken box office records with its unique brand of brutality.

Dexerto caught up with Leone ahead of the threequel’s release, where we took the opportunity to ask him what he believes to be the scariest horror movie in existence. His answer? William Friedkin’s 1973 classic, The Exorcist. 

Warner Bros.

“I still believe it’s The Exorcist, I really do,” he told us. “It’s just a masterpiece.”

Leone went on to pinpoint the film’s flashing image of the white-faced demon, and how it links to his Terrifier movies. 

“People ask, ‘Why are clowns scary?’ I say, ‘I don’t know if clowns in general are that scary, but I think a clown with a white face is way scarier than a clown that doesn’t have a white face.’ 

“And I always draw comparisons to Linda Blair in The Exorcist, or the demon that flashes in The Exorcist. It’s just a white subliminal face that you see for a split second. And it’s so terrifying. 

“I think it’s just because a white face is synonymous with death, and we just know that that thing should not be looking at me and smiling the way it is, or coming after me with a knife in its hand.”

Leone finished by saying, “I could go on and on about why The Exorcist is just so chilling.”

The filmmaker isn’t the first to make this statement. Numerous studies and polls have seen The Exorcist hailed as the scariest film ever made, which is quite the achievement given it’s more than 50 years old. 

It continues to terrify audiences decades later by tapping into deep-seated fears about religious faith and the unknown, the secret sauce that makes possession movies so damn petrifying. 

Although the tones are at different ends of the scale, Terrifier 3 does also feature a lot of religious imagery. 

“I decided to just really go all in with this battle of good versus evil,” Leone added. “There’s a lot of Biblical symbolism and imagery in these movies now, especially in part three.”

It’s for this reason Dexerto’s own Cameron Frew makes the excellent case that Terrifier 3 is secretly the best Christian movie of 2024.

If you’re after more treats this Halloween, be sure to take a look at our Terror-Tober schedule for what’s coming up. We’ve also put together a list of the best horror anime and the scariest horror movie villains (which, of course, includes Art).