Terrifier 3 kill inspired by American Psycho was ‘too graphic’ to release

Although Terrifier 3 takes the gore to another level, a kill inspired by American Psycho had to be altered because it was too graphic – even for Art the Clown. 

That’s quite the feat, given Terrifier’s track record. The 2022 sequel had Art ruthlessly tearing a teen’s skin off, ripping her limbs apart, and throwing bleach and salt on her wounds. 

Art doesn’t discriminate when it comes to his victims, either. He’ll use any weapon he can get his hands on (preferably the one that’ll cause the most pain), and in Terrifier 3’s opening scene alone he kills kids.

Before we go any further, be warned: spoilers ahead for Terrifier 3!

While there are plenty of incredible kills in the threequel – the big showpiece being the shower scene – a personal fave arrives near the end, and it’s probably the cruelest of the bunch. 

After tying Sienna’s aunt Jess to a chair, Art gets a giant plastic tube, hammers it into her mouth, and pours live rats down there. Once they’ve chomped through enough of her insides, Vicky slits Jess’s throat, causing the rats (that are still alive) to flop out of her neck. 

Now, this may sound familiar to anyone who’s read Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho – which was turned into a movie of the same name starring Christian Bale. And that’s because the worst chapter of the book details a similarly sick sequence (more on this in a bit). 

Dexerto spoke with Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone, who revealed that the scene was, in fact, inspired by the book passage. 

“That’s where it came from,” he told us. “Me and my buddy were beyond obsessed with that movie when it first came out on pay-per-view, before it even became popular.”

Leone went on to say that his friend was so obsessed with it that he went and read the American Psycho book. “And he relayed all those little excerpts to me. He’s like, ‘Dude, let me tell you, that book is nothing like the movie… the book is absolutely insane… you don’t know how graphic it is.’

“He told me that scene, and it blew my mind, and it’s been stuck in my head forever.” Even though it inspired the Terrifier 3 kill, Leone had to make some adjustments. 

“It’s a very sexual, explicit, gratuitous scene in the book that I would never do in the movie, but I just thought the idea of what he does is so disturbing with the rats in the tube that I could do it in a less provocative way. A less sexual way.

“We intended for that scene to be way more graphic in the movie, but it became more subtle… well, I guess, a little subtler. Quicker cuts. We don’t linger on it too much. Compared to other scenes in this film, it’s a lot less is more – just the idea of what’s happening is disturbing.”

So, with all that being said, perhaps you’re interested in finding out about the American Psycho passage in question.  

We’ve included a section of it below, omitting the lead-up as it really is that grim. Even so, be warned: many will find this content disturbing.

For context, at this stage in the story, killer Patrick Bateman has a woman tied to the floor – her hands are shot full of nails and she’s had Brie cheese spread between her legs. 

Bateman’s already drilled through her teeth, and tortured her in various ways, after which he uses acid to force a tube inside her. Here’s what happens next: 

“The rat hurls itself against the glass cage as I move it from the kitchen into the living room. It refused to eat what was left of the other rat I had bought it to play with last week, that now lies dead, rotting in a corner of the cage. (For the last five days I’ve purposefully starved it.) 

“I set the glass cage down next to the girl and maybe because of the scent of the cheese the rat seems to go insane, first running in circles, mewling, then trying to heave its body, weak with hunger, over the side of the cage.”

Much like the sequence in Terrifier 3, the rat disappears inside the tube to feast on the insides of the victim – only it ends up someplace far worse than the throat. The passage of the book finishes, “The noises the girl is making are, for the most part, incomprehensible.”

Terrifier 3 is in cinemas now. You can also find out why Leone will never reveal Art’s full backstory, how old you’ll need to be to watch Terrifier 3, and how to watch the Terrifier movies in order.