The Original ‘Terrifier’: Actress Marie Maser Reflects on Being Art the Clown’s Very First Victim

Move over Freddy, Jason, and Chucky, the new titan of terror is “Art the Clown.” Created by director Damien Leone, and first played by Mike Giannelli before David Howard Thornton took over the character’s maniacal mantle, Art the Clown is a grotesque agent of chaos. In his Terrifier films, horror fans have come to expect the demonic villain to dismember and decapitate victims, humiliate women, and embrace all sorts of depraved antics.

Art the Clown’s popularity hit new heights this month when the independently-produced Terrifier 3 debuted in the number one slot at the box office, destroying the heavily-hyped, $200 million production Joker: Folie á Deux in the process. As Art’s violent visage takes over pop culture, many fans might not be aware that his reign of terror started well over a decade ago. Art first appeared in a small role in Leone’s 2008 short film, The 9th Circle, before taking center stage in the original 2011 Terrifier short.

This short would go on to be included, along with The 9th Circle, in a 2013 compilation film called All Hallows Eve. The twenty-minute-long Terrifier short follows an unnamed woman (Marie Maser) as a late night Halloween road trip turns nightmarish. She first discovers that this strange, mute clown creature has violently murdered a gas station attendant. However, even as she drives away from this macabre murder scene, she’s doomed. Art toys with her over the course of the night, suffocating her with plastic, emerging from the ground to terrorize her in a shed, and shooting her would-be savior.

The final shot of Terrifier reveals that Art has not killed this poor woman, but in an even more disturbing twist, dismembered and disfigured her with misogynistic words carved into her torso. Terrifier fans wouldn’t see this victim, Marie Maser, again until she popped up in a cheeky cameo as a receptionist in this month’s Terrifier 3. Me, on the other hand? I’ve seen Marie at least once a week for the past three years since we’re friends and neighbors who frequent the same Upper West Side haunt!

In all the time that I’ve known Marie, I never knew she had this incredible claim to horror movie fame. She’s not a final girl in the Terrifier franchise. Rather, she’s Art the Clown’s first girl. What is that like? What was the experience of filming a low budget short only to see it launch an international phenomenon? How come we had talked so many times and she never once dropped, “Oh, actually, I know Art the Clown”?!?!

With these burning questions in hand, I did what any curious friend/professional entertainment journalist would do. I interviewed my friend about her experience being the first woman we watch being terrorized by Art the Clown onscreen and what it’s been like welcoming Terrifier back into her life…

DECIDER: So I guess my first question is, as I’ve mentioned, I didn’t know this about you and I’ve known you for a while. Is there a reason why you don’t, like, lead with this? Because if I were you, I’d want everyone to know my association with Art the Clown and the Terrifier franchise. It’s so cool!

MARIE MASER: Well, I didn’t really know that people had even gone back to see the original movie or where it all started. I did notice that Terrifier 2 took off and then Terrifier 3, obviously, is huge. I just didn’t put two and two together that people would even really care about the original short film. Especially because we filmed in 2011. Yeah. You know, that’s that’s a really long time ago. 

I watched the short recently and the one with the commentary on Tubi —

So I just found out last week that that exists. Damien says the nicest things about me and he remembers so much stuff about filming that I kind of thought only I had remembered. And it was so amazing to watch it so far after we’ve done this and hear all these things that he had said. And to see that it was up on Tubi? I was like, “What? How did I not know that I have an entire movie on Tubi?” [Laughs]

So you’re not getting residuals, I take it? 

No, no. When we did the original short film, it was bare bones. It was all hands on deck. I did my own makeup and someone kind of teased my hair when I was supposed to look beaten up. I don’t think anyone really expected it to become such a big thing. Back then, it was the first project I’d ever done as an actress, so I just wanted to get exposure, I wanted to get something for a reel. I was so excited.

Well, take me through that. I know that Damien, in talking about casting you, said that you auditioned for something else and he had you in the back of his head. Do you remember what you originally auditioned for him? 

Yes. I don’t know what it was going to be called, but it was a feature length film and it had another actress who was going to be the star. I was just going to be a really small role. I don’t even know if I was going to die in that movie. I think I was auditioning for the mom of one of the child characters. It was just like a really small kind of part like that. And, yeah, I remember the audition. I don’t remember, you know, the lines or anything like that. I remember being so excited when he had called and said that I got the part and I just kept waiting for them to say what my scenes were going to shoot. I didn’t want to pester him, but I was excited to see, like, when am I going to be on set? Because they had filmed, I think, a lot of the movie. Then, you know, something happened. They never finished, but he was like, “You know, now I want to make this short.” I just really couldn’t believe it. There was no second audition. It was just here’s the script and then here’s we’re going.

Yeah, I was terrified because I had never done another project. Then all of a sudden to get told, “You’re going to be the lead in this short film and it’s you and this clown.” I got the script and I was like, “What if I’m in over my head?” So I was really scared going on set. But honestly, Damien, he has a way of guiding you and giving you corrections so it doesn’t feel like it’s a correction. It feels like support. I don’t remember ever feeling like, “I’m not doing good. I’m not doing good.” Even in the moments where I knew he wanted something else, it just kind of felt like we were having a convo.

Your character does not seem to have a name listed in the credits. Do you know why that is? 

I think, honestly, it was just logistical because obviously Art the Clown doesn’t speak. The only other people I have an interaction with — who doesn’t, you know, have their face mauled off — are the guy who picks me up when I’m running from Art the Clown and the gas station attendant in the beginning. Obviously, they wouldn’t know my name. I wouldn’t tell them my name. There was just nobody who would get to say my name.

I think they credited me in the original movie as “Woman.” Later on, I think they started calling me “Costume Designer” because I do mention that that’s what I was doing and that’s why I’m out in the middle of nowhere driving. 

I know that Damien talks about in the commentary how the ending changed at little bit. What do you remember about shooting that ending?

I do remember shooting it twice and I think that was when he said, “It’s just not working.” We had a lot of trouble, too. It was just kind of like trial and error, how to get it to look seamless. Because obviously my skin tone and the mold of my body was just not looking [matched]. I remember him using a toothbrush with the fake blood and he would flick it, kind of almost like an airbrush, onto me. It didn’t look like really big blood splats, but it helped to blend everything. I remember I had two sticks under and I was doing my arms, and then there was somebody under the table with me doing my legs. He does mention — and I totally forgotten about that, but, yeah — the sound guy had the tube and was making my stomach go up and down.

It was almost like a tunnel under the place that we shot. Seaview Hospital, had all these underground tunnels. It was a very creepy place to shoot and it was very small. It was very dark. I had dirt everywhere, dust. It was just so many people confined at this table and once I got my neck glued, I was kind of stuck there. So that was interesting. I was like, “Alright, well, I hope this doesn’t last hours.”

The short was made over ten years ago. The whole industry has changed in terms of intimacy coordination to make people feel safe when there’s nude scenes or what have you. Did you feel safe? Do you feel okay with what you were being asked to do in the role? 

Yeah. I mean, honestly, it’s so funny because my parents would probably yell at me for the decisions that I made. You know, here’s this independent director. He doesn’t have any credits. For all I know, he is not reputable. You know, we’re all just starting out. And he says, “Hey, I cast you in this movie. Come to my house. I’m going to cast your nude body. Very nice to meet you.”

Yeah, it was my body. They did a cast and it’s plaster and then they’re filling it and I’m covered in this goo and I’m in Staten Island, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I think actually he might have had his girlfriend at the time there just so that there was somebody else there. He was very good about being like, “Are you okay?” 

Even when we did the the plastic bag scene, we had rehearsed that a lot and had game plans, me and Mike, who played Art the Clown. Just kind of really working it, how to make it look real, but not hurt me. They did mention there was one time during the filming that I got really upset. The plan was when I needed to breathe, when I felt uncomfortable, I would put my finger into my mouth because then I could break the plastic bag. I don’t know what was happening, but I just couldn’t get my hand to get into the bag and I started panicking. But then they stopped for a while because I got upset. I remember I was sitting in the back and they’re like [in a soothing voice],“Can I get you something to drink? What do you need to make yourself feel better?” Yeah. So I felt really safe. 

I’m so happy to hear that. 

Everybody on set was just so nice. I think because they saw this is really creepy, this is something new. Everyone had this level of excitement of just like, “Wow, look, we’re a part of something really awesome.”

I want to talk about Mike Giannelli, the original Art The Clown. What was it like working with him? What do you think he brought to the role and how would you compare him and the new Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton?

Really different. Very different. David brings kind of a more like cheeky, comedic style to it. Mike was very menacing. The first day that I went on set, he actually had already been all done up and that was the first time that I saw what Art the Clown was going to look like. Obviously in rehearsals we’re just trying everything out, we’re working through stuff, and he was just, you know, Mike. So I come on set and he’s completely done up. I was actually really scared of him, legitimately scared.

Then by the end of filming, we were sitting outside Seaview Hospital. They did have areas that were still open, so people would drive by or people would be walking to the bus stop. We’re outside and he’s like drinking something through a straw. I’m already bloodied and beaten up and people would look at us and I’d be like, “Why are they staring?” [Giggles] Oh, yeah, that’s because I look like I’m dying and he’s a clown. By the end of filming, it was just kind of like, “Eh, it’s Mike, but he’s got paint on.”

What a memory! What was your favorite sequence to shoot?

I really liked the car scene where I get picked up. It was great. We were a little bit into filming at that point. I felt a little bit more comfortable. And I think I like it because it was the one that Damien really, really kept having to say to me, “I need you to do something more. Like, this isn’t working. You need to do something more.” I think I got in my head and I actually did get legitimately upset and I was really crying. It’s actually kind of the most that I speak in the film, so to have those lines and to kind of push through them and really be dramatic was very fun. Yeah, that was probably my my favorite one and I loved that it ended up in the trailer. 

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A post shared by Marie Maser (@marie_maser)

You’ve told me that the fan reaction has surprised you. At what point did you get the call that Damien wanted you to have a cameo in Terrifier 3?

I mean, we’ve kept in touch through the years and it was actually through Instagram DM. I think I might have reached out and said, “Congratulations, I’m so excited that this is really taking off. I’m so happy for you.” I’m not sure if Terrifier 2 had just come out. They were doing a lot of conventions in order to raise money. People would sign autographs and take photos. Damien had originally mentioned, “Sometimes people ask for you. You should join us on one of these.” I was like, “That would be the coolest thing ever.” And then Terrifier 2 took off in the way that it did. He then said, “You know what would be really cool? If you do a cameo for the fans.” So they could be like, “Wait, was that the girl from the first one?” I remember thinking to myself, “Nobody is going to recognize me from the first one.” Even up until seeing the movie a couple weeks ago, I still didn’t think anyone was going to notice. Then I started seeing my social media blow up and it was, “Oh my God, wait! That was you! You were the receptionist.” That’s when I found out about the Art the Clown Appreciation Society, it’s huge. That’s how I found out about the movie on Tubi with the director commentary. Yeah. It’s been really fun. Really, really fun. 

Going back to your character, she is not killed by Art the Clown. Damien made it clear he wanted the worst thing you could do to a woman without killing her to befall her. Where do you think she is now, ten years later? 

[Gasps] 

[Laughs] Have you thought about this?

I mean, you… I would hope… When you wake up and Art the Clown is sitting there and you have no arms and legs, I would hope that she would just die quickly. I don’t think there’s any way that my bloody torso could crawl out from under his grasp.

Well, Art the Clown is somebody who kills people slowly and he takes pleasure in the torture and all that. So he probably wouldn’t let me die quickly. But I guess, you know, fingers crossed that she did. 

This interview has been formatted for length and clarity.