Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton
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That's when the cannibalism started. What's that?

Eddie, I'm scared today. Why are you scared? Because I'm afraid that we won't live up to the potential of the moment. I know. You know? I agree with that. Like, you remember when Tiger Woods, he got in that car accident? Well, it was late. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I think he was inebriated.

But I don't know for sure. He was focusing on his recoup. Yes. Which is what distracted him from driving. That's what I'm afraid of. You were driving like a maniac this morning. I'm in a cutting phase. So I'm actually, the problem is the creatine makes me aggressive.

But today we have something extremely special for you. Happy Halloween! It's a very special, unique, we've never done this before, it's just a one-off interview with an actor that fascinates. Someone that brings something extra to the table, as it were. And we're excited to have this person. We recently, we're not being paid. No. To push this. Oh, he's gone. Yeah, we lost him. Oh, well.

Oh, we can still hear him. All right, well, that's fine. We'll keep going. That's fine. Oh, man. I love just how it's spooky even talking to you over Zoom. We can't even really, just to even bring the audience in, we had a little bit of a technical kerfuffle, but it's still frightening.

Because we're watching, it seems like, I don't know why, I don't know what it is about your energy that the tubes are afraid of. But we have one of our new horror icons. Yes. We're very excited to have the actor who portrays Art the Clown, nay, is Art the Clown.

David Howard Thornton, thank you for being here. Oh, thank you. I'm glad I'm actually able to be seen now. Yeah, we could see you. You look good. We've been talking and singing the praises about the Terrifier films for the last couple of days. It's like I feel like the entire country is sort of surprised at how much they've allowed themselves to like the films. It's a bit crazy.

Yeah, because when you look at it, you're like, this is for nobody, right? If I showed this to my mother, she would puke and die. Well, hey, that's what it's for. How did it all begin? Those of you that don't know, the Arthur Clown character, it did start in All Hallows' Eve. Correct. So that was an anthology film. But he was way more, it was kind of more like a sketch almost in a way.

Yeah, that was, that's what that was. Those were basically almost like proof of concept movies at the time. Because, you know, Damien was just doing that. Just, you know, having fun with his friends, making movies. And they were picked up. And that wasn't you. That's not you. That's some other guy. No, that was Mike Gianelli. Yeah. Now, is he angry? Yeah.

Not that I know of. I mean, we met last year, finally got to do some comments together and everything like that. So he seems to be happy. He's a dad now. So he's got two little ones. So he's he's got his hands full. So I think he's, you know, well distracted. That's actually do you think him being Art the Clown was actually making him infertile?

Oh, no. I hope that's not the case with me. Now, I so did you audition to be in Terrifier?

I did. Yes. Yes. They, they put a notice up on actors access when I was living in New York and I just went in and did that. My, my agent even fought me on it. She, she saw no value in it because she was like, Oh, it's an independent low budget horror film. It'll never get you anywhere. And I was like, well, I wanted experience doing a work in a, on film. Cause I had always just done stage work and voiceover work. And I, I kept on at, you know, just,

bugging her and bugging her and bugging her to submit me and then i'm no longer with that agent yeah man see they're always wrong they're always every story is like this they're like they always said the simpsons would never work you know like they never did all that shit so when you before you because it's like it says here that you were also in a you were in the grinch musical

I was, yes. I understudied the Grinch, who was Stephen Carle. He was Robbie Rotten from LazyTown. And I also played Grandpa Who.

Oh, wow. It was that with the full face. Was that also like, have you always been doing prosthetics? Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I was like a teenager doing children's theater, I was doing prosthetic work and like crazy makeup and stuff like that. So I'm pretty used to it. They actually asked me that when I was auditioning for Terrifier, if I was used to prosthetics or a lot of makeup. I'm like, oh, yeah. Are you trained as a clown?

No, no, I didn't even go to school for acting. I just my my classroom was always the stage and just watching like better actors and just learning from them and adapting. Amen. Now, so you get into the Terrifier films like I personally, I feel like some people call them. The first one is probably the closest to a straight up torture porn movie.

versus any of the rest of them. Now, when you are preparing for something like this, like in terms of the amount of like what the grisly stuff that you have to do, like I know that like on a set, it's not that emotional because everybody's having a blast. Everybody's laughing and having a good time. So like what do you do to prepare to essentially do wanton violence?

Nothing. Yeah. I don't know what that says about me. I just go in there and just do my thing. I mean, they have given me some like instruction on set, you know, how to do certain things with certain weapons and stuff like that. So, you know, like on, on part three, I got on the set training on the proper way to actually swing an ax at a object, I guess you could say. Yes. Well, you, cause you could tell you really, and this is not, you progress and,

in the fleshing out of the character of Art the Clown so successfully through two and three. Which is like, I actually thought it was very interesting. You can kind of see you get more comfortable as you go. Like, is it because of Damien Leone or like on yourself? Do you feel like when you are that style of character? I played, I did a full thing on Adult Swim where I was fully body painted for many years. And on some level...

when you're in that amount of makeup, sometimes I feel that a director, as much as I love Dave Willis, he's like a friend of mine. You know what I mean? Like we're close. At what point I was like, am I a prop? Like, am I just, am I like literally, I'm just like,

a piece of costuming or is there a man in here? Like, do you fuck with it? Yes. I've had directors like that before, especially in my stage days. There's this one director who would micro-direct everything I would do on stage down to like, okay, I want you to turn your head at this angle on this line. I'm like, oh my God, is any of this mine? Or am I just a puppet here for you? But I mean, Dame is completely opposite. He's very actor-friendly director. He's willing to hear ideas and like,

I would say more he directs me more on like the killing in the horror aspects, everything when it comes to like more of the comedic bits. He'll give me some ideas sometimes, but most of the time he's just like, just go play. We'll see what we come up with.

like the the entire like um bar scene he basically let like howard brad striker and danny roebuck and i just play for like two or three days on set and that was that was just fun it was crazy because in terrifier 3 it's like each scene is a different genre of horror movie and like and that one was like a fun it was like a fun like kind of like campy scene but then the next scene is just

Yeah, it's great. That's the best part about the movie. And it really blew my mind, man. Now, one of the things I love about Art the Clown over, say, Jason Voorhees or something, is that no weapon...

is off limits to art. We love that he shoots people. Yeah, yeah. That's like one of our favorite bits is that he also, he uses a gun. He uses, the fact that, again, spoilers across the board. But that's in the first one. Yes, but in Terrifier 3, Terrifier 3, the bombing

It's like, when that happens, I think I was the only person in the theater that was like, awesome! I was like, yeah, yeah! Good work! You blew up the kids! Fuck them kids!

But is there any weapon that would be off limits for art? Or is that a... Would you know... If I asked you about the lore of art, is that even something that you have control over? No, I think everything's totally within bounds for him to use as a weapon. He likes to play. He likes toys. So it's like, yeah. I love that idea with the bomb, too. That was a brilliant...

idea that damien had and he actually you actually see me um the bomb being assembled during that one little bit there and you do yeah people don't see that and i'm like oh yeah there's a bomb sitting right there there was a good thing there's that little moment where it's like oh shit where's that bomb gonna go like that was like the first thought i have and i think that what you guys do good which is like it's a i know that technically it's like a film trick but i love

The little pieces in the beginning, the seeds, and then you're going to see each one of these pop off. Like each, the beginning is so good in a terrifier movie because it's setting the tone of this person's going to be dead. And that person's going to be dead. And that person's going to be dead. You love all this. You love all these people are all dead. And I, I'm, that's my favorite.

Oh, yeah. Damien's great at that. He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping little hints and everything there. I mean, he's been doing that from the get go with the first film. He's been dropping little seeds and stuff like that that people still are starting now to pick up on, which is that's why I get so irritated when people are like, oh, there's no plot to these movies. Like, oh, no, there most certainly is a plot. Oh, yeah. There very much is.

I think TikToker or something like that recently posted a video going over the plot of two and three, especially in all these things. I was like, wow, this guy totally gets it. He totally understands what we're doing. Even Damien commented on him and said, dude, you nailed it. My first thought when I saw two and three, it was like, that's Elm Street three and four.

Yep. And then we're careening into, you're going to go straight into the lore, like in four, Terrifier four, when it does, it probably will happen is that it's going to go deep into the lore. We're now going to go into art, the clowns full world, which excites me a great deal.

Oh, yeah, it sucks me, too. I mean, I know a few things that, you know, he's got planned for part four or part five or whatever he's doing, because he's still trying to, I think, decide if it's going to be four movies or five movies because he's got so many ideas. I think he's probably going to have five movies at least. It should be. Well, this is my question, though, is that do do you get afraid of yourself? Like it's hard as an actor.

I feel like as a person, you're like, I'll come back for nine of these. I can do Art the Clown forever. But do you ever feel like that you maybe yourself could end up jumping the shark with Art the Clown if you go too far? Is it a thing that if he's doing eight, nine, ten, and you're going to be like, maybe you could get, maybe it should be a lady. Maybe it should be like somebody, some other version of the clown. Well, there was a lady. Yes, who's great. She's got to come back.

Right. Who knows? I have no idea. He's keeping so many things close to his vest right now. So I'm just like, he, he likes to surprise us as well. So he, he doesn't tell us things until we read the script and we're like, Oh shit. Are you kidding me? So,

So I have no idea. But to answer the question, yeah, I totally get afraid of that. I'm totally afraid of going too campy with things. And because I, you know, I don't want him just to be just, you know, you know, how Freddie became later on after Wes Craven lost control of the character. We literally were talking about this right before you came on. Yeah, it's the touch. He is the touch. I've always loved again. Freddie Krueger is probably my favorite icon because he's because he's funny.

But it's, but you know that the movies aren't as good. It's like this double-edged sword where you know the movie is not as good. You know that the later Elm Streets are not as good, but I'm like, just put Robert Engel into my veins. It doesn't even really matter. Yeah. Yeah.

But that's definitely something we've been very conscientious of since the very first Terrifier film. We were always trying to walk that line of going too campy with the comedy in this. And we do film some scenes where I do a lot more comedic takes on it. And then we're like, OK, that's just too far. But like we have it there just in case, because you never know, you might find something from it you can use.

And, but yeah, that's, we got, I'm like, I look at like the, the torture scene in the first film where I've got Tara tied up to the chair. I did a whole bunch of takes with different weapons coming in. I was doing comedic routines with them. There was like this one thing that I had a club with a big, huge spike on it. And I did the whole like, you know, fake golfing bit from like Johnny Carson or something like that.

But he is a clown. He's supposed to. This is his act. There's an audience of one.

And it's Art the Clown. He's obviously having a very good time. Exactly. And that's the thing. We have to still acknowledge that he is a clown, so he is having fun. But we don't want to go too cartoonish campy with it all. We don't want to totally jump that kind of shark. We still need to keep it in that realm of believability and horror as well. Can I also ask, becoming now, getting this much attention as a scary person,

Like, do you think that you're like you're the people that follow you, your fans? Do you think that that quality is also changed? Because it's like I do find that there are people that like when you're in a dark, darker aspect of entertainment, that there are people sort of maybe connect with the wrong thing a little bit about what it is that you're doing. And you have to deal with like like scary people.

Yeah, there might be a few of those people out there and stuff like that, but it's few and far between. I found like horror fans in general are by the vast majority are just the coolest, sweetest, kindest people who ever meet. I mean,

It's actually, I think, some of the other people that kind of scare me more in real life. Yeah, like comedy fans? Yeah. Are there any clowns that you would, like, study to get mannerisms, or is this all just, like, you?

Oh, yeah, definitely. So, I mean, I grew up watching a lot of the great silent comedians and clowns. I mean, I was watching like, you know, Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and all even like Emmett Kelly Jr. and Emmett Kelly. And gosh, Mr. Bean was a huge influence on me as well. Marcel Marceau, Peter Sellers, you know, Don Knotts. I can just go on and on list all these Jim Carrey just.

Just on and on and on. Actually, Stephan, who I understudied for Grinch, he was professionally trained in clowning and mime work. So I took a lot of what I learned from Stephan and put it into art. You can actually watch videos of Robbie Rotten and compare them to Art the Clown, and you'll see probably a lot of similarities with the mannerisms. Gotcha.

Interesting. Now, is there any music that like you would listen to to kind of like get in the mood, you know, just like do you like play circus music or something before you get out there? No, not really. I mean, not for myself, but like I a lot of the times in the chair when Damien, especially in parts one and two, when Damien was doing my makeup, he was listening to a lot of yacht rock.

Yeah, that's what I think is so funny. People probably think Damien's like this hardcore badass listening to heavy metal all the time. No, man, he grooves to yacht rock. He loves yacht rock and 80s music. We will drive like when we're going to set something like two hour, three hour drive, sometimes upstate, we would just be sitting there listening to like yacht rock and 80s music the whole entire time, just grooving out. That's, that's just how we are. But like,

For myself, though, I will sometimes just for shits and giggles put on something. I sometimes would like to put on like the song, Denny Elfman's song from the first Batman movie with the Joker's like waltz to the death. Oh, yeah. That's just always that always just puts me that little wacky little mischievous thing.

evil clown type of mode. So sometimes I would just think that in my head, if I have to go a little bit, a little bit nuts, I guess you could say. Yeah. Do you feel like now that the movie got like Terrifier three probably got the biggest, like budget, the most legit budget, how is it going from, um,

Being driven by the director to set who would do the makeup and then you'd shoot obviously probably like five, the most shoestring crew possible to like an actual movie set. Is there anything you miss or is there anything what's better than

Oh, we still had a lot of the old school feel to it all because we weren't a full on like traditional movie set where we didn't have the honey wagons or anything like that. So it wasn't a big, huge leap, but it was, we did have, you know, a makeup team that came in this time. And so that was definitely a nice thing to have there because it allowed Damien more freedom too, because he wasn't having to stop my making and go on to set and do stuff and come back and do my makeup more. And so it's,

That was nicer in that way. But, you know, we're still not like what you traditionally see here in Hollywood on a set. So we were still had that that, you know, independent feel to a lot of things because they changed the makeup, too. Right. Didn't they do a thing because it used to be sort of despair, different separate pieces. And then they just made it a whole mask for you, essentially. No, it was always a one whole mask. But the original mask wasn't even molded to my face. It was Mike Gianelli's original mold.

Yes. And so it didn't fully fit my face. Damien always had a manipulated suit that would fit my face. But this time, Christian Tinsley, his team that did our makeup for this one on part three, they actually did a new sculpt and mold of my face. So it's a little bit more gaunt than the last one was because Damien wanted art to be more gaunt in this one. It looked good.

Oh, I love I love the look. And they also gave me a skull lenses for my eyes this time. So I my eyes were different. And like part two, I had my natural green eyes and part one, I had contacts for a little bit. And then like we had one night where I had a rip in my lenses. And so I couldn't wear them for that night. And we had to film. So we decided from that point on, I would just be wearing my my glasses.

regular eyes and if anybody knows what the hell you know yeah why you're not paying attention to the right thing yeah exactly and i i kind of just say in my head like the eye color changed after he got knocked out by the exterminator so it's like oh yeah the eye the contacts popped out and so now that's why sure yeah yeah definitely yeah but if this one you notice

You know, he's rebirthed. So now he's become more demonic in part three. So he has different eyes going forward. This is a question that we were talking about before. Is he a human in the first one? Yes. Okay. And when does he like when does it become supernatural? At the very end of part one where he's brought back from the dead. Yes. And then like so he was just a man. Yes. Yes.

And so the face underneath the makeup you would assume would have just been like Arthur Clown. So what's Arthur Clown? What was his day like? Yeah, what did he do during the day? What did he say? Did he have a job? What was that? Oh, you can't say yet? Can't say yet. Wow.

All right. I'm glad there is an answer. Yes. That's one of those things, too. God, that'll be great. Everyone will be very excited to see that jump in. Yeah. I will say this, that I know for one thing, for his origin, we don't want to make him a sympathetic character. No. Good. We don't want him to have one of those tragic backstories where he was abused and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

Basically, how I view him in my head is he came out of his mother's womb and strangled her with his own umbilical cord. He's just evil incarnate. He is just...

that's why hell latched onto this guy. He's like, this is our avatar on earth. We love this guy. Yeah. Yeah. We love this guy. Yeah. It's like, it's the same variant of he's from the seed of a thousand maniacs. Yeah, exactly. He was just born evil. And I, that's the thing is like, I do generally believe there are some people that are that way. They, they just came out of the womb and they are just fucked up in the head. I knew a kid like that when growing up where it

I, he was this kid that lived across the street from one of my best friends and I saw him flat out just take glee and killing, you know, squirrels. Yes. Right. He would like shoot them with his BB gun and watch them bleed out or he would just strangle them himself.

And I was like, this kid's just evil. My mom was like, do not play with that kid ever again. He's evil. So that's how I view art. He was just born that way. He just had that tendency from the very get go where he just loved to kill things that brought him joy. I also find that people that have the happiest existence play games.

unrepentant maniacs really well. And I can tell from the Lego on the shelf behind you that you seem like a very happy-go-lucky man. That comes from, you know, years of struggling. Yes, and pain. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's, you know...

I was bullied relentlessly growing up, but it's like I always how I escaped all that was finding the things that brought me joy and brought me happiness. And so it's like I am a child of heart in a lot of ways. I guess some people would say I am like I have a what is that? Arrested development. People have said that about me, too. And it's like, whatever, whatever you idiot.

wherever you fucking butt head fuck you you're a stupid face shut up shut up oh I'm a child well you're fucking you got big ass and stupid feet and I hate you so save that in your pocket if you ever need no

Oh, yeah. I think it's just all that bullying I went through. It's like, I think I've been able to channel a lot of that on set. I mean, there are even times on set where I'm just not fully giving them what they need for an attack or something like that. And they'll just go, hey, Dave, just pretend it's this certain person and go. And I'm like, yeah. Like, oh, shit, Dave, where'd that come from? Like repressed rage. Yeah.

Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray? Imagine this is Rachel Ray. Exactly. Earlier you were saying how sometimes you like to put on the song from the first Batman movie. Yes. Now, I've heard a rumor that you...

are gunning to play the Joker at some point. Is this true? I am. No pun intended. Totally gunning. James Gunning. Yes. I want that role so badly. I'm like, that's my dream role. That is a character I have wanted to play

I played him on a YouTube series like nine, 10 years ago. And that was a lot of fun. And I got a good taste of playing the character. And I really want to play him in more official capacity.

And because I love the character so much and I'm so freaking tired of seeing Hollywood bastardizing this character. I miss Cesar Romero. Yes. Yeah. Like over the top. Yes. Ridiculous Joker. Well, I think you can do that and be sadistic and evil and scary at the same time. And yeah.

And I, Mark Hamill revolutionized that angle of jokes. Exactly. Exactly. He, he,

That's why Mark is my favorite version of Joker because he truly understands that character. You can tell he did his research. Especially you look at the 80s, 90s version of Joker. That's when he got a lot darker. Actually, the very first version of Joker was very dark too. He was a homicidal maniac then too. It was because back in the mid-

1900s, that's when they were like, oh, we got to be a lot more, you know, wholesome and friendly. So they made it more campy then. But it's like, I want to return more to like that, that Alan Moore era of, um, of, you know, or like, you know, that, that, that, that kind of dark Joker, you know, killing joke. Have you ever thought about, let me pitch this to you. All right. You do a thing where your movie is, everybody's calling you the Joker.

But it's revealed that it's a musical in a courtroom. Listen, it's a musical in a courtroom and you've never been the Joker at all. And the only time that you ever even admitted not being Joker is after you've been group sexually assaulted by a bunch of jailers. So what do you think? Is that something you'd like be interested in? No.

Man, isn't it crazy that you, as Art the Clown, defeated the Joker this year? That's the only thing I want to remind you, dude. Technically, you won. Technically, you beat the Joker. That's insane when you think about it. And what's even crazier about it, it was Art the Clown versus Arthur the Clown. Yes. Wow, yeah, I didn't even think about it. Yeah, it was Arthur, too. Which was insane. But he was never a clown.

Well, kind of. He was a street clown. He was sorta. Yeah, I guess he does. Yeah, I guess in the end, if you call yourself one, then you are one. You know? So, how else does your life kind of change, or is it just like, I guess people say shit like this. I know that I'm certain that the money's just rolling in.

but it's not really rolling. It's starting to, it's going to trickle, which I I'm okay with because like, I spent like 13 years of my life basically struggling to make ends meet waiting tables in New York city. So it's like, and I hear you a village poor house over here. Where'd you, where'd you work?

Oh, God. So many different restaurants. I started off working at Bubba Gun Shrimp Company in Times Square. Oh, you poor bastard. No wonder you killed people. Jesus Christ. That place is awful. Oh, the stories I could tell you about that place. You could probably base Art the Clowns off of five people you could meet at that Bubba Gun. Oh, yeah. Just doing a shift there one night. As Art would be amazing. Oh, my God. It was horrible.

Can I also ask you, like, this is like one of those very kind of practical, setty things. What do you do? Like Kate Corcoran, a friend of ours, in her now very famous scene in Terrorfire, in terms of the horror films, she's hung upside down completely naked and you cut her from the fucking, you cut her through her cooter, through her snooter.

And she knows that that is in there. That's Lex. See, I call that the up of the crack of dawn scene. Yes. Yes, of course. Like when you're hanging out on set, like,

I did it. I've done a couple of movies with nudity, but it's like, what do you do between set? Like, is it one of those where like, obviously you're trying to get this wrapped, right? Right. Like it's because she is physically hanging upside down. She's a wonderful lady. Oh, she's, she's only, she's only doing it because she's so nice. Yes. And she's so down for it. But like, what's the mid, like how, like, do you feel like,

was that Damien's kind of role to comfort her, make sure things were moving along? Do you feel like in those functions, like, are you kind of like just trying to stay out of it and get it done as quickly as possible? Or like, are you joking around? Like, how do you handle that? That night? I was not joking around at all. Cause that was very dangerous. What we were doing with her too. And I, and it was freezing cold and there was like 20 degrees. So that was miserable for her. So I was more concerned about just trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible.

I'm like that all the time. I'm like, with especially any of the fight scenes, I'm always trying to check in with my co-stars, making sure they're okay and everything. I think they probably get annoyed with me because I'm always saying, oh my God, are you okay? I didn't hurt you or anything like that. But like, especially when it has to do with nudity or anything like that, I try to be as respectful as possible. I'm like, it's just... Because that's something that's... It's a very personal thing. It's very invasive to be exposed in such a manner. And I try to...

I was raised to be a gentleman in that way by my father, especially. And so I'm like, I try not even to look at what is going on. I'm just kind of like, okay, I'm going to like, look over here. Cause it just feels wrong. So the best part is that, you know, as a bashful, as a fellow bashful man, when you're in character, it's, it's better because then it's like, I'm Arthur clown.

I can sit here. I can like, I'm much scarier. Cause like, that's, what's interesting too. You think like, Oh, I don't want to look at these naked ladies. Everybody's staring at you. Yeah. You know, like they're looking at the evil clown.

I think you're not wanting to look is also terrifying. Yeah. Acting bashful is almost scary. I am really, I become like that, that, that vulture from Looney tunes. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's just how I was raised. I'm like, okay, someone's in a state. That's also how I was just doing community theater. You know, sometimes,

people would have to make a costume change right on the side of the stage because it's a quick turnaround. And you just had to like, okay, that's going on. I'm just, I'm going to be respectful and look down or something like that. Oh yeah. I'll always remember in junior high school when I had to choose between drama and hockey. And I was, I remember talking to the dudes in the hockey team being like, you know that there's naked women in,

over in drama yes like here i'm just surrounded by all these sets of balls sausage fest yeah yeah i was like i want to go there and they all thought i was crazy they thought i was homosexual but i said no yeah i was like no sirs i am more than i am more than just one i am all

Oh, man. So you were you're obviously this is Halloween. You're in your busy season. The movie just came out. Are you this is also a straight up Christmas movie.

You're going to have to promo this again. You're going to have to go through all of this again. And then it's going to be, but the thing is, you know, we were talking about, you know, you know, with the budget and all that or whatever, forever, people are going to be watching terror fire three over Christmas. I can't wait to be great. I once interviewed Macaulay Culkin. He says he gets a million dollars every year from home alone every Christmas. Oh God. I wish that would happen with me. That would be amazing. I'd say probably like 60,000, you know, like, Hey,

Hey, absolutely. You get more expensive each time. Do you have like a family?

I have a dad and a sister back home in Alabama. I know you come from humans, but I didn't know if you have kids. No, I haven't gotten lucky enough to find a lady to settle down with yet. It's just I've been too busy. Hey, you hear that? You hear that, ladies? Hey, come on. Come on down. Arthur Clown is single. He doesn't know yet how to make sweet love. Someone's going to have to teach him.

I definitely do want to get married and have kids. I'm actually at that phase of my life now where I definitely do want to settle down and do that. Because for years, I was working just so I could live comfortably so I could have a family. Because waiting tables in New York City, there was no way I was going to be able to support a family and kids. It's a nightmare. You just bring them to work. And you're getting ready for it because...

You're making a children's movie. You're playing Mickey Mouse. Exactly. Okay, I want to know. Oh, my.

Can I ask about, so now, for those of you who don't know, there was a little teaser trailer before Terrorfire 3 for the new, like, I guess it was as soon as Steamboat Willie, the copyright ran out. Because I got a shirt that says, fuck you, asshole, with Steamboat Willie on it immediately from our buddy's meth syndicate. But my question is, is that when you, like, so how did that all happen? How quickly did that go down? So the movie's called Screamboat.

And you're playing a horror version of Steamboat Willie. Yes. That's all I know.

And that's all you got to tell us. But I'm more just like, how the fuck, like when did all that kind of happen? This all started happening like last year. Cause the director from that is also my director from the mean one. And he went to a school with the, the fuzz on the lens guys from terror fire. So they kind of partnered up for this film because he's like, he, he knew this, this property was coming out in public domain in two,

And he's like, well, I want to snap it up before anybody else does because I have a great idea for this. And why not? So he approached me last year. He's like, hey, I have this script playing Willie. Will you do it? I'm like, oh, my God. Yes, of course. Because it's a full circle moment for me, too, because my first big, real leading role was back in eighth grade at my middle school. I played Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Christmas Carol. Oh.

And that was the show that made me decide that I wanted to do theater more. Cause I liked making people laugh and everything like that. So it's a full circle moments. I'm like, I have to do this. There's a, there's no way I'm not doing this. So I, that's what we did. And we're like, okay, let's start filming it. Let's do it. And yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun. I just did a ADR for it last week. So that was a, a lot of fun for me. A lot of whistling. I can't wait. I can't wait to see it. It'd be like,

anything that's saying anything that fucks with Mickey, I'm happy with. It is such a horror comedy is that we're really leaning into the campy horror, like comedy type of vibe for this. We're not trying to go full terrified, just trying to be dark and scary. We're like, Oh no, let's, we know what we are. We're having fun with it. And there's so many Disney jokes in there. It's just like, it's, it's a big, huge love letter to Disney and Disney fans. So I think the Disney fans will have so much fun with this movie. Yeah.

It also has one of my Terrifier co-stars in it, Kaylee Hyman. Oh, great. Oh, nice. She's in it, too. She's hysterical. I can't wait for this. You know, now that we're going to be wrapping up here, I just want to leave the audience with, are you like, so were you a horror movie guy really before all this?

I was a little bit. I was more of a comedy guy, though. I was late to horror. I didn't start watching horror until my senior year of high school because my mom was afraid of horror movies and stuff like that. So we just didn't watch them in my family. But I saw Scream 2 in theaters because I couldn't chicken out in front of this girl I had a crush on in a show.

And I went to go see it. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to go. And I had a blast. I'm like, I love horror, but I never thought I would be doing this though. I was like, I was always a comedy guy. I want to do comedy and, you know, Broadway and like voiceovers for cartoons. And that's what I was doing. A lot of that before I took on terror, I was doing a lot, a lot of, uh,

voiceover work for children's shows. Dude, it's kind of funny what doors open and what leads you. This business is very strange. And I do think it's like, I wish that in college someone had taught me more about like, you know that like,

it's not just be a movie star. Yeah. Is necessarily make it in show business. You know what I mean? Like you never know where the fuck it is. This thing's going to take you. No, you just got to, I learned long time ago. You just got to go with the flow, wherever it leads you, just go with it. And yeah, I'm glad I did that. Cause I,

I wouldn't be here. I would still probably be waiting tables in New York city right now. Struggling to get by. Yeah. Think about the things you didn't get that you were angry about, right? Like upset or sad about now you're really, I was up for five or six different Broadway tours and,

right before I got Terrifier and they all fell through for me. And it was, I was very frustrated. I was in like final, final callbacks for like Susan Stroman and Roger Reese and all these people. And I was like, oh my God, I'm so close to getting something. And so I won't, why won't something stick? And there's a reason for that. Because if I had gotten any of those, I wouldn't have been able to do Terrifier. And who knows? You are one of the all time horror icons now.

Yeah, it's in there now. Three really solidified. Is that fucking crazy? Is that ridiculous? It's weird. I was just walking down the street here in Burbank the other night just getting dinner. I had my glasses on and everything. I was a little bit disheveled because I had just gotten off the airplane and

this one woman just recognized me right there on the street and like ran up to me and was like oh my god i have to say something to you and i'm like i'm amazed you know who i am yeah so eventually you're gonna get a lot of like kill me not coming kill me pretend to kill pretend to choke me yeah didn't you help me and burbank is a horror town oh it is very much so um yeah well so can you is there any like what's your favorite horror movie

I really love just Wes Craven in general. I'm a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan, also a big Scream fan. I love slashers. That's always been my favorite genre of horror movies, the slashers. I think they're just fun. So for tonight, for Halloween, what are you doing? What's your plan? Actually, I don't have any plans because I'm going out of town. On Hulk, you're traveling?

I am traveling on Halloween. That's a true spooky professional. Yeah. That's a true spooky professional. It's called a work day. Yeah. It's a work day. It's the busy season. We call it over here. Yeah. It's crazy. Cause everybody's like, what are you dressing up as? I'm like, I'm going as myself because I dress up all year long as other characters. So I was like, I'm going to myself. You'll have other years where you'll celebrate. Yeah.

Yeah, and then you'll celebrate. Eventually you're going to be the point when you're doing Terrifier 15, just being like, when you're in a full scuba suit and on the water set, you're just going to be like...

This is the last one. All right? I'm not here, like, screaming over a tender green salad, being like, I'm not doing this again. You know, like, just cut to that. Just know. Send out my stunt double. What the hell do I got to do? Goddamn, Sidney. You tell Sidney Sweeney I'm busy. All right? My dick is empty. Thank you. I can't. I must work. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I told her, no, it's disgusting. And you didn't say it. I said it. Yes. Thank you so much, David Howard Thornton. You're welcome. This was lovely, man. Is there anything else you want people to go look for? Well, my other film, Stream, just came out on streaming platforms. It was in theaters a few months ago. It's called Stream? Stream.

Stream. It's now streaming. Do you know which one? I know it's on Amazon Prime right off the top of my head. Nice. And go see Screamboat when that comes out. I'm so excited for that. And more importantly, go see Terrifier 3. Take your family and then watch it again over Christmas. Sneak in your kids. I actually think this is the one to really sneak in the kids to. But no infants. Someone brought an infant.

someone brought an infant in Terrifier 3. Why? And they were just like, I guess it's because they can't. They know that the baby won't. They can't afford a babysitter and they have to see you kill people. They have to see you kill people. So isn't that great? We did a screening this past weekend up in Detroit to a huge giant Emax theater and

And there were children in the audience that I even called them out. I'm like, oh, wait, how old are you? And they're like, I'm six. And I'm like, where's your parents and moms over there? I'm like, hi. I'm like, okay, your parents are here. It's fine. Terrifier 3, Terrifier's hard to take. Yeah. But hey, who knows? I leave it up to the parents to decide because, you know, some kids can handle things. Whatever.

I mean, I look, I look at like a Chrissy Fox, you know, who's in part three, her daughter, Elle, who I would go to war for. She's five years old and she loves horror films. She loves horror films. That's how I was. Yeah. And look at me. She's great. She's totally fine. She's the cutest little thing. She, she travels like we were on a airplane together. I pass her going to the restroom and Elle just looks up and he goes, I'm

I'm watching Abigail. And she's holding an art and file doll in her hand. That's amazing. It's the cutest thing. That's perfect. Dude, thank you so much, man. Happy Halloween. Congratulations, buddy. This is fucking amazing. You're really taking the world by storm. It's so cool to talk to you. It's a wild ride. I'm just very grateful for it. I will definitely have you back for four.

Oh, definitely, definitely. We're definitely coming back for four, too. Hell yeah, man. All right, well, Hail Satan and Happy Halloween. Hail art! The clown and the genre. All of that, all of that.

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