Brad Miska was barely paying attention when he realized horror movie history was happening. The co-founder of the horror movie site Bloody Disgusting has lived and breathed horror films his entire life and, as such, knows they have the potential to suck. So you canât blame him for throwing on a seemingly unassuming sequel called Terrifier 2Â and continuing with his day. But then it happened.
âI like to pay attention to the films when Iâm watching them but for whatever reason that day I was distracted and it was on in the background. I got somewhere like 15-20 minutes into it and I was like âSomething is special about this movie. This isnât what I thought it was going to be,ââ Miska told io9. âI stopped everything I was doing, started the movie over, paid full attention, and the second it was over my initial reaction was âThis is a masterpiece. This is one of the best horror films Iâve ever seen in my entire life.ââ
This was May 2022 and, at the time, Miskaâs job was finding films to acquire for ScreamBox, a horror streaming service owned by parent company Cineverse. It was a gig he got after Cineverse acquired his website and the team there realized his years of film expertise gave him a distinct perspective on what was cool and what wasnât. Terrifier 2 was just one of many movies under consideration. To make sure he wasnât going crazy though, he asked John Squires, now editor-in-chief of Blood Disgusting, to validate his thoughts and Squires agreed. Terrifier 2 was awesome. The rest is history.
Fast forward three years and Terrifier 3 recently opened #1 at the box office on its opening weekend and finished third in its second weekend. Itâs a bona fide horror smash, which is wild considering itâs independent and not released by a studio, unrated, incredibly violent, and had minimal traditional marketing. Most of the credit for that success goes to writer-director Damien Leone and producer Phil Falcone for shepherding and believing in the franchise in the first place, as well as allowing Cineverse to acquire and release it. But itâs also partially because, that day, Miska took notice and pitched up the phone.
âImmediately we were all hands on deck,â he said. âWe had to have this movie, whatever it takes.â So they called Leone and Falcone and pitched them on the film coming to Cineverse and ScreamBox via Bloody Disgusting.
âThey knew they had something special already,â Miska said. âThey believed it in their heart. They knew they had this fan base growing and they knew there was a hardcore group of people who loved Terrifier and they believed in the movie so much They were thinking about just kind of releasing [Terrifier 2] themselves.â But, eventually, they put their trust in Miska and the team to work their magic and get Terrifier 2 in front of as many people as possible.
Just a few months later, in September 2022, the team at Cineverse was true to its word. Terrifier 2 opened on almost 1,000 screens and instantly began to build buzz and make money. Because it was deemed a âspecialty release,â with some theaters screening it just one or two times a day, the fact the film was unrated wasnât an issue. In the subsequent weeks, word of the film just grew and grew. The press got ahold of it, more and more theaters booked it, and a few weeks later, it had grossed over $10 million on its way to over $15 million.
That success made a Terrifier 3 all but a certainty and, though he came on late in the process with Terrifier 2, Miska and the team were on board with three from the very beginning. Heâs credited on Terrifier 3 as an executive producer.

âWhat we gave [Leone] was trust,â Miska said. âWe let him make his movie. He knew if a studio saw those first 5-10 pages they would have said âNoâ and wouldnât let him do it. We were just like âWhatever you want to do, you do it.â Even when we got the first cut and you see just how brutal some of this stuff is nobody said anything. To be completely honest with you, I was kind of shocked that none of the higher-level executives at my company said anything ever. They were super supportive and just let him do his thing.â
The question then became, could lightning strike twice? With Terrifier 2, its wanton gore was surprising and shocking to audiences. The resulting financial success? Wholly unexpected. Coming off that with Terrifier 3, audiences had a better idea of what to expect, as did theaters. Miska thinks the film sets that bar in its first scene.
âWhen you kill a kid in the opening scene ⊠and you continue to watch the movie you are giving license to the filmmaker to do it again,â Miska said. âAnd you canât complain because you just sat through it ⊠Youâre kind of strapping yourself in it at that point for anything.â
That was also the attitude of the filmmakers and distributors. Sure, expectations for Terrifier 3 were bigger all around. Theyâd seen word of mouth and viral press help drive the second film but, when the third one held its first screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, they strapped themselves in for anything.

âWe didnât know how people were gonna take it,â Miska said. âPeople could have hated the movie and it would have been a whole different situation. It was really nerve-wracking and really scaryâand once everyone was being receptive and loved it, then [there was] momentum. You could feel like âOkay at least people like it now and the gore is hitting.ââ
Though thereâd been some marketing before the filmâs premiere, afterward is when it kicked into full gear: social media, news posts, reviews, etc. But, again, very minimal traditional media. You arenât going to see Terrifier 3 commercials during football games. The trailer will only play in front of very specific movies. You wonât the filmâs star, Art the Clown, on lots of billboards. But that was all calculated.
âThereâs a bunch of rock stars over at Cineverse who helped build all the content really quickly and get all that stuff out and did an awesome job on the socials,â Miska said. âAnd yeah, our history that we have as journalistsâthat was a huge part of, I think, how I was able to blow up two and three, to really put it in the position to launch it.â
Thatâs a key thing here too. As a former film journalist, Miska and his team have a very unique, specific set of skills and knowledge that made marketing Terrifier 2 and 3 hyper-focused. âThis was all just using our own toolbox that we know from running websites for the past 20-25 years,â Miska said. âWe had a conversation with the marketing team [and] we were talking about promoting Terrifier 3, and I always try and remind them I have an eye for this because Iâve seen every single piece of marketing materials for horror movies for 25 years. Literally every single piece or material. Iâve seen it and know every story behind every movie. So we can look at a piece of content and just know immediately if it works, if it doesnât work and, what they were thinking. You just know.â

Thatâs a confidence that Miska shares with the filmmakers too. âThey believe in themselves,â he said. âThey believe in their franchise, they believe in their characters. They believe in their work They believe in their fans on a level that I have never seen before⊠They just believed in [it] so much that it was a crazy thing to experience.â
Plus, that belief means Leone and Falcone have never had to sell to a studio. They own the rights to everything Terrifier which puts them in a position the creators of Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers do not.
âAs long as [Leone] still owns it and controls it with Phil, they can do anything they want, whenever they want,â Miska said. âThey could keep it canonized. They could do spin-offs. They could do remakes. Anything they want, and horror fans only have to wait as long as it takes for them to make another one for them. Itâs like the good old days when we got a new slasher every two or three years. It was awesome.â
Sounds like, after the success of Terrifier 3, Art the Clown and his world will only continue to grow. And as rights issues for Jason, Freddy, and their friends continue to keep them out of theaters, Hollywood studios can sit back and watch as the film fans like Leone, Falcone, Miska, and others slash their way to the top.
Terrifier 3 is now in theaters. The first two films, Terrifier and Terrifier 2, are both streaming on Prime Video.
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