Damien Leone confirms Terrifier 4 is in the works and will be ‘an epic closure’ to Art the Clown’s story

‘Terrifier’ director Damien Leone has revealed a fourth and final instalment in the series is in development.

The slasher franchise has been petrifying audiences since its debut in 2016 and the 42-year-old filmmaker has teased he is working on the fourth film which will be "an epic closure" to Art the Clown’s story.

Speaking with Variety, Leone said: "It will certainly be an epic showdown, an epic closure to this Art the Clown saga.

"The idea I’m toying with in my head would probably be in some regards the most experimental, so I can’t dive into it too much. Some really, really crazy things will happen in the next one."

The director is celebrating the success of the newly-released ‘Terrifier 3’, which follows Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) as he turns Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her brother Jonathan’s (Elliott Fulam) Christmas into a living nightmare.

While some have been critical of the series due to its visceral gory scenes - with some being particularly vocal over Art’s off-screen murder of a child in the third flick - Leone has said he was always looking to "push the boundary" of what has come to be expected from a horror movie, but was also trying to avoid "a level of extreme distaste" with the intense violence.

He explained: "I’m always looking for lines to get up to, to push the boundary. Maybe just step right over it.

"But you can absolutely fall into a level of extreme distaste that I’m trying not to do. There’s a scene in the beginning where Art murders a child offscreen and you just hear it.

"I could have shown that and the glorious way that we executed the scene. I would never do that, because to me, that’s just completely off-putting and you’re going to alienate a large majority of your audience.

"It’s like you’re trying to shock the audience so much it just becomes desperate. I think it’s my job as an artist to try and walk that line in a more interesting way, in a more responsible way."