Writing On February 12, 2019, Leone revealed in a post on his social media, showing the cover page, that the first draft of the screenplay was complete. Leone envisioned the concept of the film dating back to 2008—with an idea of an angel-warrior costumed heroine battling the Art the Clown character. This heroine was the basis of Sienna, who Leone wanted to bring back for
Terrifier 2, which he knew he wanted to make while filming the first film. The writing process for the film differed from Leone's previous film projects, in which he had to work around part-time jobs. Leone spent three consecutive months writing. Much of his focus was on developing a character that could rival Art in popularity. When he was not writing, he would read books about screenwriting and listen to screenwriters discuss their processes with writing. He opted to bring back the angel-attired heroine a decade later and adapt her into Sienna Shaw. During a lunch with Leone and David Howard Thornton, the actress who plays Sienna, Lauren LaVera, was told of this intended dynamic between her character and Art. becoming the only returning cast members of the prior film, other than a brief voice cameo by Michael Leavy (who played Will the Exterminator in the original film) as the Club Announcer and DJ voice, and Corey Duval, who returns as the coroner from the first installment. There were also reports of Steven Della Salla and Jason Leavy, the two cops in the original film, returning in cameo appearances as well; the three were all producers for the second installment. On September 11, 2019, it was announced that actress Lauren LaVera was cast in the lead role of Sienna Shaw. On October 15, it was announced that
Felissa Rose,
Chris Jericho and Tamara Glynn had joined the cast in
cameo roles. Actress Leah Voysey had auditioned for Sienna and her friends Ally and Brooke before co-producer Jason Leavy, who knew about Voysey's singing and guitar skills, invited her to be the host that performed a song in the Clown Cafe dream sequence, which after being filmed led to Leone bringing Voysey to appear as a nurse in the credits scene.
Filming While Leone had secured full funding for the film from a handful of private investors prior to filming, he launched an
Indiegogo with a $50k goal to finance a practical effects driven scene and to attach a well known actor to the project. The campaign was a major success, grossing over $125k in the first week. It reached a total of $250k by the end of the campaign, 430% more than the initial goal. Filming began in October 2019. While a majority of the film's main storyline had already been completed,
principal photography was halted due to
COVID-19, becoming one of many films
affected by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. On September 7, Leone revealed that he was in the process of working on the
prosthetic makeup for Victoria's disfigured face in preparation of filming
Samantha Scaffidi's scenes. As Sienna's costume received a positive reception when
production stills were officially released, when asked about the attire, LaVera described liking it on the first day of wearing it but began to feel disdain for it throughout the course of filming as it was uncomfortable to wear. She even suffered blisters from wearing it. Filming quietly resumed and wrapped on July 10, 2021. The
post-credits scene would originally reveal Art growing out of the back of Victoria's head, but once
Malignant had a similar getup for its villain, Leone discarded it and shot another sequence where Victoria gave birth to Art's head.
Marketing A
teaser trailer for
Terrifier 2 was released on July 24, 2020.
MovieWeb's Jeremy Dick commented on the teaser, stating that "the teaser is pretty exciting to watch for anyone who enjoyed the first movie." It was also announced that a three-issue limited release comic book series would be issued prior to the film's release.
Special effects The film gained significant media coverage for its gore effects, particularly in the notorious "Bedroom Scene," depicting the lengthy murder of the supporting character Allie (Casey Hartnett). Leone stated that it was the most challenging and technical scene to film out of the entire production—three minutes depicting mutilation. Leone had to create a life-size replica
puppet of Hartnett that could work as an animatronic. He stated, "I had people under the bed with rods going through it into her limbs and behind the wall operating her head. I put some rubber gloves in her chest with tubing to have her breathe." Leone digitally added Hartnett's eye onto the puppet when Allie awakens to her mother. == Release ==