Entertainment
The Most Terrifying Sequel Ever Made Is Now Streaming Free
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Even among horror fans, the Terrifier films aren’t for everyone. Many haters consider these films nothing more than “torture porn,” but that’s not entirely fair. Does Art the Clown torture and kill his victims in the most graphic and grotesque ways? Absolutely. But he does so in service of every horror movie’s ultimate goal: scaring the pants off everyone watching. After the first two films in the series, it’s fair to say that Art has established himself as the most famous modern slasher, one who is now nearly as legendary as vintage killers like Freddy Krueger and Ghostface.
Now, the third film is streaming for free, giving you a chance to catch up on Art the Clown’s latest mutilated misadventures. The second movie was a fright fest of epic ambitions, one that established this clown as a supernatural threat scary enough to make Pennywise wet his pantaloons. Terrifier 3 delivers Art’s scariest story yet, one that will leave you on the edge of your seat while changing up everything you thought you knew about this clown. If you’re ready to give yourself nightmares and wake the apartment up screaming, then it’s time to grab that remote and stream Terrifier 3 (2024) for free on Tubi.
Christmas Comes Early
The premise of Terrifier 3 is that Art the Clown survived his decapitation from the previous film, and once he gets his head together (quite literally), he sets his sights on revenge. Five years later, he returns to terrorize Sienna, the heroine from Terrifier 2, who seemingly put this killer clown down for good. Sienna, her brother, and her new foster family are all fair game for Art’s wrath. But now that he’s angrier than ever before, it looks like he may turn the entire town into a mass graveyard while enacting vengeance, one cut at a time.
Like other films in the franchise, Terrifier 3 doesn’t have many big names; in fact, the most famous people in the movie are Clint Howard, Chris Jericho, and Tom Savini, all of whom have very basic cameos. We also get two of the surviving protagonists from the last film, played quite capably by horror veterans Lauren LaVera and Elliott Fullam. As usual, the best performance comes from David Howard Thornton, who has almost singlehandedly transformed Art the Clown into the scariest movie monster of the modern age. His every movement drips with malicious glee, and the way he stalks his victims is very nearly as frightening as the brutal ways that he finishes them off.
The Ultimate Low-Budget Terror
It’s only fitting that Terrifier 3 is set during the holiday season, because this movie is all about red and green. Art the Clown took care of the red, delivering buckets of blood through one creepy kill after another. Meanwhile, audiences took care of the green: against a modest budget of $2 million, Terrifier 3 earned $90.3 million. Soon after its violent debut, director Damien Leone confirmed that we will be getting a fourth and final Terrifier film. Only time will tell if Art the Clown (unlike fellow slasher icon Jason Voorhees) will stay dead after his fourth box office outing.
Reviewers decided that the third time was the charm (or perhaps that should be “the harm”) for Art the Clown. On Rotten Tomatoes, Terrifier 3 has a 78 percent. Critics generally praised the movie for upping the franchise’s famous gore ante and delivering even more over-the-top kills (seriously, that shower scene will haunt you). They also praised the movie for joining the ranks of films like Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 to become one of the rarest kinds of genre films: a hilariously solid Christmas horror movie.
The Slasher, Reborn
How much you enjoy Terrifier 3 will depend greatly on what you want out of a horror film. In terms of plot, there’s arguably far less than what we got in Terrifier 2, which tried to transform the meat-and-potatoes Art the Clown slasher into a supernatural villain of mythic proportions. Comparatively, the third film is very streamlined, taking the franchise back to its simplistic slasher roots. But you are likely to be completely lost if you watch this movie first, making it a terrible choice for first-time fans hoping to discover a (ahem) work of Art.
If you like old-school slashers like Friday the 13th, however, you’ll likely be in hog heaven with Terrifier 3. The movie has all the essential elements needed for such a film: an iconic killer, likeable victims, and memorable kills. It’s a no-filler, all-killer (in more ways than one) approach to horror filmmaking, and it works particularly well here. Even if you don’t typically go for the so-called “gore porn” films, Terrifier 3 is head and bloody shoulders over most scary movies.
The Future Of Terror Is Here
That mostly comes down to the film’s putrid practical effects. In an age where CGI dominates everything, Terrifier 3 mines most of its thrills and chills from a place of more grounded terror. Supernatural shenanigans aside, it’s easy to imagine that anyone could don Art the Clown’s creepy makeup and begin terrorizing the town. His violent exploits are brought to life by more of the franchise’s signature effects, all of which prove that “less is more” when it comes to bringing death to life onscreen.
Are you ready to hire the world’s scariest clown for your very own party? The good news is that Art delivers unforgettable work, and he will show you things that you’ll remember for the rest of your life (however short that might be). He works for cheap, too: to see what the bloody hype is about, stream Terrifier 3 for free on Tubi!
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Entertainment
Upcoming Revival Is Going To Ruin The Best Sci-Fi Show Ever Made
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Right now, Firefly fans are cheering for some seemingly good news: this sci-fi cult classic is going to finally get a revival. Even better, the new show will be animated, and it will be set between the events of the Firefly show and the Serenity movie. This allows the animated series to sidestep the biggest problem a live-action revival would face: namely, showing us the depressing sight of aging actors trying to wheeze their way through acting young again.
However, as a huge fan of Firefly, I can’t help but think this animated show is going to ruin this franchise’s legacy. Right now, Firefly has a reputation as an absolutely perfect one-season show; if the cartoon is not similarly perfect, then the fandom is going to lose its mind. Furthermore, the fact that the animated series will have an entirely new writing staff means it will likely lack the magic of the old show. But even if the old creators came back, this venture would still be doomed because everything we know about Firefly’s aborted second season makes it sound like the worst thing in the ‘verse.
The Chicken, The Egg, And The Starship
Among Firefly fans, there is sometimes a “chicken and the egg” style argument about the show’s quality. Some think the show could have kept its momentum going into future seasons, and that Fox canceling the series after one season kept us from getting years of impossibly awesome sci-fi entertainment. Others think that Season 1 effectively captured lightning in a bottle and the cancellation was a good thing: after all, the thinking goes, it’s better to get one flawless season than watch a show you love sink into mediocrity, year after year.
In a weird way, my biggest worry about the animated Firefly revival isn’t that it will be bad but that it will be average. For other franchises, average wouldn’t be so bad, but the stellar quality of the original Firefly show will cast a big, damn shadow over this new series. Should we get a season or two of mediocre storytelling, fans will be disappointed because the original show set such a high bar. More importantly, it will only take one or two “meh” seasons to completely ruin Firefly’s reputation. It will no longer be a perfect show; it will just be the solid opening of a sci-fi franchise that simply got worse over time.
Joss In Space
A major elephant in the room is that Firefly was the brainchild of Joss Whedon, the same visionary creator who gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon was once celebrated as the king of the geeks, one whose kingdom rested on his reputation as the world’s biggest male feminist.
Later, the inevitable happened: his ex-wife revealed that he was constantly cheating on her with other women, including the stars of his shows. This happened during the #MeToo movement, hurting his reputation. Later, after stars like Charisma Carpenter, Ray Fisher, and Gal Gadot shared toxic tales of alleged workplace abuses, Whedon was fully canceled and effectively retired from filmmaking.
This is important because it means the Firefly revival, like the recently-canceled Buffy reboot, is facing an impossible situation. If they were to bring Whedon back, it would be seen as an endorsement of a very controversial figure, leading to the show getting canceled before it ever gets off the ground. But without him, the show is not going to have the exact same quirky humor and whimsical characterization that fans fell in love with in the first place.
Reportedly, the Firefly animated show is proceeding without Whedon, which is likely for the best: it will keep the revival from getting canceled alongside the original show’s creator. But as much as I loathe to say it, his absence means the new show won’t be as good as the old one. At that point, we have to ask the obvious question: why bring Firefly back in the first place if it’s just going to be a crappy imitation of itself?
The Stories Firefly Was Planning To Tell Next
Over the years, fans have fervently wished that Fox hadn’t canceled Firefly so that it could have gotten more seasons. However, that’s a monkey’s paw style wish, and I’ll tell you why. Based on everything we know about the stories planned for it, Firefly Season 2 would have been a disaster.
For one thing, there were plans to make Firefly much darker. Proposed Season 2 stories involved episodes where Mal decided to abandon a planet full of people asking for his help, leaving them all to die. Alan Tudyk pitched an episode where the crew would be helping some criminals who were organizing alien dog fights, getting our crew involved in intergalactic animal abuse. Believe it or not, though, that’s not the worst of it.
According to producer Tim Minear, the very first episode Joss Whedon pitched for Firefly Season 2 focused on Inara; she was the ship’s Companion, a prostitute with many of the privileges of a diplomat. Whedon wanted a story where she was not only suffering from a terminal disease, but also had injected herself with a special syringe that would kill anyone who had sex with her. This comes in handy when she is kidnapped by some Reavers who are known for intimately assaulting their victims. By the time Mal comes to rescue her, all the Reavers are dead, implying Inara had survived a very brutal ordeal.
In case you think that’s a one-off, think again: Minear claims that, after pitching this horrific episode, Whedon told him, “These are the kinds of stories we’re going to do.” Had Firefly gotten a second season, the show would have been a grimdark mess that transformed your favorite characters into a collection of monsters and victims. The show’s early cancellation saved its reputation; now, I can’t help but worry that the Firefly animated show will take its cues from these unused Season 2 stories, ruining this franchise the same way Picard’s grimdark storytelling nearly ruined Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Hero Of Streamtown
Will the Firefly animated series be any good? As the hero of another Fox TV show might put it, “I want to believe.” The show has a lot going for it, including the return of the original cast and a groundswell of fan support. But it also has a lot going against it because, without the original creators, the storytelling will suffer. That could hurt the entire franchise’s reputation, turning Firefly from the most beloved modern sci-fi property into just another failed reboot.
Like all Firefly fans, I will be tuning in for the animated revival, and I really want it to be the best new show in the entire ‘verse. However, after years of crappy revivals like The X-Files, I’m steeling myself for disappointment. Should that happen, though, I’ll do what any good fan does and dust off my physical media collection. To paraphrase the Firefly theme song, “I don’t care, I’m still free. You can’t take the Blu-rays from me!”
Entertainment
Hackers says they breached Crunchyroll, stole nearly 7 million users data
Crunchyroll, the popular anime streaming platform, is currently investigating an alleged breach that may have led to the leak of personal data belonging to 6.8 million of its users.
The stolen user data from Crunchyroll appears to have been obtained by exploiting vulnerabilities at a third-party company, Telus International, which Crunchyroll outsources its customer support to.
“We are aware of recent claims and are currently working closely with leading cyber security experts to investigate the matter,” Crunchyroll said in a statement.
The cybersecurity outlet Bleeping Computer says that the hacker reached out to them to provide information and proof of the stolen data.
The hacker says that they infected a customer support agent’s computer with malware and gained access to the employee’s Okta login credentials. From there, the hacker gained access to multiple accounts that Crunchyroll has with other third-party services such as Zendesk, Google Workspace Mail, Slack, Mixpanel, Jiro Service Management, Wizer, and MaestroQA.
Mashable Light Speed
According to the hacker, the breach occurred on March 12, and their access was revoked after 24 hours. However, within that time frame, the hacker downloaded 8 million support ticket records from Crunchyroll’s Zendesk account. There were 6.8 million unique email addresses included in these tickets.
The hacker showed Bleeping Computer screenshots detailing the types of personal information allegedly stolen from Crunchyroll’s users, which includes full names, usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, general geographic location, and what was included in the support tickets. Credit card information does not appear to have been stolen; however, if a user provided the last four digits of their card number or their card’s expiration date in a support ticket, then that information would be among the stolen data.
The hacker claims to have sent a $5 million ransom to Crunchyroll for the data, but the hacker says that they have not heard back from the company.
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The International Cyber Digest account on X also shared that they received screenshot evidence of the breach from the hacker. The account also reported that 100GB of data was stolen.
According to the cybersecurity firm SOCRadar, a post was published on a hacker forum on the same day of the alleged hack titled “Crunchyroll email and IP.” The post included obscured sample data allegedly from the data stolen in the breach.
Interestingly, Telus had also confirmed with Bleeping Computer on March 12 that the company had suffered a breach from the well-known hacker group ShinyHunters. However, it is believed that the Crunchyroll-related breach at Telus is unrelated to the hacker group.
Crunchyroll has not yet issued a statement or acknowledgement of the potential breach to its users.
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Cybersecurity
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Upcoming Revival Is Going To Ruin The Best Sci-Fi Show Ever Made
