Signature Entertainment has announced that the University of Warwick will be hosting the world’s first-ever Terrifier conference, taking place across May 2-3, 2025.

The Terrifier Conference 2025 will welcome global scholars to Warwick to take an alternative approach to enthusiastic critical dismemberment by engaging with the Terrifier film franchise as an object of scholarly importance.

Presented online (Friday 2nd May) and in-person (Saturday 3rd May) this unique international conference examines the blood-soaked franchise’s presentation of aesthetics, neurodivergence, women, subverted tropes – and the silent menace of horror icon Art, the killer clown.

Art the Clown in Terrifier 3.

Featuring contributions from academics from Ukraine, Italy, Brazil, Canada, France, US, India, and the UK, the conference will explore the construction of practical visceral gore effects, aesthetically appraise kill scene carnage, and discuss the unsettling visual creepiness and comedy violence of clown performance.

Signature Entertainment’s Head of Publicity Marek Pugh and Head of Social Jonny Bunning will be in attendance to conduct a special seminar on how their innovative marketing and social media approaches allowed Terrifier 3 to become their best-selling box-office hit of £3.4 million across the UK and Ireland.

The conference programme is as follows:

Friday 2 May (Online)

  • 10:00-11:20 – Panel: Beyond Terrifier – expanding the world of Art
  • 11:30-12:20 – Special session: discussion with Ilan Sheady (Uncle Frank) and Lady Mariam, artists and marketing team for Grimmfest
  • 13:00-14:20 – Panel: Religion and abjection in the Terrifier franchise
  • 14:30-15:50 – Panel: The aesthetics of Terrifier
  • 16:00-17:45 – Panel: Gendered flesh and bone: violence in the Terrifier franchise
  • 18:00-19:00 – Special session: Gore Things Pod – conference recording: Killing as an Art-form

Saturday 3 May (In-person)

  • 10:00-11:45 – Parallel panel
    • Panel: Send in the clowns: Terrifier and clown performance
    • Panel: Exhibition and status: situating the Terrifier films
  • 12:00-13:00 – Keynote speaker
  • 14:00-14:50 – Panel: The women of Terrifier
  • 15:00-16:00 – Keynote speaker
  • 16:15-17:15 – Special session: Marek Pugh and Jonny Bunning (Signature Entertainment) – inside the marketing of Terrifier
  • 17:15-17:30 – Closing remarks – Dr Reece Goodall and Dr Hannah Straw
  • 19:30 – Film screening (as voted for by attendees)

To see the full programme and register your interest for the event, click here.