Damien Leone
Birthdate: Jan 29, 1982
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Damien Leone is an indie filmmaker who started his career as a special effects makeup artist who specializes in slasher-horror movies, starting with two short films, The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011), about a killer clown named Art the Clown. Leone was director/writer/producer/editor/makeup-special effects creator of his direct-to-video feature debut, All Hallows’ Eve (2013), an anthology horror movie made up of short films all featuring Art the Clown, which incorporated footage from The 9th Circle; Leone was later producer only of the anthology sequel, All Hallows’ Eve (2015).
Leone was the director/writer/editor/makeup-special effects creator of his first single-story feature, Frankenstein vs. The Mummy (2015), the only movie pitting the two iconic classic horror movie characters against each other. Leone met actor David Howard Thornton, whom he cast as Art in the feature version of his 2011 short, also titled Terrifier (2016), with Jenna Kanell and Samantha Scaffidi and earned ten times its approximate $40,000 budget and launched a successful franchise.
Damien Leone continued as director/writer/producer/editor/makeup-special effects creator of the Art the Clown slasher-horror sequels, Terrifier 2 (2022)—grossing a spectacular $15.7 million (on a $250,000 budget) for distributor Cinedigm—and Terrifier 3 (2024), both starring David Howard Thornton as Art, with Lauren LaVera and Samantha Scaffidi, with the latter film premiering at Fantastic Fest and released wide by Cineverse.
Leone was a producer and special effects makeup coordinator on the slasher-horror movie, Stream (2024), from Leone’s Terrifier franchise collaborator Michael Leavy, who was director, co-writer, and co-producer of the crowdfunded production with a cast led by Jeffrey Combs, Charles Edwin Powell, Tim Reid, David Howard Thornton, Dee Wallace, Tony Todd, and Tim Curry.
Personal Details
Damien Leone was born and raised in the Staten Island borough of New York City by his parents, who were such big horror fans that they named him after the evil child in The Omen (1976). After his regular schooling, Leone attended The New School in New York in 2002 and 2003, when he took only one course introducing the aesthetics of film. Leone’s height is 5’ 11”.
Filmography
director
Previous (2)
- 2024 | Terrifier 3
Terrifier 3
Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.
- 2022 | Terrifier 2
Terrifier 2
After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.
Some Facts About Damien Leone
Craftsman: Damien Leone creates and designs the practical special effects in his movies, part of his overall strategy to control his independent productions made outside the studio system.
Bloody: Leone makes extremely bloody movies but admits that he can faint at the sight of actual blood.
