Catherine Corcoran, the actress whose brutal death scene in “Terrifier” (2016) helped make the smash-hit horror franchise a success, has sued filmmaker Damien Leone and producers for breach of contract. The case was filed in a California federal court on Sunday, beginning legal proceedings that will determine whether Corcoran has been wrongly denied her fair share of profits.
The lawsuit also alleges extreme working conditions, a broken SAG-AFTRA agreement, and on-set sexual harassment — naming producer Phil Falcone in a reported incident that Corcoran says involved Falcone photographing her nude without her consent while she was trapped in a special effects rig.
“Were it not for Corcoran’s willingness to take a risk on this production and receive her compensation on the back-end, the series would not exist as it could not have been made on a shoe-string budget otherwise,” the plaintiff’s filing argued. “When it came time to pay what was owed, the producers chose to cheat her. This injustice must be rectified.”
An attorney for Leone told The Hollywood Reporter (which broke this story), “Damien and Phil deny the claims in the complaint and will vigorously defend this lawsuit.” Neither responded to IndieWire’s request for comment.
Corcoran claims she’s entitled to 1 percent of proceeds from a backend deal that covers ticket sales for all three films in the series — as well as any money made from the licensing and use of “Terrifier” IP. To date, the actress says she’s been paid less than $8,400 for her contribution to the killer clown icon.
“Terrifier 2” and “Terrifier 3” were distributed theatrically by Cineverse, and the franchise has a lifetime gross of more than $106 million at the box office. The suit lists major brand names in horror, including Spirit Halloween and Hot Topic, as proof of the artistic success Corcoran’s scene helped spark. Dawn’s death is currently featured as part of the walk-through “Terrifier” attraction at Halloween Horror Nights.
“The producers of the film paid Corcoran her royalties for a brief period of time several years after the release of the film, but when the film series’ success started to grow exponentially and exceeded the producer’s original expectations, the royalty payments became more and more sporadic and dwindled to amounts nowhere near commensurate with the revenues generated,” read the complaint, which also lists Dark Age Cinema, Fuzz on the Lens Productions, and the Art the Clown trademark as defendants.
Among the first victims of Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), Corcoran sys she played Dawn — notoriously vivisected from crotch to cranium, while the actress was suspended upside-down — for just $100 a day. Corcoran’s performance reportedly fell under a special SAG contract for ultra low budget performers that, coupled with the terms of a mutual nondisclosure agreement Corcoran’s team has submitted as evidence, lead her to believe she would be compensated more robustly if the $35,000 film became a success. The suit claims Corcoran was later told Falcone “didn’t keep records.”
“The low-budget nature of the production carried over into the working conditions on set, including long hours in below freezing temperatures in condemned buildings, all without heat and some without bathrooms,” continued the complaint. “The so-called ‘practical effects’ that made ‘Terrifier’ so compelling on screen involved the director placing prosthetics with actual rat feces on Corcoran’s skin and real duct tape over her mouth.”
“Further, when creating the silicone mold for Corcoran’s body cast, the producers of the film required Corcoran to lie nude on a piece of plywood while she was covered with a quick-drying liquid silicone agent,” the court document said. “However, the process was done incorrectly and the silicone dried and essentially glued Corcoran to the plywood, requiring a long, painful process to remove the dried silicone from her body. To make matters worse, Falcone took numerous still photographs of Corcoran’s nude body while she was glued to the plywood sheet without her consent.”
The case further challenges the terms of Corcoran’s employment on “Terrifer,” arguing that Leone and producers never got her written approval for the nude scene as required by SAG. The actress claims that Leone, Falcone, and more “Terrifier” contributors have continued to profit off the unauthorized use of her nude image by using it to sell products. Corcoran says the sawing scene for “Terrifier” took ten hours to shoot and caused blood to pool in her head, resulting in reported cranial swelling and eardrum damage.
The public disagreement comes on the heels of more “Terrifier” controversy, involving the treatment of sequel stars Lauren LaVera and David Howard Thornton earlier this year. Neither actor has commented on the case. Production on “Terrifier 4” has not yet started and the film does not have a distributor.