Catherine Corcoran, the actress who played the victim of one of the goriest scenes in the “Terrifier” slasher series, has sued series creator Damien Leone and the film’s producers over claims of unpaid backend payments.
In the original 2016 micro-budget horror film, Corcoran played a woman, Dawn, who was hung upside down by the series’ villain Art the Clown and bisected with a hacksaw.
Coined the “splits” scene by fans, it played a major role in establishing “Terrifier” among hardcore slasher fans as a film that pushes the envelope of on-screen violence, building a cult fanbase that led to the greenlight of a sequel in 2022 that has since turned “Terrifier” into a pop culture phenomenon that was included in this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios theme parks.
But in a lawsuit filed in California and obtained by TheWrap, Corcoran claims that she agreed to SAG-AFTRA’s then-minimum daily rate of $100 to play the role in the film, which was reported to have a budget of just $35,000. But as part of that deal, Corcoran claims the “Terrifier” producers agreed to pay her 1% of any future profits from the film or any future franchise plans.
“Corcoran’s profit share included not only profits generated strictly from the ‘Terrifier’ films and merchandise but also profits generated from any exploitation of the intellectual property underlying ‘Terrifier’ such as books, video games, ‘Terrifier’ themed events and any other manner of licensing or use of the ‘Terrifier’ intellectual property,” the lawsuit claims.
After the premiere of “Terrifier 2,” Corcoran says she started receiving intermittent backend payments that have totaled to $8,341. But she claims that those payments did not come with details as to what specific profits related to “Terrifier” they came from, and the payments stopped coming by July 2024, three months before the release of “Terrifier 3,” which became the highest grossing unrated theatrical release of all time with $90 million grossed worldwide.
Along with the payment claims, Corcoran alleges she was not told by Leone or the “Terrifier” producers that she would be nude for the “splits” scene, which also required her to be hung upside down in 40-second intervals over the course of a ten-hour shoot.
She alleges that while she was lowered to the ground in between takes to apply gory prosthetics, she was not given enough time for the blood that rushed to her head to recirculate, leading to “cranial swelling and eardrum damage.”
“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,” Devin McRae, a lawyer for Corcoran, writes in the complaint. “However, when it came time to pay what was owed, the producers chose to cheat her.”
Larry Zerner, an attorney for Leone and “Terrifier” producer and co-defendant Phil Falcone, said in a statement that “Damien and Phil deny the claims in the complaint and will vigorously defend this lawsuit.”
