If they gave out an Academy Award for best performance by a silent harlequin in a white clown suit who can mime a giggle fit while slicing people’s faces off (don’t try this at home — the slicing or the silent laughing),

Leone is fearless. He ups the shock value by letting Art the Clown loose during Christmas. Holiday horror is nothing new. But what's truly inventive here — and ultimately transgressive — is the subversion of Christmas tropes. Reindeer hooves on rooftops. Milk and cookies. Christmas shopping and mall photos with Santa. No tradition is spared.

The deaths remain grisly, but the pacing uneven in this new installment in Damien Leone’s horror franchise.