“Terrifier” actress Catherine Corcoran has sued the producers and sequence director Damien Leone, alleging breach of contract and the distribution of sexually specific supplies with out consent.
In a swimsuit filed in California federal courtroom on Sunday, Corcoran’s attorneys offered a case, outlined by the “all-too-common story of low finances movie producers making the most of a younger actress by means of fraud, sexual harassment and, in the end, betrayal.” The lawsuit names manufacturing banners Darkish Age Cinema and Fuzz on the Lens Productions as defendants, along with producer Phil Falcone and Leone and the filmmaker’s banner Artwork the Clown. The submitting contains seven claims for reduction, together with distribution of sexually specific supplies, breach of contract and promissory fraud.
Leone and producers couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Corcoran is finest recognized to “Terrifier” viewers because the centerpiece of one of many unique 2016 slasher’s most memorably demented sequences, during which the actress’ character is hung the wrong way up, topless, and slaughtered by the villain Artwork the Clown. The swimsuit alleges that filming for the sequence required Corcoran to be hung the wrong way up by her ankles for “over 10 hours in beneath freezing temperatures.”
Corcoran is claimed to have agreed to behave within the low-budget “Terrifier” on an “extraordinarily low up entrance per diem charge,” with the settlement that she would obtain 1% of the income from the movie, in addition to potential future franchise entries and associated merchandise, together with different licenses of the mental property. Two “Terrifier” sequels have been produced, collectively grossing greater than $105 million on the world field workplace, plus house video income and “Terrifier”-themed fan occasions and different modes. The swimsuit claims that director and producer Leone, “agreed in writing to offer Corcoran with a share in 1% of all web gross sales generated from ‘Terrifier’ associated merchandise.”
Nonetheless, Corcoran alleges that, within the years following the unique movie’s launch and its subsequent rise in recognition, her royalty funds “grew to become increasingly sporadic and dwindled to quantities nowhere close to commensurate.” The actress claims she has not acquired again pay since July 2024, and had solely acquired $1816.35 as much as that time, “with no rationalization as to why the royalty funds ceased or the place the rest of the funds are.” Merchandise royalties are mentioned to solely complete “roughly $6,408.26.”
Corcoran claims to have confronted each Falcone and Leone about her royalty funds and that she was “disregarded, with Leone stating that Falcone handles all the accounting issues after which with an aggressive and defensive response from Falcone saying he purportedly ‘doesn’t preserve information.’”
Moreover, whereas Corcoran’s loss of life scene required her to be nude, the swimsuit claims that the producers “by no means obtained Corcoran’s knowledgeable written consent” to movie unclothed, as was required by the Display Actors Guild. The swimsuit alleges that Corcoran insisted she be allowed to put on underwear on the day of capturing, however that she nonetheless ended up performing the scene topless with out written consent. It additionally claims that Corcoran was solely offered a horizontal platform to interrupt on between takes upon her request and that she “was wrapped in a blanket in between takes, however additional time the blanket grew to become so saturated with pretend blood that it ceased offering any heat.”
After filming in a single day, Corcoran alleges she felt in poor health within the following days and that a health care provider recognized her with cranial swelling and eardrum harm. In an allegation that ties collectively the swimsuit’s claims of unpaid royalties and unregulated capturing situations, the swimsuit claims that the defendants have profited from merchandise depicting Corcoran’s nude physique.
