“Terrifier” actress Catherine Corcoran has sued the producers and series director Damien Leone, alleging breach of contract and the distribution of sexually explicit materials without consent.
In a suit filed in California federal court on Sunday, Corcoran’s attorneys presented a case, defined by the “all-too-common story of low budget film producers taking advantage of a young actress through fraud, sexual harassment and, ultimately, betrayal.” The lawsuit names production banners Dark Age Cinema and Fuzz on the Lens Productions as defendants, in addition to producer Phil Falcone and Leone and the filmmaker’s banner Art the Clown. The filing includes seven claims for relief, including distribution of sexually explicit materials, breach of contract and promissory fraud.
Leone and producers could not be immediately reached for comment.
Corcoran is best known to “Terrifier” viewers as the centerpiece of one of the original 2016 slasher’s most memorably demented sequences, in which the actress’ character is hung upside down, topless, and slaughtered by the villain Art the Clown. The suit alleges that filming for the sequence required Corcoran to be hung upside down by her ankles for “over 10 hours in below freezing temperatures.”
Corcoran is said to have agreed to act in the low-budget “Terrifier” on an “extremely low up front per diem rate,” with the agreement that she would receive 1% of the profits from the film, as well as potential future franchise entries and related merchandise, including other licenses of the intellectual property. Two “Terrifier” sequels have been produced, collectively grossing more than $105 million at the global box office, plus home video profits and “Terrifier”-themed fan events and other modes. The suit claims that director and producer Leone, “agreed in writing to provide Corcoran with a share in 1% of all net sales generated from ‘Terrifier’ related merchandise.”
However, Corcoran alleges that, in the years following the original film’s release and its subsequent rise in popularity, her royalty payments “became more and more sporadic and dwindled to amounts nowhere near commensurate.” The actress claims she has not received back pay since July 2024, and had only received $1816.35 up to that point, “with no explanation as to why the royalty payments ceased or where the remainder of the payments are.” Merchandise royalties are said to only total “approximately $6,408.26.”
Corcoran claims to have confronted both Falcone and Leone about her royalty payments and that she was “brushed off, with Leone stating that Falcone handles all of the accounting matters and then with an aggressive and defensive response from Falcone saying he purportedly ‘doesn’t keep records.’”
Additionally, while Corcoran’s death scene required her to be nude, the suit claims that the producers “never obtained Corcoran’s informed written consent” to film unclothed, as was required by the Screen Actors Guild. The suit alleges that Corcoran insisted she be allowed to wear underwear on the day of shooting, but that she still ended up performing the scene topless without written consent. It also claims that Corcoran was only provided a horizontal platform to break on between takes upon her request and that she “was wrapped in a blanket in between takes, but overtime the blanket became so saturated with fake blood that it ceased providing any warmth.”
After filming overnight, Corcoran alleges she felt ill in the following days and that a doctor diagnosed her with cranial swelling and eardrum damage. In an allegation that ties together the suit’s claims of unpaid royalties and unregulated shooting conditions, the suit claims that the defendants have profited from merchandise depicting Corcoran’s nude body.