The character made his debut appearance in the short film The 9th Circle (2008), which follows his pursuit of a young woman named Casey (Kayla Lian) in an empty train station on Halloween night.

[4] Art's second appearance was in the short film Terrifier (2011), where he stalks and torments a young woman who witnesses one of his murders at a gas station.

In Terrifier, Art inhabits the fictitious Miles County, New York and pursues partygoer Tara Heyes (Jenna Kanell), her younger sister Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi) and her best friend Dawn Emerson (Catherine Corcoran) on Halloween night.

In Terrifier 2 (2022), a sinister entity known as the Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) resurrects Art and accompanies him in his pursuit of Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother, Jonathan (Elliot Fullam).

However, he is brought back to life after Vicky Heyes, who is in a mental hospital, gives birth to his living head as his new mother, and is possessed by the Little Pale Girl.

Vicky's corpse creates a portal to Hell and Sienna sees herself forced to abandon Art to save Gabbie, only for the younger girl to fall into the mysterious realm alongside the sword.

Art takes advantage of Sienna's distraction to escape through a window and catches a bus, where he honks his horn at a woman who was reading a book called "The 9th Circle."

[13][14][15][16] Leone's idea of Art originated from his concept of a woman getting off work and taking the city bus home, where a clown gets on and sits across from her, taunting her.

[18][19] After the release of All Hallows' Eve, Leone wanted to create a feature-length film focusing solely on Art as he believed the 2010s lacked an iconic horror villain, particularly an original clown character.

[22] As he was familiar with Art the Clown through All Hallows' Eve, Thornton asked his agent to submit him for it; after improvising a kill scene during his audition, he got cast in the role.

He frequently veers into the territory of being genuinely unpleasant to watch, which makes him feel somewhat separate from the stable of horror icons such as Freddy Krueger and Chucky.

Special acknowledgement should be given to David Howard Thornton for a truly wonderful performance and one that easily stands toe-to-toe with the likes of Curry and Skarsgård.

"[23] In a more middling review, the blog Film School Rejects praised Thornton's portrayal and use of body language but panned Terrifier and deemed the character a misogynist with "a deep hatred for women".