If there is one horror franchise that I lost interest fairly quickly, it was the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original remains one of the most terrifying movies ever made, and after Hooper’s own sequel, which was an over-the-top black comedy starring Dennis Hopper, Texas Chainsaw became another formulaic slasher series that has spawned sequels, reboots and a combination of the two. After the release of 2017’s Leatherface, Lionsgate lost the rights after plans of continuing the franchise, and now Netflix brings us yet another reboot, as if no lessons were learned at all.
Picking up several decades after the original film, a group of entrepreneurs – including sisters Melody and Lila (Sarah Yarkin and Elsie Fisher) – travel to the remote Texan town of Harlow, which has long been abandoned as the group plan to auction off the properties to create a trendy, heavily gentrified area. However, the teens quickly become targets of Leatherface (Mark Burnham), who also comes into conflict with a vengeful survivor of his previous murders.
Considering the late Tobe Hooper and co-creator Kim Henkel had been involved as producers through some of the instalments in the series, the films themselves tend to be driven by filmmakers about their own idea about what Texas Chainsaw should be, such as the 2003 remake directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay. Known for directing the Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe, producer Fede Álvarez is the driving force behind Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which acts as a direct sequel to the original film, despite 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D doing the same thing, whilst clunkily trying to sympathize with Leatherface.
Although Texas Chainsaw Massacre reverts back to making Leatherface a killer, who wears other people’s faces and is quite handy with tools, it tries to apply a Norman Bates twist to the character, who goes on a killing spree, due to an argument between one of the teens and the elderly woman who took care of Leatherface at an old orphanage. With the exception of that motivation, as well as the central sister relationship, very rarely does the film do much with any character development as with a runtime of only 81 minutes, there is this rush to get into the horror as soon as possible, so there’s never any point of rooting for anyone to get out of the mayhem. This is a film that wastes the talent of Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher and that’s a crime!
Since Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a direct sequel to the original film, it brings back Sally Hardesty, the sole survivor of Leatherface’s previous killing spree and now a battle-hardened ranger who wants revenge. No doubt the filmmakers saw David Gordon Green’s Halloween, which was a clever continuation of John Carpenter’s original that explored PTSD through Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode and how fear and hatred towards Michael Myers affected her and later generations of her family. Due to the passing of original actress Marilyn Burns, Sally is now played by Olwen Fouéré, so you immediately can’t make that connection and since the script doesn’t bother to explore her side of the story, she might as well be one of the mindless victims.
Being that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is so lazy with its narrative, does it make it up to us with some gruesome kills? Sure, the murders are gore-tastic, ranging from the hilarious massacre that takes place on a bus where stupid phone-users threaten to make Leatherface a victim of cancel culture, so some of the ludicrous deaths that suggest that he is super-human. However, much like its storytelling, its attempts of scares fall short and no matter how much blood spurts out, the whole thing ends up being incredibly boring.
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