Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Movie Info

Peekaboo! I kill you!

The town of Harlow has struggled, but now it is finding a second life in online influencers Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and Dante (Jacob Latimore).  With Melody’s sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) and Dante’s girlfriend Ruth (Nell Hudson), plans to buy the whole town to create a mecca for a younger generation have suddenly hit a snag.  A lone resident hasn’t left, and attempts to remove her turn tragic.  Now, the past is coming back to life and Leatherface (Mark Burnham) is born again…and the chainsaw is just warming up!

Directed by David Blue Garcia, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror slasher movie.  A relaunch and direct sequel to the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from 1974, the film is the ninth entry in the franchise and follows Leatherface from 2017.  It was released directly to streaming and made available on Netflix on February 18, 2022.

I love how influencers are able to use things like flowers to highlight their pictures and really boost the emotional impact

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a revolutionary film.  It was edgy, low-budget, and scared a lot of people as a precursor to other modern horror slashers like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.  The years have muddled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s legacy with tons of sequels ranging from decent to bad (and from horror to basically comedy).  Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn’t do much to revitalize the franchise.

The movie feels like an obvious attempt to capitalize on the Halloween relaunch of 2018 with Sally Hardesty returning to settle her past with Leatherface (though replaced by Olwen Fouéré since the original actress Marilyn Burns died in 2014).  Unfortunately, the film doesn’t seem to have much of an identity.  The first thirty to forty minutes feel like a set-up of the new generation living online vs. the old generation.  It also dips into Southern Pride, school shootings, survivor’s guilt, and privileged youth…but it never seems to settle on anything.  The last half of the film is pretty much a traditional slasher and that segment fairs much better than the first half as a result because it doesn’t try as hard.

Have chainsaw, will kill

The cast attempts to be a bit more diverse (which can’t always be said for Texas Chainsaw movies), but the leads quickly fall to Sarah Yarkin and Elsie Fisher.  Both are fine in their roles, but it feels like both Melody and Lila could have been better fleshed out to make them more than scream queens.  Alice Krige has a small role as Mrs. Mc and much of the other cast has their roles minimized once the blood starts flowing.  Olwen Fouéré comes off as barely a plot point in the movie and an attempt to tie the original to this film…but it doesn’t have the weight of something like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween.

Can’t a serial killer live in peace without a bunch of entitled kids moving in and screwing up his life?

There are some decent slasher kills though Leatherface was never as creative and original as some of his contemporary slashers.  This is combined with some stylish shooting that utilizes the dusty dessert look to give the movie a Western feel, overall the movie either feels like it needs more blood or less blood…or at least more evenly distributed.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre just feels like another floundering entry in a series which probably peaked with Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2.  Though I have had fun with some of the later ones, it feels like this movie should take a decade or two off.  There are a few good movies within this movie, but they needed to settle on one and work on that.  I’m sure the Chainsaw will be back.

Related Links:

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)

Leatherface:  Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III (1990)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre:  The Next Generation (1994)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)