By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)
There has been great success lately with old horror franchises like Halloween, Candyman, and to an extent, Scream. Each movie getting a new film that is a direct sequel to the original. This direction brings fresh life to the films and an easy introduction to those who have never seen the original. Also, they have added a nice bit of legacy by bringing back past characters (ie: Laurie Strode return in Halloween Kills). This helps for both nostalgia and story purposes. This trend has been a great success but I was curious if they could keep the momentum going with this new Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
As a horror fan, I love it all. I enjoy the good and the bad, the suspense and the gore. Sadly, Texas Chainsaw Massacre suffers from a lot of problems. I am not confident I was the target audience. The only real positive for this film is the gore aspect. An audience that thrives on butchery over plot, this update would most likely be a blast. There are a couple fun kills, but beyond that, this film did nothing to make the franchise and Leatherface stand out for me. It comes down to the story. The whole narrative is a group of entrepreneurs selling off the properties of the town of Harlow (the town that the original story was based). They are ironically looking to build a new, safe community. However, Leatherface has other plans and begins to murder every single person in sight.
Lila (Elsie Fisher), Melody (Sarah Yarkin), Ruth (Nell Hudson and Dante (Jacob Latimore) in Netflix’s 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The script is barely held together with characters that are unlikeable and hard to get behind. The main protagonist is Lila (played by Elsie Fisher). She has an updated and poignant backstory of being a victim of a school shooting. This film really wants you to remember this group's disdain for guns. We don’t know the reason for the shooting until we are halfway through the film. Even after the revolution, it had very little impact to the plot. Everyone else just has cookie-cutter attributes despite having a competent cast. You get the overbearing sister who is obnoxious (for me), but also a local that you are supposed to hate yet end up liking. On top of those characters, they also brought back a legacy character, Sally (played by Olwen Fouéré) from the original film. I was very excited to see the flashback and how a veteran of the original mayhem would handle things today. Unfortunately, she brought nothing substantial to the film. She is misused and under appreciated. She is just another body on the pile. I feel cheated that she was not allowed even a proper showdown with Leatherface.
Sally Hardesty (played by Olwen Fouéré) in Netflix’s 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I believe the other problem with this film is it never felt like a big deal in horror. Halloween, Scream, and Candyman all had huge budgets and theatrical releases (including months of planning and ads) building excitement for their releases. They embraced promoting the return of past characters. As far as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all I saw in terms of advertisements was one trailer when it was first announced and then forgotten about until the release date. It felt more like an afterthought. After great success with Fear Street and Army of th Dead, I had just expected more from Netflix. I am curious if that impacted the reviews? It appeared everyone online completely forgot this film was coming and thus its reception was lackluster, to say the least.
Leatherface (Mark Burnham) in Netflix’s 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I wish they had put more into this film to give it more substance. As it stands, it is near the bottom of the pile of the Texas Chainsaw franchise, and rightfully so in my opinion. As noted, I know others have enjoyed it, which is appreciable. Woefully, I am not one of them.