Directed By:
David Blue Garcia
Written By:
Chris Thomas Devlin, Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues
Starring:
Alice Krige, John Larroquette, Elsie Fisher
Genre:
Crime, Horror, Thriller
Rated: R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and language.
All media used courtesy of Bad Hombre, Exurbia Films, Legendary Entertainment
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is out this weekend and is a legacy sequel (thanks Scream 2022 for coining that term) bringing back the original characters from the first film, as well as upping the gore, the kills are more intricate, and it’ll leave you in a spot for a sequel. In this, a group of- ok well a cult of gen z’s arrive at a town they purchased out in order to make it for themselves. Think gentrification but for a small time ghost town. Or is it a ghost town, as one resident is still in a part of town. After the youths encounter her and her other resident, they are put on a course that will get everyone killed. Can they survive the chainsaw massacre before them or will the ghost town become a slaughterhouse?
This movie is literally under an hour and a half runtime, and that’s exactly how it needs to be here. I haven’t watched all of the films in this franchise, actually only the original. But I still understood who each character was, and some of their motivations were very simple but emotional. The rest are very easily disposable, and nobody is trying to make an arthouse film here. This is giving you exactly what you clicked on it for, Texas, Chainsaws, and a massacre.
The acting and characters again are very simplistic. There’s just not a lot to delve into. Even the returning character from the first film barely has time for a backstory, and feels more of a crazy ex machina than a character. Elsie Fisher, known for her breakout role in Eighth Grade, shines in this as the one with the most nuance to her story. Again it doesn’t really want to explore that too much, because this runtime is so short it’s very much driven by the gore and action scenes.
But I did feel the execution of the deaths and mayhem was done well here. You can see pretty clearly whats happening so not a ton of shakey cam. Overall, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a fun little splatter film that both makes it work in it’s own, but also gives more credit to films like Scream 2022 that really nailed the current trend of horror films and any franchise film to be honest. I’d recommend for fans of the series and horror fans, but if you are squeamish around blood steer clear of this one.
