The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
At this point, the only reason to make more movies with Leatherface is to try and put your own spin on the property. The continuity of the films has been non-existent, and it seems as though every film in this franchise with the above title is just a reboot. Did anyone really care about a legacy sequel to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 visceral masterpiece? In a way, it’s hard to see how much screenwriter Chris Thomas Devlin (working from a story by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues) cared about that, either; we’ll get to that later, though.
We get a rundown of the events of the 1974 film, which was- if you’ll recall- inspired by the exploits of Ed Gein, at the start, before we turn to four young adults in the modern day. They have stopped to get gas and snacks as they make their way into Harlow, Texas, from Austin. They and some investors have bought up all the property in the abandoned town, with the intention of auctioning it off to young entrepreneurs looking to develop the town. The town is a ghost town, where only three people remain- a mechanic, who helped them survey the city; an old woman who claims she still owns her home; and the woman’s grown son, who goes with her to the hospital when he she has a heart attack. I bet you can’t guess who he is…
The only other movie with Leatherface I’ve watched is the 2003 remake. I hated that one because, compared to the grimy feel of Hooper’s film, the slick sheen the Michael Bay-produced movie gave off just didn’t work with that type of exploitation horror thriller. Leatherface should have some ugly to him in his films, and while it’s certainly obvious the film was made with more than a $5 production budget, it did feel like some of that grit and grim was back. Part of that is the high contrast between shadows and daylight director David Blue Garcia and cinematographer Ricardo Diaz accomplish, and part of that is because, the film is kind of nihilistic in its approach to life and death. And character. And story. And tone. And anything resembling coherent narrative. In that way, I already put it miles above the 2003 film.
The main characters are played by Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Jacob Latimore and Nell Hudson, and they’re typical slasher movie fodder. Leatherface is played by Mark Burnham, who has a truly imposing stature that makes him quite striking in the role. We also get Moe Dunford as Richter, the mechanic, and John Larroquette back as the narrator at the beginning. We also get Sally, the lone survivor from the original, played by Olwen Fouéré. It’s not the first time Sally has been back in one of the movies, but in this one, she’s very much in the Laurie Strode mold from the recent “Halloween” legacy sequels. One of the wilder choices is what this film does with her, and I can’t tell whether we’re supposed to be perplexed by it or laughing our asses off. I feel like, if the latter were the case, the film would have been better telegraphed as a dark comedy.
I don’t know that I will ever watch this film again, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I enjoyed the experience of doing so for 81 minutes, especially when it goes for the ending it has, and the result is one of the most insane things I’ve seen a franchise movie do sincerely in a while. David Blue Garcia has my appreciation for that alone.
