REVIEW: "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2022); A Disservice To Fans
2/12 ForReel Score | 1/5 Stars
Did we really need another Texas Chainsaw film? Legendary Entertainment sure thought so. In hopes of riding on the box office success of other recent horror “requels” like Halloween (2018) and Scream (2022), this new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film checks requel boxes, yet still leaves so much to be desired.
“Requel” is the emerging term for a movie that revives a presumably ended or abandoned franchise by revisiting familiar storylines, characters, and tropes like a sequel, but also introducing new or more modern components like a reboot. However, to make a horror requel worthwhile, you can't just slap together a film with bland characters, gratuitous violence, and call it a day. There has to be a story there, a purpose. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) is void of any substance and feels dead in the water as early as 20 minutes in. The remaining hour is a snooze fest that’s ever so often interrupted by buckets of blood.
Set nearly 50 years after the brutal teen slayings in 1973, Leatherface returns. Sarah Yarkin plays Melody, an entrepreneur who plans to revitalize the remote Texas town of Harlow. She brings along her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade), business partner Dante (Jacob Latimore), and his girlfriend Ruth (Nell Hudson). The first thing to catch their eye is a confederate flag. Desperate to take it down before the investors arrive, they enter the abandoned orphanage only to discover it is still occupied by Mrs. Mc (Alice Krige) and a large older man (Mark Burnham).
The stress of being evicted causes Mrs. Mc to have a stroke. Ruth joins police and the mysterious older man as they rush her to the hospital, but Mrs. Mc dies en route, sending the the older man into a murderous rage. He then rips off Mrs. Mc’s face and reveals that he is, in fact, Leatherface. Seeing the infamous killer might ramp up excitement for fans, but sadly, the film flatlines almost immediately thereafter.
The story is too bogged down by infective social commentary, meaningless subplots, and too many unlikable characters to enjoy the blood bath. Hudson and Latimore do the best they can with the script, but their characters are scarce. Yarkin and Fisher’s performances are laughable; daytime soap operas have seen more convincing performances. And although the original film’s main lead, Marilyn Burns playing Sally, passed away in 2014, Olwen Fouéré was recast in the role. But even her efforts are wasted and there is really no pay off to her addition.
The 1974 original is a superb film; a horrific slaughter that set the standard for the genre at that time. It wasn’t a heavy gore fest, but more of a disturbing, raw, and visceral thriller. Even the 2003 remake was able to capture a similar effect of dreadful suspense while also dialing in the violence. The audience is robbed of that here. Look to Scream (2022) as a good example of bringing back legacy characters to pass the torch on to the new generation. This Texas Chainsaw Massacre makes a joke of it, both metaphorically and literally, with trite comedy - in particular, the “try anything and your canceled bro” line - that produces more eye rolls than laughs. It all continues to raise the question, who signed off on this?
Even before the film’s release, there were a multitude of red flags in the production. Initial directors Ryan and Andy Tohill left the project after just a week due to studio interference. They were quickly replaced with David Blue Garcia, who scrapped everything and reshot the previous footage. What’s even worse is that the test audience panned the film and went so far as to go on Reddit to bash the film even further. Legendary then scrapped a theatrical release and sold the film to Netflix.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) fumbles the bag and goes to show just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Acting and Casting - 0 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 0 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 0 | Reviewer's Preference - 0 | What does this mean?