After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town.
Chuck says:
Of the eight sequels that have been made to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, David Blue Garcia’s imaginatively titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the best of the bunch. Keep in mind, that’s a very low bar.
One of the things I admire about Hooper’s approach in the original is the restraint he showed in depicting the murders at its core. The original Chainsaw is one of the greatest shell games in cinematic history, a film that promises to show viewers the grisliest of murders yet succeeds in suggesting the violence rather than depicting it in an obvious, gory manner. Employing razor sharp editing, often cutting on action, Hopper’s less-is-more approach and ability to create a genuine sense of dread are what makes the 1974 feature a classic of the genre that doesn’t age.
Every sequel has eschewed this approach, opting for the obvious, each subsequent entry relying more and more on graphic depictions of limbs being severed and blood being splattered. Garcia’s film is certainly no exception as the bloodletting is frequent and copious, however it must be said the director is, at the very least capable of composing an intriguing shot and moving the camera with intent. The film is never less than visually dynamic.
The story – such as it is – involves a group of young influencers who go to a small, abandoned Texas town with the intent of revitalizing it. Their dreams of a trendy burg replete with art galleries, trendy eateries and hip music is dependent on a group of investors pouring money into this venture, who are brought to town for a looksee on a party bus.
They have no idea what they are getting into as the four hipsters who’ve hatched this plan – Dante, Ruth, Lila and Melody (Jacob Latimore, Nell Hudson, Elsie Fisher and Sarah Yarkin) – have gotten there before them and have pissed off the wrong guy. Leatherface (Mark Burnham), who’s been in hiding since the original murders 50 years ago, according to the film’s retcon timeline, is back on the rampage. This tends to happen when you forcibly evict a homicidal maniac’s mother and inadvertently cause her death.
One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is that it waits a good half hour before Leatherface makes his first appearance, the screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin summing up the events from the previous film in a clever, efficient manner. As for the violence, it’s not for the faint-of-heart. Every decapitation, severing or hacking is done in such a way that it leaves little to the imagination. I have to admit I laughed and got a bit of a dark kick out of the movie’s main set piece, as Leatherface invades the party bus and when he boards, the clueless millennials think it’s all a gag and begin filming him on their phones. Needless to say, it’s the last thing they ever do.
A subplot in which Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouere), the only survivor from the original film, is found to be living in seclusion and comes out of hiding to enact her revenge on Leatherface is a shameless theft from the recent Halloween reboot and is thrown away before it’s truly developed.
2 Stars
