Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Film Review

Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), head to the remote town of Harlow, Texas to start an idealistic new business venture. But their dream soon turns into a waking nightmare when they accidentally disrupt the home of Leatherface, the deranged serial killer whose blood-soaked legacy continues to haunt the area’s residents — including Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the sole survivor of his infamous 1973 massacre who’s hell-bent on seeking revenge.

Even though we live in a world dominated by sequels, remakes, reboots, and superhero movies, I, for one, am a humongous fan of the “legacy sequel”. These are movies that serve as direct continuations of the previous film in that given franchise, while also bringing back some of that original film’s cast. This trend started to absolutely explode starting with the release of David Gordon Green‘s 2018 follow-up to John Carpenter‘s Halloween.

What that film did so brilliantly was re-introduce us to the terrifying town of Haddonfield, Illinois, and bringing the horrors to a modern audience while also bringing back fan favorites such as Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie Strode. But what was so great about Strode in that movie was that she felt completely necessary for the story. It wasn’t like the filmmakers cast Curtis in the movie solely because, well, she’s Jamie Lee Curtis. They cast her because they understood that a terrific story could be told with her character, decades after the original massacre that serial killer Michael Myers embarked on.

The most recent Scream film did this arguably even better by bringing back beloved characters such as Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers in meaningful and engrossing ways. Obviously, David Blue Garcia did not watch those two films and take notes because his Texas Chainsaw Massacre legacy sequel is absolutely abysmal and one of the worst mainstream horror films I have seen in years. Not only does this film have absolutely no reason to exist, it feels like one of the most half-done horror films of the past ten years.

Seriously, it’s almost as if they barely tried here. This film runs at a total of eighty-four minutes, ten of those minutes are credits. So really, this film barely feels like it even has a story. To be honest, it doesn’t really have a story. In this new sequel, we follow a group of teenagers who visit the town of Harlow for a business venture. It’s not long after that they start getting picked off one by one by the deranged serial killer Leatherface.

It’s basically the set-up for the original film by Tobe Hooper, but that film is a classic for so many reasons. The budget was so incredibly small to the point where it felt homemade which just made things so much more disturbing because it felt like something that actually happened. I’ll never forget my dad telling me the first time he watched Hooper’s original film, some part in the back of his brain thought that the film’s events were real.

The first time I watched the film, I could see why – it’s genuinely haunting. And don’t even get me started on the scene where Sally is at the dinner table. Although nothing outright “scary” happens, it still remains one of the most unsettling horror movie scenes in history. Sometimes, all you need to craft a creepy scene is some truly phenomenal actors who understand their assignment well.

Clearly, the folks that made this new film did not understand the assignment because Texas Chainsaw Massacre is essentially seventy-four minutes of annoying young adult characters running around and getting gutted. If you are a massive fan of gore in films, you’re going to get a kick out of this film because the gore is, admittedly, terrific. It’s by far the most gruesome entry in the franchise to date, but when that’s the only thing you have to offer in your film, it’s not really a good sign.

And I can’t help but feel bad for these actors because they probably signed onto this project simply because they were excited to be given the opportunity to star in a legacy sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sarah Yarkin – who had a small but fun role in Christopher Landon‘s sci-fi slasher comedy Happy Death Day 2U – is technically the protagonist here, but she is given next to nothing in terms of substance.

Her entire character arc is running around and crying, and… that’s it. Seriously, the character of Melody is so unbelievably underdeveloped that it is actually kind of embarrassing. Elsie Fisher is also in this movie as Lila. Fisher is one of the most underrated young actresses working today, in my personal opinion. After her star-making performance in Bo Burnham‘s painfully relatable comedy Eighth Grade, it seemed like Fisher was about to be on top of the world with plenty of terrific projects lined up.

Sadly, this is not a terrific project for the young star. I want to make it clear, though, that Fisher is not bad in this movie. As a matter of fact, she is the most charismatic and enthusiastic actor in the entire movie. She shows a ton of emotion (particularly in the third act) which was great to see, but I spent almost the entire film wishing I had seen that performance in a different movie. Fisher fits like a glove in the horror genre with her incredible acting talent – I just hope one day, she gets a project that will actually match her talents.

Another thing that bothered me here was the appearance of the aforementioned Sally Hardesty, portrayed by Olwen Fouéré. Why would you go through the hassle of getting this legacy actor back in such an iconic role if you’re barely going to use her? Her entire character here is the same as Strode’s character in 2018’s Halloween. Seriously. Both characters have been traumatized by their past, and both have been waiting year-round for an opportunity to kill their tormentor.

With Strode, it was Michael Myers. For Hardesty, it’s Leatherface. Fouéré really only has about ten minutes of screen-time here (maybe even less), and I just couldn’t help but wonder what the point of this whole movie was by the time the end credits rolled. If you’re going to fully commit and make a legacy sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre – go for it, and good luck. But if you’re going to do it half-baked, just don’t. This movie is a dishearteningly lazy legacy sequel that has no reason to exist and serves as a painful reminder that this franchise should’ve stayed buried.