Random Movie Series Review - Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

It's been a while since I last reviewed a slasher film or series of films. It's also been a little while since I reviewed anything here and the reason for the delay, was a family bereavement. But I'm back now and ready to review and today, we're looking at another iconic series of slasher horror films. Much like with the Halloween films, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films have different timelines and as with most fandoms, fans and people that watch these films will of course draw their own conclusions to what is considered canon to them and what isn't. Seeing as I have only seen the very original 1974 film and the most recent Netflix film, plus what the director has said about the timeline, I'm going to just go with those two for now and should I see the other films, I will review those at a later date. But for now, here's what I think about the slasher killer that enjoys using a chainsaw and bears similarities to the Whisperers from The Walking Dead in some way:

1974

Somewhere in Texas in 1973, five young people are in a van on the way to visit an old homestead. They stop at a cemetery to pay respects to the grandfather of Sally (played by Marilyn Burns) and Franklin (played by the late Paul A. Partain) whose grave remains undisturbed. As they continue on their journey, they soon pass a slaughterhouse and upon doing the usual horror tropes (which I believe were unheard of at the time this film was released initially), they cross paths with a large man wearing a mask that's made of skin who intends to torture and kill them. As iconic as the film is in terms of what it introduced to the slasher genre, I will admit that I had a bit of a hard time following it. Even though it was marketed as based on real events, it's actually entirely fictional. But I did enjoy it, despite finding it hard to follow with the set pieces and how it just continues to show that the best killers are ones that have lost all sense of humanity, like Leatherface here (who in this film is played by the late Gunnar Hansen). Also, appreciative of the clever camerawork too here. 8/10

2022

Set 50 years after the last film and not completely ignoring its many sequels (though I am for the sake of this review), another group of young people, travel to a largely abandoned town in Texas to auction off old properties and create a place that's, for lack of a better way to describe it, hip and trendy. However, while much of the place has no residents so to speak, a lady called Ginny (played by Alice Krige) and a large mad, are still around and ultimately leave when Ginny becomes unwell and must be taken to hospital. As the investors arrive for the auction, the large man is revealed to be Leatherface (this time played by Mark Burnham) and returns to the town with the intent of starting another killing spree which soon attracts the attention of the sole survivor of his spree in the original film and this time, she is ready to end him. One of the big issues with well established horror franchises is that after you learn its formula, its rules and how things are done, it's just not all that scary anymore. This more recent film does well in keeping the blood and gore going, as most horrors should do. It also does well in ensuring that Leatherface is a formidable opponent to the protagonists, which if I'm being honest, a few of them deserved what was coming to them. But where it fails is when it tries to be scary, and it just isn't as well as not doing anything new or original with the common horror tropes that the original film established in the genre to begin. So I guess overall, it will please some fans. But there are much more scary films out there than this. Even the very first film was scarier than this. 6/10

So there you have it. A strong first film which set the stage for many slasher horror films that followed it. But a pretty rubbish sequel set many years into the future to the here and now. I hope we get better sequels going forward and that's just my opinion. 7/10