Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) Review

Much in the vein of horror franchises such as “Halloween” and “Scream”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has decided to reboot the franchise for a fourth time. The film will serve as a direct follow up to the 1974 original directed by Tobe Hooper. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is another example of a “requel” (reboot/sequel) that has trended in the horror genre.

The film was released on Feb. 18, 2022 exclusively on Netflix, becoming the first entry in the franchise to not be released in theaters.

Starting with my positives, there are some seriously great moments of gore present throughout the film. All of the kills are quite good. The practical effects used look brutal and more importantly, look real. Though there are a couple rough uses of CGI blood that looked quite fake, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” killed it in the gore department.

The iconic antagonist, Leatherface, is handled fairly well. Though I like his look in the original and the 2003 remake better, he still looked imposing. The costume designers took a slightly different approach, due to this being a much older leatherface, but his overall look feels like a direct evolution of the character. Leatherface is a bonafide horror icon, and I don’t think the film did him a disservice.

I will say, however, that there are some inconsistencies from prior films. For instance, it doesn’t make any sense that Leatherface is so strong; he is around sixty or seventy years old in this film and human after all. Additionally, there are a couple of moments that feel out of place for his character. In particular, he is presented as way too intelligent compared to how he was portrayed in the 1974 original.

Sadly, the kills and Leatherface himself are my only real positives in the film. The biggest problem with the film is the title, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. It doesn’t feel like a “Texas Chainsaw” movie in the first place. Whether it’s the very clean, albeit good, cinematography, editing and shot composition or the set design, the entire movie’s vibe doesn’t feel anything resembling the original 70’s film. The original’s low budget truly benefited the style and overall vibe. The 2022 version’s much larger budget and modern look simply makes the film less interesting.

The original had such a subtle, visceral approach to horror. In particular, Hooper’s 1974 had little on-screen violence, a non-existent score and extremely grotesque, realistic set design. 2022’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” lacks all of this. It’s too clean, too glossy. It lacks the grit the original had. Even the kills, that I mentioned previously, don’t feel like they belong in a direct follow-up to the 1974 original. It felt more like a “Friday the 13th” set of overly-gory kills.

Continuing with the theme of comparing this to the original, I had a major problem with the handling of the character of Sally Hardesty. Sally was the protagonist or “final girl” in the 1974 original and was portrayed by Marilyn Burns. Unfortunately, Burns passed away in 2014.

However, the filmmakers felt the need to recast Sally in the film. Without going into spoilers, the way her character is handled is extremely disrespectful in my opinion. I always think it’s a tricky thing to handle when a character’s actor passes away in a franchise. In this case, it would have been best to leave her character in the past.

The writers tried to give the character of Sally a character arc much like Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode from the “Halloween” franchise. However, this was handled very poorly and felt like a last-minute addition that could have easily been the main focus of the film. A dive into Sally’s psychology after surviving Leatherface would have been much more interesting than the main plot of the four young adults we were given instead.

Many of the suspense sequences leading up to kills are extremely cliche and telegraphed. Given that I am a massive horror fan, I’ve seen these setups a thousand times. A character seriously tries to hide in a closet (a horror cliche that has been around since the 70’s). A lot of the movie simply feels silly and misguided until Leatherface begins killing again.

Overall, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is a competently-made film on a technical level, but it lacks any of the features that made the original an absolute masterpiece in the horror genre. Great kills and a brisk pace couldn’t save a film that doesn’t justify its own existence after four different attempts at rebooting Leatherface and the franchise itself.

3.5/10