We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022)
Around thirteen years ago, a producer acquired the rights to make multiple new entries in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The result of that deal was Texas Chainsaw 3D, which was presented as being a direct sequel to the original film (while ignoring the fact that the original was set in 1973), and the prequel Leatherface, which gave a dreadful back story to the original film. That producer lost the Chainsaw rights after making just two movies - but the rights were quickly snatched up by Legendary Entertainment. With a classic horror property in their grasp, Legendary turned to a filmmaker who had experience reviving a classic horror property: Fede Alvarez, director of the 2013 version of Evil Dead.
Alvarez and his Evil Dead / Don't Breathe co-writer Rodo Sayagues crafted the story for the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with the core idea being inspired by a gentrified neighborhood Alvarez was familiar with in their native Uruguay. They just ported the concept of this neighborhood makeover to Texas... then this story set in Texas was filmed in Bulgaria. At least the director, David Blue Garcia, is from Texas. He was brought in to direct the movie after the Irish filmmaking duo of Andy Tohill and Ryan Tohill had already been at the helm for a week, and producers hadn't been satisfied with the footage they were getting. I really feel for the Tohills; they got the job based on the strength of their feature debut, and landing a well-known franchise gig as their second film had to be very exciting.
That said, I'm glad there was at least a Texan calling the shots. These movies shouldn't be filmed in Bulgaria. At least the Bulgaria of it all isn't as glaringly obvious in this movie as it was in Leatherface, which was also shot in Bulgaria, with the French duo of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury directing. Garcia was actually in the same situation as the Tohills were; he impressed with his feature debut and Chainsaw became his second film.
Once Alvarez and Sayagues had the story in place, Chris Thomas Devlin fleshed it out into a screenplay. Devlin has sold a couple spec scripts, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre leap-frogged over them to become his first writing credit on a film. Watching the movie, it doesn't seem like there was whole lot of script to it. The movie is quite short - the end credits start rolling at 74 minutes, and much of those 74 minutes are taken up by chases and slashing. It does pack nods to a lot of modern hot button issues in there along the way: one of the leads is a survivor of a school shooting, and a group of hipsters complain about open carry gun laws, diesel truck exhaust, and Confederate flags all in the first 20 or so minutes. But the movie isn't interested in picking sides; the character who has a gun on hip and a diesel truck gets to say why he has these things, the woman who has a Confederate hanging outside her place has a reason for it being there, and it's not racism. As outsiders looking in at American life, Alvarez and Sayagues wanted to reference all these things that are being discussed these days. Later there will even be a threat of social media cancellation... directed at a character who surely doesn't even know what social media is. There's a culture clash here, self-righteous city folk crossing paths with country folk who are set in their ways and don't want to hear their complaints and their judgments. But this is just prelude to mayhem. The latest iteration of genre icon Leatherface (now played by Mark Burnham from Lowlife) makes his first kills at the 18 minute mark, and he'll be rampaging for most of the remaining 56 minutes. And guns do turn out to be somewhat useful when characters are faced with a chainsaw-wielding maniac.
The film begins with the voice of John Larroquette playing over a short documentary recap of the events of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre - a nice touch as Larroquette narrated the text crawl that the original movie began with and returned to do some narration for the 2003 remake and its prequel. I just wish this movie had opening text crawl. I miss that aspect of the Chainsaw movies. The original had it, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 had it, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III had it. The text wasn't crawling in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, but at least there was some text there. Then that element got tossed out the window.
This documentary is playing in a Texas gas station where the aforementioned group of hipsters - chef Dante (Jacob Latimore), his bride-to-be Ruth (Nell Hudson), his business partner / fellow chef Melody (Sarah Yarkin), and Melody's younger sister, school shooting survivor Lila (Elsie Fisher) - have stopped on their way to the small, deserted town of Harlow. The place they intend to gentrify by filling with businesses that will be owned by associates from Austin. A party bus loaded with those associates will also be arriving in Harlow shortly so they can pick out and purchase the buildings they want to move into.
The guy with a gun on his hip and a diesel truck is their contractor Richter (Moe Dunford, the star of the Tohills' first movie), and whether you agree with his lifestyle or not he still manages to be more likeable than most of these city people. The woman with a Confederate flag outside her place is Mrs. Virgina Mc (Alice Krige), the last Harlow local, still occupying the now-empty orphanage she ran for decades. Dante insists that she has lost the orphanage to the bank and that Mrs. Mc needs to get out of there. Mrs. Mc insists that she has paid off her debts and still owns her property. The confrontation between them gets so heated that the elderly woman has a heart attack. These city folks have just messed up really badly, because Mrs. Mc wasn't in that place alone. She was still taking care of one last mentally troubled ward. Leatherface.
There's a picture in the orphanage from 1975 that shows Mrs. Mc took Leatherface in soon after the events of the original movie. Since this movie has been marketed as being a direct sequel to the first Chainsaw, you could go along with the idea that Leatherface has been living with Mrs. Mc for all these decades... or Alvarez has also presented the idea that Leatherface wandered in and out of her care throughout the years, allowing the events of other sequels to happen. Continuity has never been this franchise's strong suit, so it makes sense that a movie would allow fans to pick and choose which films they want to imagine happened before this one. You'd have to ignore that Leatherface got his guts chainsawed out at the end of 2, but we didn't have any problem with that when they made 3 or 4. You'd also have to ignore the text crawl at the start of 3 saying that original heroine Sally Hardesty died. Because she's still around in this one.
Mrs. Mc kept Leatherface under control, hidden away from the world. She kept his chainsaw out of his reach... although, for some reason she boarded it inside her bedroom wall instead of throwing it out. As soon as she dies, Leatherface snaps. He cuts the skin off her face to wear as tribute and sets out to destroy all of these big city people that have come into their town and upset Mrs. Mc so badly that it killed her. So like there was, somewhat, in the first Chainsaw and more so in part 2, there is a sympathetic aspect to Leatherface in this movie. You can understand why he's doing what he's doing. He's avenging his caretaker. But does horrendous things and takes down some innocent people while he's at it.
Leatherface gets to work whittling down Harlow's new population before they can even officially move in - like Richter said about feral hogs, "The only way to deal with an invasive species is to eradicate them on sight." Word about his return reaches Texas Ranger Sally Hardesty, now played by Olwen Fouere because original Chainsaw star Marilyn Burns sadly passed away several years ago. Much like Halloween heroine Laurie Strode in Halloween 2018, Sally has been waiting all these years to encounter her attacker again. The idea of a Chainsaw movie bringing Sally back is kind of cool, and making her a Texas Ranger is a nice nod to the fact that she had a Texas Ranger uncle in the second movie. (A moment where she says "I fear no evil" also made me think of her Uncle Lefty.) But it doesn't work very well because it's not Burns. It's not truly Sally then, so her return doesn't mean anything. And I have to say, Sally's return was my least favorite thing about the movie. If it was Burns as the character, I would be upset by the way it's handled. But since it's Fouere it doesn't matter much. So I'm not upset by the way the character is handled, I'm just put off by the fact that she acts incredibly stupid.
There are some dumb things in this Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to be sure. There are some very unlikeable characters, but there are also only some broad stroke attempts at emotional depth. Melody has - ironically, as it turns out - brought her sister to Harlow to try to get away from the dangers of the city. She has understandably become very protective of her sister since the school shooting. Lila has survivor's guilt and is driven to fight back now that she has been put in another awful situation. Sally is really only present to help spur Lila on. I've seen a lot of hate for Melody online, but I thought she redeemed herself by the way she reacted to the death of Mrs. Mc and the way Dante handles it. But more important than all of this is the action and bloodshed. This movie isn't trying to do anything more than give the viewer a bloody good time. The kills start early and come frequently from then on... and this movie is so eager to please that it even becomes the first entry in the franchise to give a legitimate on screen chainsaw massacre. Leatherface racks up a higher on screen body count than ever before, and I found it a delight to behold.
Is this Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the same level as the 1974 film? Absolutely not, not even close. It's not likely that lightning in a bottle can ever be captured again. It's also not its own unique work of brilliance like part 2 was. But that doesn't mean we can't just have fun watching Leatherface do his thing, and I definitely liked this Chainsaw better than some of the ones we've gotten before. Garcia, Devlin, Alvarez, and Sayagues brought Leatherface back just to set him loose for a whole lot of stalking, chasing, and slashing. He's more resilient than ever before, able to take gun shot wounds without being affected too much, sort of like his fellow slashers Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. That's okay, I can go along with it. This is a part 9, after all. For a part 9, I thought it was a hell of a good time.
Garcia says he has ideas for another sequel, and I say bring it on. I'll take all the Leatherface I can get.
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