Second, all the creepiness has been bled from the template. The new, saggy mask makes Leatherface look like Chainsaw Panda. It was not explained how he ended up in an orphanage, but doing so could have added a whole second dimension to the single one Texas Chainsaw Massacre employs. How had he lived there so long without killing all the children? Maybe orphans disappeared steadily over the years? Perhaps the old lady was in on it? Garcia should have included a musical flashback with Leatherface wearing a red afro wig. That could have worked, as most character development here consists of haircuts. Ruth gets to be the blond one, and that is her entire persona until her demise.
The gore seems mostly played for laughs and in juvenile ways. It is violence, a la Looney Tunes. It also has that sad aura when a 70s property tries to get hip to new-fangled gadgets. This is why the film rests on the same level as Halloween Resurrection, the reality show sequel with Busta Rhymes. This is no more apparent than the crowning sequence of Leatherface cutting up folks in a live stream with comments and emojis going nuts. The visual allusions to the original’s finale aren’t so many clever nods as they are convulsive lurches.
©2021 Legendary, Courtesy of Netflix
“…is trying to ape the recent Halloween reboots.”
Obviously, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is trying to ape the recent Halloween reboots. It ignores all other entries and brings the final girl from the first one back to hunt down the slasher. Working from a story by the Don’t Breathe team of Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, Chris Thomas Devlin doesn’t so much write the screenplay as he traces one. It makes the two original sequels look like works of art, which they sort of are. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 is a surreal masterpiece that manages to out-crazy star Dennis Hopper. The third entry was written by splatterpunk legend David Schow never had a chance at acclaim as the MPAA butchered it. The uncut version of part 3 is excellent. And the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Next Generation with Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger is now officially not as hated or maligned, as its ship has risen higher on the flood of bile released by Garcia’s version.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre avoids innovation to jump into as many cow-pies as it can find. There is a scene where the chainsaw cuts a pipe over someone’s head, and liquid s**t pours out all over them. That is pretty much sums up the viewing experience.
"…avoids innovation in order to jump into as many cow-pies as it can find."
