Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) Review

 

 Spoilers 

A ghost town ripe for development isn’t actually as abandoned as the group of ‘influencers’ thought when a girl with PTSD, her sister and friends find themselves facing off against the monstrous Leatherface, who nearly 50 years ago went on a murder rampage.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 thankfully doesn’t disregard to its own time logic with the age of its lead character like 2013’s offering, but it doesn’t have the tension or thrill or 2003’s Marcus Nispel outing. Without drawing any further comparisons to the other sequels and reboots it ignores, director David Blue Garcia with a visual eye offers a great looking and staged film. Ricardo Diaz’s cinematography is note worthy, if stylised. It looks great, sets, locations and lighting. The music by Colin Stetson is on point and complements the mayhem and few subtle moments. The special effects are first rate and offer some genuine wincing moments, even your left a little bit numb by them by the closing act. Also Garcia’s sequel lacks that hot Texas feel and it hasn’t got the roughness or grit of its 1974 predecessor.

Mark Burnham plays old Leatherface with a fitting new mask effortlessly right down to a slight limp caused in the original. He’s not an enforcer here, he’s simply looking after his mother at an orphanage, that is until Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayague real estate plot pulls him out of ‘retirement’! Olwen Fouéré plays Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns passed away in 2014) this was a great opportunity to bring back the character even if a little predictable in the wake of the recent Halloween (2018) and lacklustre Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) reviving original leads. However, Fouéré is solid but is completely underused, yes she turns up at the right moment and also gets a (little illogical anti-climatic) showdown; but it’s mostly an extended cameo of repeatedly looking at an old Polaroid of the original’s characters. There’s no mention of Drayton Sawyer or Grandpa (presumably dead), oddly , as they were as much to blame as Leatherface in the original.

Chris Thomas Devlin’s screenplay to his credit does play with expectations synonymous with the genre especially with the few locals. However, getting under the skin of the film, the issue with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 is certainly not Garcia’s direction or Álvarez and Sayague’s story per se, although it would have been easier to swallow with estate agents rather than ‘influencers’ and the aforementioned Hardesty issue. It’s not the acting either, it’s the characters in Devlin’s script. Sarah Yarkin as Melody and Elsie Fisher as her sister Lila along with the other characters including Jacob Latimore as Dante, are forced to be modern millennial and relatable protagonists, but they just come of as unlikable. Social commentary is thrown down the views throat. Development is dropped as soon as the killing starts. Dante’s partner Ruth (well played by Nell Hudson) is killed off. There’s no punch to it without Dante being present. 

Notable is actor Moe Dunford who is great as Richter, set up as a unsavoury local but turns out to be likable handy-man mechanic. Alice Krige as Virginia is impressive, William Hope as Sheriff is excellent; but anyone who has any credence is killed off pretty quick and their screen time cut prematurely short. As a nod, John Larroquette reprises his role as the original film’s narrator.

It follows the playbook of gruesome kills… it’s gory, a hammer, cleaver, axe, cork screw, bone crushing and snapping action. Memorably, when Leatherface brings out his old favourite chainsaw, there’s a slaughter on a bus of all the Gen Z, heads in their phone, background characters reminiscent of Predator 2’s (1990) subway, Blade’s (1999) nightclub, even Rogue One/Mandalorian’s corridor deaths. Ageist folk may get a kick out of this; but I’m not to sure about the young adults that the film is predominantly aimed at.

Even with grief-stricken Leatherface shot, stabbed and slashed- it finishes with a horror ‘twist’ end and callback antics only topped with a chainsaw decapitation. There’s also an after credit Rambo-eques scene where Leatherface returns home.

Overall, it’s a pleasant ride, well produced and directed, while being respectful to the original. Garcia and company offer some great visual moments. Nevertheless, with so many similarly looking modern horror films in the same vein it’s not enough to elevate this above its contemporaries aside from it’s connection with Tobe Hooper’s visceral pitted original. Recommend but with caution.