The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie review: David Blue Garcia’s Netflix film is the ninth instalment in the series of films featuring the deranged killer Leatherface.
David Bleu Garcia's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, streaming on Netflix, is the ninth film in the series of Leatherface, a maniac killer who uses a chainsaw to behead his victims and wears his face as a mask. . The first film in Garcia's film series shares its title with the 1974 horror classic directed by Tobe Hooper, as well as the 2003 remake of the same name. The 2022 film, I feel, will appeal to two types of audiences.
First of all, gore lovers. And then the type that you enjoy the kind of cultural commentary you see in HBO's succession. Being a gorehound with an active interest in the culture wars, I thoroughly enjoyed Garcia's reboot. It could also appeal to an entirely new Gen-Z demographic who hadn't seen any of the Leatherface movies before. But I'm not very sure. GarcÃa's film doesn't really portray him as a model of virtue. They come across as thugs, self-righteous, fools.
So, whether the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 works or not is entirely a matter of one's values and taste in movies and politics. This is a warning before reading any further.
The Plot: Four young people make their way to the Texas town of Harlow, the kind of backyard where you'll find cannibalistic, unsophisticated killer-types looking to trap and torture city-cutters.
Dante (Jacob Latimore), a chef, and Melody (Sarah Yarkin), their professional fellow social media influencers. (You already hate them, right?) Dante has a girlfriend, Ruth (Nell Hudson). Most interesting in the lot is Melody's sister Leila, played by Elsie Fischer, in Bo Burnham's 2018 film Eighth Grade. Leela is a survivor of a school shooting. Hence, she mostly remains calm and does not feel the need to talk much and disturb the audience.
Their mission is to buy and sell Harlow to establish it as a haven for young creators and professionals. Is this a good idea? Leela tells that it is miles away from the city. But no one is in a mood to listen to him. The cultural commentary, as I mentioned earlier, is one of the reasons I enjoyed the film. Just one example: Dante, who is black, sees a Confederate flag hanging from a building they need to sell. Instead of expressing anguish or hurt, she worries about how it will look to her "investors" who are about to proceed to survey the place in a few hours.
The townspeople naturally feel animosity towards Dante and Co, but they just want to take the money and move on. Macho mechanic Richter (Moe Dunford) quietly tolerates these characters. He carries a gun all the time, listens to heavy metal, is a man who does manual labor for a living. Naturally, Melody finds this Toxic Masculinity 101. When Richter and Melody's sister Lila begin to form an unlikely friendship, Leatherface enters the picture. He wreaks havoc on the group and their young friends and allies. It's fun to watch.
Where did leatherface come from? Watch the film to know. Also returning is Sally Hardesty, the sole survivor from Hopper's debut film, in which she played the protagonist. Since then, Sally has occasionally appeared in the series as a minor character. This is the first time since 1974 that Sally has a leading role. (GarcÃa's film reintroduces the series; for example, Sally was pronounced dead in a 1990 installment). In Hopper's film, Sally (Marilyn Burns) was fragile and easily intimidated. 50 years later, Sally, now played by Olwen Faure, is a hardened ranger who has vowed to kill Leatherface and avenge the deaths of her friends. Delicious action awaits.
Garcia understands that the MVP of these films is Leatherface. The screenplay by Fed Alvarez and Rodeo Sayagüez gives them a bunch of good scenes. Halfway into the movie, one is particularly great, with Leatherface finding his iconic chainsaw after breaking down a wall. The writers and filmmakers understand the mythical status of this monster, and they do right by that. The strength of Alvarez and Sayaguz is a natural fit for this series. They previously collaborated on Don't Breathe (2016), a legendary horror-thriller in which young people attack a house that turns out to be hell on earth.
Hopper's film will, of course, always be the best because Hopper took the premise very seriously. What if, in fact, people like me and the readers of this review end up in a remote village or town and encounter a crazy, cannibalistic family? The 1974 film was brutal, minimalistic and unsatisfying. Terror was communicated without any frills.
However, Hopper changes the entire tone of the first film in the 1986 sequel, which turns out to be an ironic dark comedy. Since then, the series has struggled to return to its origins. GarcÃa's film strikes an almost equal balance between the seriousness of Hopper's origin and the irony and self-awareness inherent in the content. The last shot was hilarious. Once again, there is a screaming woman who follows Leatherface as she escapes, but this time she is in a self-driving car.