![]() This is the catalyst for the events that fuel Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which triggers the return of Leatherface and the bloody massacres that accompany him. Things, of course, start going downhill on their arrival, especially after Dante and Melody encounter a woman at the Harlow Orphanage, who claims to still own the property after the bank reclaiming it. RELATED: Why Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Timeline Is So Messy The residents seem wary of their presence from the beginning, asking them to be respectful of the place’s history, as it is one marked by bloodshed and the loss of innocent lives. ![]() Lila (Elsie Fisher) and her older sister Melody (Sarah Yarkin) are in Texas with their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), in hopes of kickstarting a business venture in the ghost town of Harlow. I watch enough horror movies to know you can do that and still tell a terrifically macabre tale - once again, 2013's Evil Dead.Texas Chainsaw Massacre opens with the narration of the grotesque killings that transpired on August 18, 1973, and how lone survivor Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré) never publicly opened up about her trauma to this day. It's a shame because splatterhouse goodness this extreme feels wasted by an experience that's too focused on making audiences feel violated and miserable. The fear on Yarkin and Elsie Fisher's faces translates when staring down a lumbering horror icon (Yarkin finds more success) it's just their characters aren't written past traceable outlines. He's meant to chase Generation Z'ers who quote "cancel culture" and spread their utopian rebranding like a cult, leading to a few choice sequences, like when Sarah Yarkin's Melody sees the chainsaw blade coming at her through wooden floorboards like a shark's fin. He can still flail the chainsaw in circular mayhem, but there's nothing to Leatherface outside his linebacker sprints and heavy plodding feet. Mark Burnham's performance as Leatherface requires mainly physical imposition, less vocal in the slasher's later years. So much about Sally Hardesty's inclusion and Leatherface's solo mission misses what even Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation gets right about the psychological horrors of each film atop butcher's shop carnage. I'm especially reminded how Leatherface is a vastly more interesting character when he's following orders from bloodline psychopaths (cannibalistic or not), not operating as just another masked brute. These sweaty visual callbacks to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre endure while other elements feel like a middle finger to the franchise's legacy. Hunter-killer terror unfolds under sunshine strong enough to toast sunflower fields, while the abandoned town of Harlow feels claustrophobic and isolated. Production design recalls better Texas Chainsaw movies as cinematographer Ricardo Diaz captures the blistery, sweltering Lone Star heat on screen. Despite a few townsfolk flying their Confederate flags and holstering handguns, outsiders Melody and Lila eventually lead the show - a brutal display of violence at the expense of a script that's all gristle, no meat. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is no different, as social media chef Dante (Jacob Latimore) charters a pimped-out bus full of investors to Harlow in hopes of gentrifying the dust bowl ghost town. ![]() As most chainsaw massacres go, victims are shuttled to the middle of rural nowhere to meet Leatherface's whirring blade. The post-millennial cast, including the Instafamous Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) - a school shooting survivor - provokes Leatherface (Mark Burnham) in Harlow, Texas, after 50 years of peaceful dormancy. ![]() Texas Chainsaw Massacre positions itself as a clean restart for a franchise with legendary whiffs, but Garcia's messy-as-ever slasher isn’t even better than some of the sequels it dares to erase. It's a cocky move by producers and credited story creators Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues, who boast proper credentials after their remarkable success with the 2013 “requel” Evil Dead. ![]() David Blue Garcia's entry, the ninth one in the southern slaughterhouse franchise, retcons everything except Tobe Hooper's 1974 original, so forget Matthew McConaughey's maniac and Alexandra Daddario tripping over that comically short fence. It'd take a college semester to inform those who aren't Leatherface superfans how we've gotten to 2022's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ![]()
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