If you are a fan of the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,“ this revision movie is far from its glory, and it's obvious from the start.
Synopsis
Influencers want to make a Texas ghost town into a new safe place for all. But will this truly be a safe place or will they find out this ghost town still has some life left in it? This Netflix film is a direct sequel to the original ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, and the ninth installment in the franchise.
What I loved
The movie was fast pace and pretty short, so it didn't leave me a lot of time to question things happening on screen, it just simply moved to the next scene. We moved through getting to the town, then settling into the plot of in the first 10 minutes of the film, so everything happened pretty quickly. I'm not usually a fan of fast-paced films, but in this case, I appreciated it.
The bones of the story are interesting. There was a lot of interest for me in the plot, it felt like a fresh storyline about influencers (but they weren't the cringey type that usually gets written). It was interesting to take the concept of building a safe place where everyone is welcomed and making it a town of their own, I just wish we got more of the backstory on why they wanted to make this place and why they picked this town (other than the fact it was cheap).
What I didn't love
There is a lot of gore in this movie, I mean a ton. I’m not a fan of gory horror movies, so this movie being a gore centered plotline with little actual substance really made me dislike this film. I think there are plenty of ways to make a horror movie scarier without constantly covering the screen with blood, guts, and decapitated people. Every kill scene went from zero to a hundred quickly (like splitting people in half and taking their heads off) with a lot of blood present.
There's barely any story, so we don't really get to connect to the characters. One of the main characters we see little glimpses into an event in their life, but not really anything else. The glimpses we get are just quick flashbacks with no dialogue and a third person view of them scrolling on social media pages. All we know is that they are trying to make a ghost town a safe place for people, but no one has any backstory, which leads to a lack of character development and confusion.
For being a sequel to the original ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ a lot of things don't add up. Like Leatherface doesn't feel like the original killer, but is supposedly him. The backstory the movie gives him contradicts to the original and the characters we meet that are attached to Leatherface don't line up with the original movie. Going for the sequel plotline makes no sense if the original story gets overshadowed.
Verdict
While this movie had the potential to be good, instead it became a movie that lacked plot and character development that was then replaced by gore. The movie didn't even scare me, it just grossed me out more than anything. If you like a movie surrounded by little plot and a lot of guts, this movie is for you.
I give ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ a 1 out of 5 stars.
