This is the follow up to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Not Part 2. Or “The Next Generation.” Or “Texas Chainsaw 3D.” No this is the official, official (seriously this time…?) follow up to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Really it’s a legacy sequel that pretty much takes from David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” movies and depicts Old Man Leatherface who is no longer an agent of chaos, but a cleverer, slicker, scarier slasher.
Melody (Sarah Yarkin) drags her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) along on a business venture in the middle of Texas with business partner Dante (Jacob Latimore) and his girlfriend Ruth (Nell Hudson). The foursome are meeting with potential investors at the small ghost town that they’ve purchased, but the few remaining townees quickly make it clear that they’re not welcome. That includes the sickly older woman still inhabiting the rundown orphanage. After a mix up involving her care, and the local authorities, her adoptive son, Leatherface sets off a rampage of violence, blood and amputated limbs with his chainsaw as he seeks vengeance.
As always no one involved in the film have any idea what made Tobe Hooper’s original so stark and disturbing. Instead they opt for a tonally confusing mess, while injecting an over abundance of style that feels like a call back to the remake. There really isn’t much to this new film save for a convoluted and hackneyed plot involving themes about gentrification and whatnot. The crux of the movie is Leatherface (Mark Burnham is awesome) and his paper thin motivation for revenge for the death of his mother. Lacking any and all rationality or reason, he merely just saws people left and right, eager to garner some sense of vindication. Once again the writers also make the mistake of turning Leatherface in to a tragic antagonist.
Sure he smashes people’s heads, and mutilates people, but doggone it, he’s also just a good ol’ mama’s boy. Even worse you’ll likely be debating whether or not Melody deserves her punishment from Leatherface. There are also some character elements that feel half baked and contribute nothing including Melody’s sister suffering from PTSD after a school shooting, and a local mechanic who may or may not be involved with Leatherface. Your appetite will definitely be satiated if you’re invested in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” for the blood and guts. Leatherface is scary, mean, vicious and absolutely merciless. However, the movie stumbles constantly with such terrible writing, characters, and uneven tone.
There’s some dark comedy thrown in for good measure that awkwardly cuts the momentum. And it feels so much like the script built the plot around the kills rather than vice versa. So Sally Hardesty lived near Leatherface for fifty years and didn’t know? She came to confront Leatherface with nothing but a shotgun? What did Lila’s flashbacks to the school shooting mean, if anything? Guns good? Guns bad? Guns meh? Why did Melody feel so burdened to look after her sister? It’s gore and bore as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is a lousy legacy sequel, and (much like all of the films that follow 1990’s “Leatherface”) a downright terrible “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” sequel.
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