{"id":29742,"date":"2018-12-05T05:17:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=29742"},"modified":"2018-12-05T09:46:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:46:14","slug":"texas-chainsaw-massacre-the-next-generation-1994-collectors-edition-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/05\/texas-chainsaw-massacre-the-next-generation-1994-collectors-edition-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994): Collector\u2019s Edition [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The \u201cTexas Chainsaw Massacre\u201d has been a movie series that\u2019s experienced great highs and crushing lows. While surely it\u2019s been a long running series with a lot of sequels, it\u2019s also a series that\u2019s been rebooted numerous times. \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d is basically a remake of the original Tobe Hooper film set for a nineties crowd and it is god awful. It\u2019s deliriously bad. You could almost consider it so bad it\u2019s good, if you\u2019re very forgiving, but in the end of the day it\u2019s awful. It\u2019s so awful even stars Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger have distanced themselves from it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Next Generation\u201d centers on a group of teenagers that ditch their prom early. They end up crashing their car in the backwoods of Texas in the middle of the night, and while looking for some help, they run in to Vilmer Slaughter. Vilmer is a psychopathic hillbilly with a mechanical leg who begins terrorizing the teens with his truck, but that\u2019s only the tip of the iceberg. As the group scatter looking for help, they run across Vilmer\u2019s horrifying brood of cannibals that capture and torture them. This includes the evil Leatherface, a chainsaw wielding maniac dressed in female garb and human skin. As Jenny struggles to survive and escape, she gradually learns the odd origin of the family.<\/p>\n

Kim Henkel\u2019s \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d can be appreciated in some angles as a bizarre deconstruction of the original film, but I just downright think it\u2019s awful. It\u2019s poorly directed, the editing sucks, and plot holes litter the entire movie. Henkel and co. also pack the film with so much bizarre plot points, and weird character choices that they seem included for the sake of leaving audiences babbling to themselves incoherently. It seems like somewhere down the line there was a coherent script for this, but it went through the blender and was rebuilt in to this nonsense stew. There\u2019s stuff included about the family here being the subject of some illuminati experiment, and there\u2019s a lot of focus on Leatherface being transgender for reasons never expounded on.<\/p>\n

Why does Vilmer have a mechanical leg? Is this supposed to be a satire of Tobe Hooper\u2019s original film or some kind of meta-satire a la \u201cScream\u201d? In either case, so much of \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d looks cheap, and filmed on the fly, as if it was all cobbled together at the last moment. Much of the inherent terror and menace of the original film is gone in favor of a lot of goofy off screen violence, and Matthew McConaughey chewing every bit of scenery as if it\u2019s the last role he\u2019ll ever have. The movie stumbles along in to a climax that is so absolutely befuddling and incoherent it\u2019s infuriating. I remember my first experience watching this, once the credits began to roll I literally exclaimed \u201cWait–what?!\u201d Who was the couple in the RV that tried to save Jenny? Who was in the crop duster? Who did Jenny see in the ER in the final scene of the film?<\/p>\n

Why does Marilyn Burns appear for a brief cameo as another victim? Is this movie set in some alternate universe and is acknowledging such a concept? Is Jenny being hauled away with the other victims of the family by the unnamed illuminati discussed for a brief moment? \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d is a humongous, embarrassing mess, one that has to be seen to be believed, as it\u2019s the sequel that killed the series as whole until 2003.<\/p>\n

Featured on the Scream Factory release is an audio commentary with director Kim Henkel, for the director\u2019s cut only. There\u2019s \u201cThe Buzz is Back\u201d at eleven minutes, an interview with DOP Levie Isaacks, who discusses his uncredited work on the original film, his contact with Tobe Hooper over the years, and his satisfaction with the film, despite his frustration with the Illuminati Twist. \u201cMarked for Death\u201d is a sixteen minute interview with actor Tyler Shea Cone, who goes over his role, the shoot, and working with Robert Jacks. \u201cIf Looks Could Kill\u201d is a nineteen minute interview with special makeup effects artists J.M. Logan and production designer Deborah Pastor, both of whom describe the film as \u201cA terrible, horrible experience but I wouldn\u2019t trade it for the world.\u201d Finally there\u2019s the original trailer with the film\u2019s title being \u201cThe Return of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n