THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has lived on to be a respected horror film since first released in 1974. Like the slashers after him, a majority of its sequels are far from being on par with the original classic, which is exactly what can be said with Netflix’s 2022 sequel.
PLOT
The film of the same name takes place exactly 50 years after Sally Hardesty survived an attack in the hands of the serial killer Leatherface. Entrepreneurs Melody and Dante (Jacob Latimore) travel to the remote Texas town of Harlow to auction off the properties to create a heavily gentrified area. They are accompanied by Melody’s sister Lila and Dante’s girlfriend Ruth (Nell Hudson). Upon arrival, they do encounter the local mechanic Richter (Moe Dunford), who reluctantly works as their contractor, despite being against their plans. As the group inspects the town, Melody & Dante check out an abandoned orphanage and meet an elderly woman named Mrs. Mc (Alice Krige), whose accompanied by a tall and silent man. She does argue with the young adults that she still own the property, despite the belief that she was evicted by the bank. She ends up collapsing from a heart attack when the argument escalates. Ruth chooses to join her to the hospital, along with the older man, while Melody & Dante meet the investor Catherine and potential buyers. The trip to the hospital goes awry as the older man kills the officers driving the ambulance. He reveals himself to be Leatherface by wearing Mc’s face as a mask and kills Rue. Luckily, she manages to radio for help before she died. She even texted Melody that Mc died before the crash. When a gas station vendor hears her signal, he reaches out to Sally to investigate. When she does, she confirms suspicion that her tormentor has resurfaced. When Melody receives the text, she decides that she wants to leave with Lila. Richter overhears this and decides to take their keys, demanding proof that Mc was rightfully removed. Unfortunately, Dante is unable to find the documents that he owns the orphanage. So he and Melody decide to look around the orphanage to find it. The latter does the find the papers, but they confirm that Mc was wrongfully evicted. Upon realization, Dante is attacked and mutilated by a returning Leatherface. At his last breath, he is able to escape the orphanage and gets noticed by Richter. When he chooses to enter the orphanage and confront Leatherface, Catherine & Lila move the buyers into the bus. Richter is ultimately killed by the chainsaw wielding slasher, which gives Melody the chance to take the keys back and hope to escape. Once she flees the orphanage, she reunites with Lila and board the bus in hopes to escape. However, Leatherface sabotages the bus before it could go any further. He boards the bus and kills Catherine and the buyers. When both sisters escape the said vehicle, Sally arrives in time to confront him. Rather than finishing him off quickly, she demands him to remember her, but he chooses to remain silent. He ultimately overpowers her by impaling her with his chainsaw. Before he could finish her, Melody drives Sally’s car only to run him over, resulting in her & Lila crashing into another building. He ultimately survives the collision and despite getting an apology for Mc’s death, he prefers to go for the kill. Lila saves her sister by shooting at him with Sally’s gun. She then pursues him in order to prevent being haunted by him. She does follow him to an abandoned building and despite outsmarting her, Melody intervenes by smacking him with his chainsaw, after Lila shoots him twice. As morning rises, the sisters plan to leave, but Leatherface emerges by pulling Melody out of the car and decapitate her. Lila watches in shock as the self driving car takes her out of Harlow. The film ends with a post credit scene showing the slasher return to the house where he killed Sally’s friends.
THOUGHTS
I had very low expectations due to the reminder that the past follow ups being nowhere as close as good as the original. Despite not expecting much, I am still surprised of how bad this is. Just when I thought momentum would be maintained after a decent entry of 2017’s Leatherface, this one is just as bad as the entries we’ve seen from the 80s to the 90s. It wants to be rebellious, but tries too hard on playing both ways by attempting to have social commentary involved. I am all up to talk about the theme of gentrification, but it doesn’t work like it did for 2021’s Candyman. It backfires so bad that I just don’t care about it and want to focus on the expected gore. Since this is a slasher film, they do get it right on getting as gory as it can, since it’s something that this franchise has been getting right since the 2000s. And of course, the gore is done by the star himself that is Leatherface. While I still think no one can top Gunnar Hansen, actor Mark Burnham was a wise decision as he nailed approaching the slasher as one with an imposing stature and physicality, the key element that has made the character frightening to this day. While he remains creepy enough to keep things interesting, the protagonists are not as interesting like they should. I was saddened to know that Marilyn Burns passed away in 2014 because I don't think anyone could outdo what she did as Sally. My point is proven because with all due respect, I didn't exactly enjoy Olwen Fouéré's interpretation of the iconic final girl/scream queen. She is approached like Laurie Strode from 2018's Halloween, unable to move on as she is suffering from PTSD caused by her tormentor. It should work, but it is so obvious that it doesn't. I didn't even like the decisions she made during the climax. She wastes her time demanding him to remember her and briefly prevents the sisters from leaving until they intervene. That is dumber than the fact that she still drew breath after being gutted by a chainsaw. This is an icon that deserved better and if studios dare to bring this character back by the next iteration, don't fuck it up again. The only new characters that actually have my attention are Melody and Lila. Sarah Yarkin and Elsie Fisher have solid chemistry playing two sisters that became distant after a prior tragic event. Fisher shows Lila struggling to cope with surviving a school shooting, unsure how to be free from the trauma. Yarkin shows Mel as one who does care, but doesn't try as hard as she thinks. When things get out of hand, she does her best to protect her sister as much as she could. While I didn't think it was a good idea to pursue Leatherface, it made sense for Lila to do so because she knew that she had to confront the demons to be free. Understanding how much both sisters care for each other make the ending successfully tragic. I honestly didn't care about Dante or Ruth because they don't exactly have any depth in comparison to the sisters. As for the rest of the movie, the story is bland with other character decisions that made no fucking sense. Like who the hell would sell Leatherface merch? That's like supporting the actions of a serial killer which is goddamn ridiculous. Ruth was smart to use the radio, but she still messes up because she should've also texted Mel what happened to her and double check the mirrors before attempting to escape. I then wonder how the hell did Leatherface return to Harlow so fast unseen? If he took another car, it would've been interesting to see. And it does get intense once he attacks Dante, but how does no one the ruckus he makes before the storm begins? Yes the potential buyers are technically buying, but Catherine had to have been a little curious on what was going on. I don't want to hate on Mel, but she really should have died from that hammer swing. If it killed Jerry and Kirk, she shouldn't have been so lucky. On top of that, she and Lila had no reason to keep watching Sally hunt down her tormentor, just when she gave them the keys. That was such a bad decision, it was like they wanted to die. You want to talk about pointless, how about Lila taking Sally's hat? There is no point in having a memento of a traumatic turn of events. And lastly, why the fuck did the bus driver go outside the bus? He had a reason, but it wasn't good enough. All of these issues really make this movie hard to watch and they're very hard to ignore. To get this over with, Director David Blue Garcia failed to maintain the life that Texas Chainsaw Massacre had going. If you have Netflix and really love the '74 classic, good luck with this.
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