THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Some things should have not been made and I stand by it when it came to The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
PLOT
Also billed as The Next Generation, the 1994 film takes place in said period and follows teenager Jenny go to prom with her date Sean (John Harrison). When smoking weed together, they inadvertently join another couple, Heather & Barry (Lisa Marie Newmyer & Tyler Cone), who drive away after the latter was caught kissing another girl. During the drive, Heather gets distracted to the point she crashes with another motorist who passes out in confusion. Sean chososes to stay behind while the others go search for help. They find an office trailer and meet the only one there, an insurance agent named Darla (Tonie Petensky) who sends her boyfriend Vilmer to help them. Little do they know Vilmer is psychotic and chooses to kill Sean by backing him over repeatedly. When Heather & Barry separate from Jenny, they find a farmhouse in the woods. This only leads to them getting attacked by Leatherface. Barry gets bludgeoned by the chainsaw wielding slasher with a sledgehammer, after forced into the house by his relative WE (Joe Stevens) who quotes historical figures, while Heather gets hanged with a meat hook. By the time Jenny returns to the car, VIlmer picks her up and constantly intimidates her by showing her the bodies of Sean & the motorist before she jumps out of his pickup truck. She does find herself in the same farmhouse before getting chased by Leatherface. Just when she seems to escape his wrath, she returns to Darla for help only for the latter to reveal she is in cahoots with the killers. After WE appears to beat her with a cattle prod, she puts her in her truck and avoids detection from the police when returning home. Jenny does try to escape again, until Vilmer knocks her unconscious. And when she wakes up at a dinner table, she is surrounded by the sadistic family. After Vilmer burns Heather alive and bludgeons WE with a hammer, they are then joined by their employer Rothman (James Gale) who is part of a secret society to terrorize anyone who cross their paths. He shows up only to leave after reprimanding Vilmer's methods and showing Jenny his scarifications on his body before he harassingly licks her face. Once he leaves, Vilmer has a breakdown so severe that he slashes his own body and Jenny uses that as a distraction to run away for the last time. She gets rescued by an elderly couple passing through in an RV, but Leather and Vilmer run them off the road which causes them to crash. Jenny survives the ordeal and the conflict ends when a plane appears and kills Vilmer as one of the wheels graze his skull at full speed. Jenny then gets picked up by Rothman who explains everything she went through was supposed to be a spiritual experience and makes it up to her by taking her to a hospital. As she speaks to an officer, the film ends with her seeing Sally Hardesty being pushed by on a gurney while Leather is still flailing his chainsaw in despair.
THOUGHTS
It's clear that Hollywood does not respect this franchise since they choose to give it a form of anthological presentation rather than be consistent of a narrative like Friday the 13th or Chucky. Just because the slasher is somewhat the star does not mean it is going to be fun and this entry was the second reminder of the franchise. It is the definition of absurd because so much is going on I say for the first time 'What the fuck is going on?' I don't understand why would Kim Henkel, the cowriter of the original film to come up with this piece of shit? There is no linear path in this narrative at all which makes it exhausting to get through in the worst manner possible. And there is no point in having Marilyn Burns having a cameo as Sally in the hospital where she had no relation to the plot this time. I don't want to try getting cancelled when saying Leatherface having a cross dressing vibe is stupid, but Robert Jacks doesn't make him anymore intimidating compared to before. And from that alone, there is no way this film can be any scary. The rest of the characters are all over the place with Matthew McConaughey dialing up the insanity as Vilmer and Renee Zellweger not being a convincing final girl Jenny because although she survives the night, there isn't anything to relate with her. Even the group of Sean, Heather & Barry are the most non-relatable victims in the franchise since they don't give us a reason to root for their survival other than the fact they walk into their own demise. The plot is so convoluted to the point we don't get a reasoning to the secret society being a factor, being illogical compared to the cult route Halloween went through. Like there was no reason to add it without owning up to it. What about these cannibal hillbillies is supposed to be spiritual? No fucking idea that's for sure. Will we ever get an answer? Of course not because it'd be too exhausting to sit through as well. It just gets worse before it can get any where near better with a chunk of shit not making any sense. Like I previously said, Barry doesn't even try to be likable when thinking he'd get away with kissing another girl while still having a date with Heather. He doesn't even smell the corpse while nonchalantly trying to talk to Heather, thinking she'll hear him. All of that shit could've not been seen had he and Heather just not split up from Jenny. As for Jenny, she doesn't make the brightest decisions either. She doesn't run for it when seeing Vilmer (nor does Sean), doesn't check the gun before trying to fire at her perpetrators, and doesn't even call the police on her own when Darla goes on a 'lookout' or before leaving the first time. I'm even more baffled that the cop didn't even hear Darla's threat towards her at the drive thru line. And did Heather get herself unhooked or did Leather do it to toy with her? The fact none of this is explained is why I can't defend it. To get this over with, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is another low point in the franchise for lacking consistency & creativity which destroys the fear factor brought to the table the first time around. If you are a slasher fan, avoid this like your life is on the line.
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