Reviews

I'm giving this a 5 or maybe optimistic 6 out of 10. I did enjoy watching it but it wasn't great and I probably wont go back to it.

I'll start with some positives because there were things I liked.

Firstly, what which stuck in my mind as I was watching was that it looked really great. It was well shot and I liked the settings. Plus the gore didn't look too bad and there were some moments of pretty effective visual horror!

It got straight to the point, too. The movie's 83 minutes and it gets going quickly. I think it makes the assumption that most audience members have either seen the original or at least know something about it, so they don't waste much time getting down to business.

It was pretty cheesy, which I see as a positive. I don't think the movie took itself too seriously and I think that's a good thing in this case. This movie isn't here to try and one-up the original, it's here for goofy slasher horror which is what I was expecting going in. Others might not agree with me there though, I admit.

So that's the positives!

As for the negatives, I think the main thing is that it was a little muddled in what it seemed to want to say, or whether it even wanted to say anything in the first place.

For example, there's a plot point about the gentrification of a small, rural town and the clashing of new worlds and old but it doesn't really go anywhere with this and I think that there could have been a more interesting dynamic regarding that.

It's been nearly 50 years since the original Massacre (which is pointed out in the movie) and the world has changed a lot since then, so there could absolutely have been some kind of greater underlying point about the past coming back to haunt people. Lila, one of the protagonists, has a painful personal past (which isn't handled well by the movie) and Sally, who makes a return, is also haunted by her experiences, so it could've worked well.

But what we got instead was some half-hearted references to internet and influencer culture and how it doesn't really fit in with the rural setting.

The movie has a lot of instances like this where it seems to want to introduce a theme but then does nothing with it. Whatever the movie might have wanted to say quickly gets lost under the noise of a chainsaw.

Beyond that, I'd say the dialogue isn't great and some of the lines made me wince a little. That's impressive since I'm usually someone can often find bad dialogue quite endearing.

I'd also say that some of the characters could maybe have been explored and fleshed out a little more. It seems like the movie has some cognitive dissonance and seemed to want to make a lot of characters both likeable and unlikeable, sympathetic and unsympathetic simultaneously.

I know I said I like the movie's short run time, but I wouldn't have minded it being a bit longer if we got to know the characters a little better. It would be good if it was a bit clearer whether we're supposed to like them and care if they become chainsaw fodder!

In summary, it's fine, perfectly serviceable and kinda fun. But not great and not memorable.

It tries to have it's cake and eat it in terms of the un/sympathetic characters and the bad attempts at making statements about things. But as I said, it's not like the movie is taking itself seriously so some might be able to forgive that.

The actual chainsaw massacre parts are the best part of the movie (terrible script aside, the bus scene is awesome) and there are plenty of references not only to the original TCM but other horror movies as well, which are fun if a little heavy-handed.

I think what made the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre really special was that it was fuelled by America's fear for Ed Gein. This film, on the other hand, is fuelled by America's love for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, leading to both positive and negative results.

It loves the source material and isn't trying to one-up it as I said, but it also doesn't want to do anything of its own and that shows and it leads to a movie which is okay at best.