Essentially the filmmakers said “people really liked the 2018 Halloween, let’s do that”. And they’re shameless about it. This one is a direct sequel to the 1974 film ignoring everything else, it’s set in modern day, features the original (now older) Leatherface, they bring back sole survivor Sally (although played by Olwen Fouere (Mandy) as Marilyn Burns had died a few years before production began) who’s turned into a take-no-shit hard boiled badass who’s been waiting for the day when Leatherface would resurface so she can have a winner-take-all showdown, the title is (frustratingly) almost precisely the same as the movie it’s a sequel to and you get the idea.
The setup is mostly routine except with an odd angle. A group of young people buy an entire deserted
town in the middle of nowhere Texas and plan to auction the majority of it off
to investors to turn the place into a thriving cutesy hipster community, I think? These folks look like they’re in their early
20’s making me wonder where the hell they got the money for this. They appear to be chefs with a social media presence
and they drive a fancy ass Tesla so I guess that equals big bucks. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. Leatherface lives in the run down orphanage off
of the main drag being taken care of by an old lady acting as his guardian (I don’t
think she’s supposed to be his mother but I could be wrong). The spry entrepreneurs confront the woman (whos’
sickly and on oxygen) about how she’s not supposed to be there, she has a heart
attack, Leatherface goes apeshit and slaughters everyone. Typical stuff, victims trapped in an isolated
spot with no help on the way. However, you
must overlook that the movie very clearly establishes there’s an internet
connection for the entire duration yet no one takes advantage of it to call in the
cavalry. Thanks.
Ok, so it’s primarily Leatherface going around gutting people
like there’s no tomorrow. Naturally the
gore is amped way the fuck up making just about every kill damn brutal. A good handful are particularly vicious that
involve either head smashing, complete chain sawing in half with internal
organs spilling out, decapitation and so forth.
This isn’t exactly my cup of tea with how much they show but they were successful
in creating some startling moments that curled my face. Mission accomplished guys.
When Leatherface initially steps on the bus everyone whips
out their phone and starts taking video and live streaming not knowing who they’re
dealing with. One asshole threatens to
cancel him if he gets any closer and this type of social commentary is
something the film leans into hard.
Towards the beginning our main group of victims meet a local Texan who was
hired to help fix up the town for the auction and there’s friction immediately. They criticize him for openly carrying a
handgun, pumping thick black exhaust from his truck and they act generally
antagonistic towards one another. Plus
there’s an entire scene involving removing a confederate flag hanging on a
building, a run in with local cops who are suspicious of the kids because they’re
young, from out of town and one of them is black and you get the idea. Look, I know everyone loved Get Out
but that was constructed from the ground up to address racism and other social
issues. This ain’t that. This is technically sequel number eight in a
horror franchise with statements shoehorned in desperately trying to connect to
today’s youth. I’m not saying you can’t
do this successfully in a Texas Chainsaw but from what I gather this sloppy
shoving of topical shit in your face has turned a lot of fans off (including
myself). The filmmakers needed to put in
a good deal more thought than they did here.
Now the movie isn’t all bad.
They got Leatherface right which is important. Yes he’s a treacherous beast but he also has
tender moments like when his…caretaker (?)…is dying and he rides with her in the
police van cradling her in his arms. He
loves her and is a wreck over what’s happening.
Later he goes back to the orphanage, finds her dress in the closet and
hugs and smells it as a way to remember and connect. This is what sets Leatherface apart from
Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. They don’t have the capacity to be nearly as emotionally
open and actually weep and mourn in a way we can relate to (as opposed to
stealing your deceased mother’s tombstone or corpse to create a makeshift
alter).
Most of the rest of the film I’m not that into. Leatherface’s skin mask is too droopy (almost
melted in appearance), the little story that’s here isn’t very good, the characters
aren’t interesting, the acting isn’t anything special except for Mark Burnham (Lowlife)
who plays Leatherface and Alice Krige (Gretel & Hansel) who plays
his keeper, it’s a touch extreme on the gore and the social statements are
unwelcome. There’s plenty of flat out
stupid shit too like the fact that Leatherface must be in his 70’s at this
point and can still run around like a vibrant youngster and take many blows
without losing a step. His chainsaw was
bricked up behind a wall in the orphanage for some reason and it works fine after
sitting for like fifty years. Sally has
the opportunity to blast Leatherface dead at point blank range but decides not
to because she’s hurt he doesn’t remember her.
And you get the idea.
In the end it’s just another tired sequel to add to the fire. I’ll admit I like it more after sitting with
it for a few days to ponder over. But
still, the same beats are followed more or less with the surprising change of
having Leatherface go solo this time around and ditching the other insane
family members. They tried that before
with Texas Chainsaw 3D and it simply doesn’t work as well. With the small number of positives I wanna
say it’s better than Leatherface but I can’t be sure about the other
installments. Nothing’s gonna beat TCM 2 which truly is a worthy successor to the original and only gets better
with each viewing. And despite not being
officially labeled as a TCM sequel I’ll give a shoutout to Butcher Boys for displaying the same spirited chaotic attitude.