Netflix And Chill: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

I can't think of any BIG horror movie franchise that isn't a bit of a mess right now. The biggest problem seems to be that film-makers are trying to come up with ways to reinvigorate and rework concepts that outstayed their welcome many years ago. But we horror fans don't want to leave anything "dead" for too long, which is why we secretly enjoy seeing a main character not shoot a masked killer in the head.

It would be wrong to single out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series ahead of many others. The original will always be an absolute classic, the remake was a film I thought was pretty damn great, and the wildly varying quality of the other films has allowed fans to argue over which instalment they prefer over others. I don’t know many people who would stand up for the last two movies in the series though, films that tried their best to reach new lows.

This film is not a low point in the series. Despite a troubled production, as well as a messy number of attempts at social commentary that are picked up and dropped with abandon, it’s a silly bit of gory fun. 

The plot is quite simple. There’s a Texas town that has gone to seed over the years, almost fully abandoned by now. It was once, and maybe still is, home to the infamous Leatherface. A group of youngsters arrive in the town, due to be followed by a bank rep and various investors. The town properties have been snapped up at auction and are due to be sold on at a healthy profit, but this leads to a confrontation that sets the chainsaw buzzing again.

Directed by David Blue Garcia, who took over after the initial directors left the project, and working with a script written by Chris Thomas Devlin, this is a film full of impressive moments. The first big kill is an absolute doozy, to use the technical term, while a third act set-piece stands out as a real highlight, and I mean a highlight of the whole series from the last couple of decades. The plot does what it has to do, but the focus often turns to real physical damage and limb removal. It's not even that bad when utilising a returning character from the first movie (Sally Hardesty, played this time around by Olwen Fouéré). Yes, we've seen this dynamic before, but it just feels a bit better here, perhaps due to the speed of the whole thing unfolding. Or perhaps it is just because a film can have someone basically saying "evil dies tonight" without making fifty different characters chant "evil dies tonight". The mis-steps aren't massive, they're just puzzling. A moment to skewer social media is casually crammed in to a huge gore scene, as is a moment in which someone pathetically tries to threaten Leatherface with cancellation. There's a strange anti-gun sentiment running through things, tied to one of the main characters being the survivor of a school shooting. These are interesting morsels, certainly more interesting than anything I expected to get from a TCM movie nowadays, but they're not made into anything more substantial. Maybe Garcia and co. decided, quite rightly, that it wouldn't do to stay away from any nasty kills for too long, or maybe it just shows what chaos could have been going on behind the scenes.

The cast is a decent mix, with most of the young leads doing solid work. Elsie Fisher and Sarah Yarkin play Lila and Melody, respectively, and I was especially pleased to see Fisher in a role that felt like such a departure from any previous movie work. Jacob Latimore is the charismatic leader of the group, and does well, and Nell Hudson is Ruth, the partner of Latimore's character and the person given the least to do in the movie. Fouéré keeps a straight face while heading towards her face-off against Leatherface, Moe Dunford is a local man who may be able to help save the lives of some interlopers, Alice Krige has a small, but crucial, role, and Jessica Allain is the main representative of the bank, which means every minute she survives is a pleasant surprise. Mark Burnham takes on the iconic, chainsaw-wielding, central role, and he's a strong performer, whether getting that chainsaw to start up, adjusting his latest extra layer of skin, or just manhandling people as if they were small dolls about to have their arms ripped off.

Some may dislike this, and some may hate it. I've already seen debate online about it, and a lot of fans have replied to others asking "what do you expect from a TCM movie that is the ninth in the series?" I think film fans can always expect a minimum of decent work, from script to camerawork and special effects, no matter where in the timeline a series instalment drops. And I think this delivers that. It's a fun mess, but at least it's fun. Which is more than I can say about Texas Chainsaw or Leatherface. The contrived final scene is terrible though, so be warned.

6/10

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Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

I really enjoyed the timeloop slasher shenanigans of Happy Death Day so I knew I would be keen to see a sequel. My enthusiasm for it was not at all diminished when I heard that it takes things in a surprisingly different direction from the first film, focusing on more comedy than thrills, and I think that most people should be aware of that before the film begins. Because this IS a very different beast from its predecessor, despite early scenes trying to pretend otherwise (for all of ten minutes).

Tree (Jessica Rothe) is delighted to have finally reached the day after her birthday, the day that she was stuck in for the duration of the first movie, waking up every morning in a bed in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard).  Unfortunately, the same problem is now affecting Carter's roommate, Ryan (Phi Vu). But there's every chance that it has something to do with the science project that he has been working on with Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Andrea (Sarah Yarkin). And it's not just time that has been pushed out of whack, there are parallel universes to also consider.

As well as all of the returning faces in front of the camera, Christopher Landon is back in the director's chair, and also gives himself the writing duties this time around. There's not as much needed this time around when it comes to establishing the visual signposts, and Landon uses the freedom to get things moving along as quickly as possible, removing the tension and upping the quirkiness and the comedy. It's a bold choice, and not an entirely successful one, for reasons that I'll get to after the next paragraph (see, I DO plan what I write sometimes).

All of the leads do great work, with Rothe and Broussard once again proving a great pairing to anchor the main events. Vu is immediately likeable as soon as he is pushed front and centre, while Sharma and Yarkin get a nice selection of scene-stealing lines and moments between them. Steve Zissis is the stereotypical angry dean who gets in the way of things, and he is fun in that role, while Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, and Charles Aitken all seem to enjoy portraying their characters with a bit of a twist, compared to how we viewed them the first time around.

I quite enjoyed the comedy of Happy Death Day 2U (there's a death montage that is one of the most enjoyably twisted and amusing things I have seen in a "teen movie" in years). I didn't even mind the more dramatic moments, forced as they were, when Tree was once again struggling to deal with the loss of her mother. I could have done without that particular strand, and I think the film would have been better without it, but it's perfectly fine, for what it is. So it's a shame there's so little tension this time around, the little that is there dissipates by the time we get to the third act. And it's an even greater shame that more intriguing possibilities teased in the earlier scenes are then just dropped for the rest of the film. Those are the two main failings of the film, major enough to at least drag this just below the bar set by the first film.

If you ensure that you have calibrated your expectations before pressing play, Happy Death Day 2U is fun. It's just easy to see ways in which it could have been so much better.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.