Released: January 1994
Director: Kim Henkel
Rated R
Run Time: 87 Minutes
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Renee Zellweger: Jenny
Matthew McConaughey: Vilmer
Robert Jacks: Leatherface
Tonie Perensky: Darla
Joe Stevens: W.E. Slaughter
Lisa Marie Newmeyer: Heather
John Harrison: Sean
Tyler Shea Cone: Barry
At some point, certain film franchises get to the point where they inevitably become parodies of themselves. Most of the time, it’s not intentional. When a franchise starts losing steam, film-makers try to do everything they can to try and renew interest in these movies. Sometimes it means taking the franchise in a different direction, like Wrong Turn. But to get to the point, a film has to fail so badly at nearly everything that there really is no choice but to either kill the franchise entirely, or reboot it. Franchises like Batman, Alien, Terminator, Superman, and Jaws are perfect examples of this happening. When film-makers run out of ideas, they try to pull the “over-the-top” which lands the film squarely in camp territory, making the problem worse. Batman and Robin is the perfect example here. While Forever was still a decent effort, Batman and Robin went full-on camp and nearly capsized the film franchise entirely. Thankfully, Warner Bros. was smart enough to bring in Christopher Nolan to reboot Batman for a new audience and the rest is history. With Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, the franchise went full Batman and Robin 3 years before Batman and Robin came out. I got curious enough to see how bad people were saying it was. Sweet Jesus-Jumpin’ On-a -Pogo-stick Christ was this movie a wreck.
TCM: The Next Generation follows teenagers Jenny, Sean, Heather, and Barry as they leave Prom and head out into the night. They inevitable take a wrong turn and eventually run afoul of a murderous family led by the totally unhinged Vilmer. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. The story then devolves into what appears to be a conspiracy involving a shadowy government-style corporation. It’s ridiculous. I’ve been a fan of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series since I first saw the 2003 remake. While story has never been a strong-suit of these films, they were at least chaotic enough to give such a flaw a pass. The original 1974 film didn’t have much of a story, but what was there gave the film a nightmarish feeling. You had no idea what was going on or why, and those answers never really came, hence the nightmarish feeling. It was a raw and gritty affair. The second film, which was also directed by Tobe Hooper, deliberately went full-on camp and silly, and for the most part, it worked. How could you top the insanity of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre? You couldn’t, so Hooper gave the second film a different kind of insanity. It was this kind of insanity that drove the following sequels. TCM III wasn’t awful, it was pretty fun, but The Next Generation? I don’t know what happened here, but some film-makers and even cast members thought that this film was going to kill their careers before they even got started.
Let’s talk about the acting here. It’s a mixed bag. It’s an over-the-top mixed bag. Renee Zellweger plays Jenny….and let’s just say that Ms. Zellweger has eventually become a fantastic actress in her own right. This movie did her no favors. Chalk it up to piss-poor writing with her inexperience, and you have a recipe for one of the worst performances of her career. Thankfully, it happened early on enough that it really didn’t do a ton of damage, and she was able to rebound from it. The rest of the victims were equally terrible to the point where I’m not even going to mention them by name. I’m not blaming the actors entirely, as it wasn’t their fault for a god-awful script. Matthew McConaughey. I have to say that this guy excels at nearly every role that he plays. Vilmer is one of Mr. McConaughey’s earlier roles, but I would like to think it’s one of his more memorable. Not always for the right reasons, but he’s so much fun to watch here. He has a unique kinetic energy that you rarely see from actors playing the bad guy. The character is so over-the-top, but unpredictable at the same time. Matthew gave it his all and it paid off, I think. Toni Perensky plays his girlfriend, Darla. Her character isn’t as wild as Vilmer, but Darla is just as bonkers. Robert Jacks plays Leatherface in this film. The character has been played by a lot of people over the years, but the late Gunnar Hansen started it all with the 1974 picture. The only other actor to really make Leatherface feel like a serious threat was Andrew Bryniarski from the remake. With all due respect to the late Robert Jacks, his version of Leatherface was a laughable shell of a villain. He’s loud, incompetent, and not all that scary. Vilmer is a far more terrifying character.
When the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out back in 1974, it was criticized for it’s “extreme” level of violence and gore. Here’s the thing, though: The original film really wasn’t gory at all. In point of fact, there was barely any blood spilled. Yeah it was violent and you saw a girl get put onto a meat-hook, but you didn’t actually see the hook enter her skin. The gore in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was implied, but never shown. People’s imaginations filled in the blanks, and THAT was far more effective than actually showing what was going on. That was the brilliance of the original TCM. Starting with the 1986 sequel, TCM has become gory in a lot of the movies. The 2006 prequel is by far the goriest film of the bunch. The Next Generation really isn’t super-violent. In fact, there’s barely any gore at all and most of the deaths happen off-screen. I get that less can be more, but when you have a film called Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you expect…well…a massacre, and we really didn’t get that here. It was very disappointing on that level.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films have had their ups and downs over the years, and the franchise totally schizophrenic in its continuity, but I always avoided The Next Generation because of it’s reputation. There’s a reason for that. This is easily the worst film in the franchise by a country mile. Say what you will about the 2012 film, it at least delivered on the carnage that we’ve come to expect from movies like these. Same thing with the 2003 remake and that film’s prequel. Those film-makers understood what the audiences had wanted and for the most part delivered. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation went full Batman and Robin, and you never go full Batman and Robin. Ever. Outside of a deliciously unhinged performance by Matthew McConaughey, this movie fails in nearly every other aspect. I’m astonished that this film got a full-blown Blu-Ray re-release from Shout! Factory. I don’t know why. Most of the people involved with this film have distanced themselves from it, especially Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. This movie did NOBODY any favors and is the only film that Kim Henkel(the writer of the original film)has directed. Come and stay for Matthew McConaughey’s performance, but forget everything else. This is a film that should stay relegated to the dust-bin of film history.
My Final Recommendation: Good grief. This thing is BAD. 2/10