Released: January 2013
Director: John Luessenhop
Rated R
Run Time: 92 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate Studios
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Alexandra Daddario: Heather Miller
Tremaine Neverson: Ryan
Dan Yeager: Leatherface
Scott Eastwood: Carl
Tania Raymonde: Nikki
Shaun Sipos: Darryl
Thom Barry: Sheriff Hooper
Paul Rae: Burt Hartman
Bill Moseley: Drayton Sawyer
Gunnar Hansen: Boss Sawyer/Leatherface(archive footage)
Marilyn Burns: Verna/Sally Hardesty(archive footage)
When the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released back in 1974, it sent shockwaves throughout the film industry. While 1973 saw the release of the supernatural shocker, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre hit with the subtlety of a meat tenderizer. It shocked audiences around the world with it’s level of violence. So much so, that the MPAA(now MPA)had ordered the film to get an X rating because of its violence. Here’s the thing: Horror movies in the 70s had a mean streak a mile wide. The aforementioned Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, and even Alien had a mean streak. Some of them ended up on the U.K.’s “Video Nasties” list. Boundaries were being pushed in all aspects of every day life during the 70s. Everything from the Civil Rights movement to the antiwar protests during the Vietnam War influenced the direction that these movies were going. I mean, what better to way to call attention to the issues of the period than movies that depicted the level of violence that was prevalent during the 70s. There was a lot of social commentary in many of those movies. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre really wasn’t one of them. As someone had once said, it was about the meat. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre didn’t ruminate on the goings-on of the 70s, all it did was just showing people going into areas where they weren’t supposed go and get slaughtered. Nobody had seen anything quite like it. Most people didn’t know what to make of it, other than to complain to their politicians about it. The film was both revered and reviled by what it was. While one could consider Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to be the truly first slasher movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre truly revolutionized to the term and genre. Since 1974, the film has gotten multiple sequels, remakes, and prequels. One of which is 2012’s Texas Chainsaw.
Texas Chainsaw picks up in 1974 immediately following Sally’s escape from the cannibalistic Sawyer clan. Officer Hooper shows up at the compound demanding that Drayton Sawyer and his family hand over Jedidiah Sawyer, also known as Leatherface, for the brutal murder of Sally’s friends. Before he can comply, a large group of vigilantes led by Burt Hartman show up and lay waste to the Sawyers, burning the house to the ground and killing nearly every Sawyer in the building. The only survivor is a baby girl who is “adopted” by a pair of the vigilantes. Some years later, the baby girl has grown up into Heather Miller, who receives a message saying that she’s inherited a large house in Texas from a previously unknown grandparent, who happened to be a Sawyer. I actually think that it was pretty clever of the film to start off in 1974 right after Sally escapes. In fact, the opening credits of the film use footage from the original film. Again, it seems pretty clever on the surface. Unfortunately, the film-makers made a massive error in writing here. See, the infant in 1974 is supposed to be Heather, but the majority of the film takes place in 2012, which would make the character closer to 40 years old. This is a massive issue because the film-makers knew about it, but they hoped/counted on the audience being stupid enough to not catch it. It was a mathematical error that could’ve been addressed by setting the film during the 90s, when Heather would actually be in her 20s. In fact, the movie actually tries to go out of its way to avoid clarifying the issue. Nearly every date that involves August 19 has the year hidden. They clearly didn’t keep that up when they showed Verna’s grave with the 2012 on the gravestone. If they screwed that up, what else did they screw up? The story has some interesting ideas, especially in humanizing Leatherface, despite his horrendous actions. In fact, the story infers that a blood feud existed between the Hartman family and the Sawyers. You know, kind of like the Hatfields and McCoys, but with more cannibalism. In the hands of better film-makers, this could’ve actually worked better than it does. Making Leatherface a more sympathetic character is NOT the worst idea in the world, especially when you consider that Leatherface is basically an adult with the mental workings of an 8-year old. I honestly think that’s something that could’ve been explored a bit more. You know, kind of a nature vs. nurture kind of thing. Sadly, the writers either didn’t have the spine or the ability to pull something like that off. Because of that, what we ended up with is a rather generic slasher film that happens to bare the name Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I have to admit, I was legitimately surprised when they brought on some of the actors from the original film. Gunnar Hansen, who played the original Leatherface, has a cameo here as a different member of the Sawyer clan. John Dugan, who played Grandpa Sawyer in the original, actually returns to play the same character here. So, there’s some continuity there. Marilyn Burns, who played Sally in the original film, plays Verna Sawyer, so it’s kind of an interesting twist. Sadly, Hansen and Burns have since passed away, but having them show up in Texas Chainsaw was pretty damn cool. Alexandra Daddario plays Heather, and she’s really the best part here. Tremaine Neverson plays her boyfriend, Ryan while Tania Raymonde plays Nikki. Bill Moseley plays Drayton Sawyer, and does his best to channel Jim Siedow as Drayton. He does a pretty good, considering that this isn’t Moseley’s first foray into the realm of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He showed up as Chop-Top in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Ever since then, he’s been in countless horror movies including 1988’s The Blob and Army of Darkness. He’s most famous for playing the character of Otis in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, and 3 From Hell. He’s a fantastic actor, and he nails it as Drayton. Like Jason Voorhees, there have been a number of different people that have played Leatherface. Gunnar Hansen was the first, while Bill Johnson would take over in the original part 2, and then we would see Andrew Bryniarski put on the mask for the remake and that film’s prequel. Sam Strike would play the young version of Leatherface in the 2017 film called…Leatherface. For the 2012 film, we got Dan Yeager. He’s not bad at all. He really isn’t. While the character is still pretty brutal, you can see a hint of humanity in the eyes, and that’s Dan Yeager’s work. Everybody else though is basically cannon fodder.
One of the things that really made the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre stand out was how so many people thought that it was the goriest movie ever made. That really couldn’t be further from the truth. While the film is violent, there’s really not a whole lot of blood spilled. What got people was what they THOUGHT they saw. The gore in the original film was more implied than anything else, leaving the brutality in the imaginations of the audience. That was absolutely brilliant. The late director Tobe Hooper would direct the film’s original sequel, but he gave that film a very different tone. It was more goofy and silly, while actually gory. There were some really gruesome moments in TCM 2. You know what? That was okay, it was a different kind of horror movie than the original, so it could get away with it. Sadly, the franchise has relied more on gore and brutality since then, especially in the remake and the prequel. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that those movies had a gory mean streak. But the truth is, none of those movies really had the edge and spark that the original film had. It was new and terrifying. Texas Chainsaw doesn’t really do anything to differentiate itself from any other slasher movie outside of the name. Yeah, the gore is pretty good, especially when one guy gets sawed in half and another gets tossed in an industrial meat grinder, but the whole thing just feels to tame to be a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. In fact, I would actually argue that Texas Chainsaw is the wimpiest of the bunch.
In addition to the fact that Texas Chainsaw is the tamest of the bunch, it also shamelessly copies moments from the original movie. There’s a moment when Leatherface sticks a guy on a giant meathook, but there’s also the jump-scare sequence in which somebody opens up a freezer and a girl pops up. We’ve already seen that. There’s also the hitchhiker. Yep. There’s a lot of moments in the film like that, that just don’t feel earned. There’s also a scene during a carnival that had the potential to truly live up to the original name, but the film-makers chose not to capitalize on the moment. Do I actually hate this movie? No. In fact, I actually enjoyed it for what it was. It was a run-of-the-mill slasher movie that just happened to have the name Texas Chainsaw without actually understanding what made the original film such a classic in the first place. In the hands of better film-makers, Texas Chainsaw could’ve been one of the greats. Sadly, what we got is actually for more generic and formulaic than the film that inspired it. Yeah, it got several of the original actors on board, but that doesn’t help the fact that Texas Chainsaw should not have been called that. It’s not good enough to beat the re-make, but at the same time it’s not bad enough to be Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. It sits somewhere in the middle, only to be forgotten. There were plans to make more sequels to this one, but that’s not happening. What is happening is that a new direct sequel to the original film is being made. This time it’s being produced by Fede Alvarez, who directed the Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is obviously hard to kill, despite numerous unintended attempts to do so. The idea of a chainsaw-wielding maniac that wears human faces as a mask is a pretty horrifying idea. In the hands of the right film-makers, Leatherface can be terrifying again. Here’s hoping.
My Final Recommendation: Don’t look in the basement. 6/10.