Tobe Hooper’s iconic slasher horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was released in 1974, kicking off a promising and profitable franchise. He gave us Leatherface, one of pop culture’s most famous antagonists. Eight more films were then released, each with a different cast and crew, frequently as reboots that retold the plot or expanded on an existing arc.
Leatherface’s vicious and ruthless killing moments with a chainsaw became legendary in the franchise. Director David Blue Garcia created his tale around the original film that started the franchise, and it will be released in 2022.
The film is set fifty years after Sally Hardesty and her friends were attacked by Leatherface. Leatherface is pitted against a group of younger people who are attempting to transform a sleepy little town into a hipster haven complete with comic book shops and art galleries. He also runs with an older Sally Hardesty, who is out for vengeance after surviving the slasher’s carnage in which her companions were killed.
Elsie Fisher plays Lila (pronounced Lyla), Melody is played by Nell Hudson, Leatherface is played by Mark Burnham, Dante is played by Jacob Latimore, and Sally Hardesty is played by Olwen Fouéré.
The film has received mostly unfavorable reviews from critics. However, art is always subjective, and a negative review does not always imply that you will dislike the movie. In this video, we will break down the events of the film and give our thoughts on where it succeeded and where it failed.
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Leatherface Returns With A Bang?
Set in the present day, 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduces a fresh set of characters – Dante, Melody, Lila (pronounced: Lyla), and Ruth. Melody and Dante are entrepreneurs who attempt to move to a remote, abandoned town in Texas called Harlow. They hope to gentrify the place by first auctioning off the properties to a group of young investors.
Melody’s sister Lila is the survivor of a school shooting massacre and carries a lot of trauma from that experience. She particularly suffers from a fear of guns, and rightfully so. She does not wish to stay in Harlow but due to her troubles, Melody cannot leave her alone. Dante’s girlfriend Ruth is also part of the plan.
They check out a new property, an orphanage, while their contractor Ritcher does not seem to be too pumped about the future gentrification of his town. As they check out the orphanage, Melody and Dante encounter the owner of the building, an old woman named Mrs. Mc. She claims that she still has the papers that prove that it is her property. However, Dante and Melody claim that she has been evicted from the property by the bank. Another mysterious man, probably her son, overlooks the argument.
The cops are called on her which results in her having a heart attack. She is rushed to the hospital in the police’s car while Ruth and the other mysterious man accompany her. On the way, she passes away, causing the man to have a hysteric reaction to it. He breaks the arm of the cop right in front of him in a way that the man’s bones stick out. He then uses those bones to puncture his chest. He kills the driver and leaves the car while Ruth, who has already notified Melody about the woman’s death, stays in her seat, startled with fear.
In true slasher fashion, the man scrapes off the skin from the now dead woman’s face and uses it as a mask, revealing himself to be Leatherface. Ruth somehow radios her situation before she is brutally killed by the slasher.
Melody receives Ruth’s text about the woman dying and questions, Dante, about the documents, who reveals that he is unable to find them. Ridden with guilt, Melody decides to go to the woman’s house to find out whether she had her documents or not. Dante accompanies her. Meanwhile, word of Ruth’s condition reaches Sally Hardesty, the survivor of Leatherface’s 1974 massacre. She heads out to Harlow to avenge the murder of her friends.
Melody finds Mrs. Mc’s documents and realizes that she was right about owning the property all along. Leatherface, who has gone berserk following the death of the woman who he cared about, returns to Harlow to kill Melody and co. He finds Dante in the orphanage and mutilates the heck out of his face. When Melody witnesses Dante’s condition, she hides.
Leatherface retrieves his notoriously infamous chainsaw while Dante manages to head outside in his half-dead, mutilated state. Richter and his friend Catherine, who had arrived on a bus with other buyers, witness Dante’s state, who is now dead. Richter enters the orphanage with a gun but is once again, absolutely destroyed by Leatherface. After the slasher leaves, Melody takes Richter’s car and bus keys and tries to leave with Lila. This, of course, does not happen without a tedious encounter with Leatherface which she barely manages to escape from.
They try to hide in the bus and force the driver to take it back to their city but Leatherface sabotages it with his chainsaw and creates a scene that justifies the name of the movie. He massacres everyone on the bus while many of them try to Livestream it on their Instagram. The comments in the Livestream make a funny mockery of a dangerous situation with people saying that it all looks so fake while others wish they were there at the moment, which is a very Millennial and Gen Z thing to do.
Melody and Lila manage to hide and escape when they encounter Sally Hardesty, who is back to avenge her friends. She gives Melody the keys and asks her to drive away while she goes after Leatherface and shoots him. He obviously does not die and her revenge plans are completely foiled when Leatherface pierces her body with a chainsaw and uses it like an egg frother frothing egg whites. He chases Melody and Lila and attacks them but Melody and Lila must kill him before escaping to stop him from haunting them.
Lila fights her fear of guns as her survival instincts kick in and she uses Sally’s shotgun to defend herself and her sister. She pursues Leatherface into an abandoned building but he ambushes her. Right before Leatherface almost kills her, Melody arrives to save her sister. Ultimately, she gets her hands on his chainsaw and seemingly kills him with it as he falls into the water and does not come out.
In the morning, the sisters try to escape but they should’ve dismembered Leatherface instead of giving themselves the benefit of doubt that he is dead. As Melody puts the car on autopilot, Leatherface attacks and beheads her. He holds her now severed head high while Lila is horrified. The self-driving car drives itself out of Harlow.
The movie ends. During the post-credit scene, Leatherface returns to the 1974 house where the massacre had taken place for the very first time.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot to unpack here. Several characters are portrayed in a way that you’d expect them to do something monumental. However, there’s little to no payoff. Initially, it’s hard to even understand who the protagonist, sort of, is. The movie puts the spotlight on Dante, who is defeated not long after the 30-minute mark. Melody begins to take center stage but is sidetracked when Lila is made to be the one who might save the day.
Putting Lila under the spotlight turns out to be a good decision, however. We learn early into the movie that she is a survivor of a school shooting and has a bullet wound. This has resulted in her having a phobia of guns. However, to save her sister and herself, she is seen picking up the gun from a barely alive Sally Hardesty. This feels like it could be a good character arc. But it doesn’t. The attention is taken away from her and shifted towards Melody once again. The problem lies in the fact that we don’t get to understand who we should root for.
Sally Hardesty makes a promising appearance at first. It feels like she will make a hefty contribution to the plot, considering how she has become a Texas Ranger after being hardened from her experience against the slasher. But, she is compromised not long after she gets into the action, leaving us with no payoff despite a promising buildup.
The special effects are what really shine bright in this movie. David Blue Garcia clearly does not shy away from showing gore, with some of the greatest gory scenes being the death of the first cop, Dante’s mutilation, Richter’s death, and the attack on Sally. Leatherface beheading Melody in the end and holding her head up adds the cherry on top.
The massacre sequence in the bus is another fantastic scene in the movie where Leatherface goes on a rampage, absolutely decimating everyone with his formidable chainsaw. People are punctured and their body parts cut off. Leatherface is put in a position where several potential victims can experience his unhinged behavior and he does not shy away from that opportunity.
The movie maintains a common horror theme – one where regular people from the city are oblivious to what awaits them in a deserted town. The older approach to filmmaking and cinematography with vintage lenses and a barren wasteland-ish location for a premise helps mitigate some of the film’s cons.
Even without anything being mentioned, the cinematography and song choices help communicate the stark difference between a city and the abandoned town of Harlow. The infrastructure that we see in Harlow and some of the characters vibing to country-pop music can be seen as a callback to the 70s, as this movie aims to revive the idea of the 1974 original in the minds of the audience.
Another area where the movie succeeds is its pacing. From the very beginning, it does not keep the audience stuck in a rut, waiting for the action to take place. Leatherface is introduced pretty early on and begins his rampage soon after.
His emotional state is also highlighted, as he mourns the loss of his mother and dresses up her corpse in good clothes. Unfortunately, no matter what he does or how dangerous he is, the movie fails at building nerve-wracking suspense or fear for what’s about to come.
Sure, the golden age of slasher films is long gone. But 21st-century movies like House of Wax have successfully been able to create that fear and suspense that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 does not.
It all makes sense because the development of the movie has been far from organized. The constant switching of production houses and the entire directorial crew being changed, including the director himself, has contributed to the developmental mishap. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the fans of this franchise.
A post-credit scene where Leatherface goes back to the 1974 house promises a possible sequel. Here’s to hoping that it will successfully retain the thrill of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie.
With that, today’s video comes to an end. What did you think of this movie? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye. And have a nice one!