“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2022) is a terrible attempt at making a sequel to the original

So, I admit it took me a while to watch this film. Mostly because I wanted to be in the right mood and headspace to watch Leatherface chainsaw a bunch of bitches.

And to be honest, I’m glad I waited. Honestly this isn’t a rush to watch kind of film.

If you’re a die-hard fan of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series then this might be the film for you, but I was pretty skeptical watching it all the way through.

The beginning seemed promising until, I noticed, the gas station one of the characters was at, was basically a souvenir shop for a serial killer that hasn’t been caught.

Creepy much? Like why would a town do that, I feel like that’s saying ‘hey it’s ok if you’re a serial killer’ we will accept you here in Texas. That’s kind of messed up.

After that moment I was like, this film is going to be bad. And it just got worse.

The characters portrayed in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” weren’t memorable which I think the film lacked in. If the characters were more developed with some depth to them in their storylines I think I would have liked it better. I love slasher films, but they are way better when the plot is a little more interesting than just running from the killer, but that’s all it felt like this whole film was.

I think it was interesting how they tried to modernize this to make it different enough from the original. They had the teenagers go to this small town to revamp it and start over, but also, how did they not know Leatherface was there? If it is publicized then maybe don’t go there? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The way they introduced Leatherface was pretty obvious, meaning once they show his character you just know who he is and he goes bat shit crazy. So I liked how he was portrayed, but the way his mask looked with his mother’s skin on his face didn’t look right. I kind of wish it was more of the classic look from the original films but it looked too fake to me. Don’t get me wrong the mask is creepy, but it didn’t have a ton of depth to them. I think it would have been scarier if he made the mask from a culmination of skin from a few of his victims.

Also, he seemed too smart from start to finish. Like he got people so easily when he attacked people there wasn’t much of a fight and I kinda wish he was stupider. I mean, he set a trap for god sake. It just seems unbelievable to me how Leatherface would go about things with such ease, when clearly as a character he just isn’t all there. And I don’t think he’s really coherent enough to know how to do those kinds of tasks.

The main negative which I’m never going to get past is how they reintroduced Sally from the original film. I think many slashers do this sort of thing and get away with it by bringing original characters back, such as Halloween, but in this scenario it just doesn’t make sense.

Why would someone who was attacked so many years ago live and stay in the same town they were attacked in? Especially when they have no relation to the killer. This made absolutely no sense. Like she stayed to avenge her friends but on the other hand, LEAVE. Like I would not be sticking around. And of course in the first film she survived but she was terrified the entire time.

Whereas in this new film her character is a bad-ass who is ready to kill Leatherface to get him to stop killing people.

Wait — hold on a minute. Reminder, I’m not reviewing “Halloween” (2018), I’m talking about “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

And that’s the thing, this movie isn’t very original. I was very excited about the parallels from the first film, but I think they could have maybe done it in a different way that made a little bit more sense. But it just didn’t click with me all the way through.

Lastly, if you like gore this film is for you because there is a lot of it. But, I don’t think the kills were super creative and people took too long to die when they should have sooner because they suffered from SEVERE wounds, where they should have died instantly and they don’t.

Example: How does someone get chain sawed literally in the center of their chest and somehow live for as long as they did?

Can you say…STUPID!

Overall, I think this film is decent enough to watch and is entertaining enough but I think it’s forgettable. There was never a ‘wow’ moment for me in this film.

Personally, I’ve never really been super into “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise, and I’ve always wanted to take a deeper dive into the the series to see really what makes Leatherface so unique, but I think it’s just one of those premises where you can’t really do much with the storyline. That is disappointing to say the least.

I think that’s kind of where this film landed for me. It wasn’t what I expected. I give this film a 2 out of 5 stars. What did you think of the new “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” film? Did it exceed your expectations or do you have mixed emotions about it like I do?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!