10s Movie Review - Texas Chainsaw

Director: John Luessenhop
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 90 minutes
Year: 2013
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Dan Yeager, Trey Songz, Scott Eastwood, Tania Raymonde, Shaun Sipos, Keram Maliki-Sánchez, James MacDonald, Thom Barry, Paul Rae, Richard Riehle, Bill Moseley, Gunnar Hansen

Description: A young woman (Alexandra Daddario) travels to Texas to collect her inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding killer is part of the reward.

Review: “Texas Chainsaw” is a horror slasher about the murderous Sawyer family. Years ago, after a gruesome massacre, their house was burned to the ground by angry neighbors. Including all the members of the family, if was thought. Decades later and many miles away Heather finds out tha her parents are not her biological parents, but her adoptive parents. She inherited a piece of Texas land from her grandmother whom she never knew. With her boyfriend and some other friends, she takes the car for a long drive, with the final destination: the gigantic house of Heather’s grandmother. Heather’s grandmother and her biological parents seem t have had a strange connection with the infamous Leatherface in the past and let him hide in the this house.

Carl Mazzocone, president of the Twisted Pictures, has always been a big fan of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and Leatherface is one of his favorite horror villains. He believes that the perfect boogie man should be authentic and realistic. When the original was released, the film was told to be based on a true story. Many people still thought ans still think that the story really happened. Serial killer Ed Gein was taken as a cource of inspiration for Leatherface, so somewhere it’s true. Mazzocone felt that more could be done with the story and asked writer/ director John Luessenhop to join his project.

Unfortunately they did not succeed in reaching their goals. This sequel doesn’t feel authentic or realistic at all. The film starts right away with a big mistake. Heather is a girl in her early 20s, but she should be in her late 30s. after all, she was found as a baby after the murder in 1974. It also seems as if the makers couldn’t make a choice as to what kind of film it should be. The first part of the film is set in 1974m and starts just before the original ends. The atmosphere feels good for a horror mvie, nothing wrong with that. If an original story had been made it would have been fine. But no, it was decided to go to the present with a goup of teenagers entering an abandoned house. I think we’ve all seen this before. Then it becomes a complete mess and instead of a fun popcorn horror slasher, the film becomes laughable. There is one scene, where Heather is trying to get away from Leatherface and ends up at a carnival. In her eyes, the best option to get away from him, is to grab onto one of the gondolas on a Ferris wheel. Only for it to go around, with Leatherface just waiting for her at the end. There are always dumb people in these movies, but this is next level.

There are small references to the original, but that’s for pure nostalgia reasons. But overall, “Texas Chainsaw” is a sequel nobody really needed.

Rating: 1,5 / 5