Pseudo-review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the 2022 sequel) + bonus Scream (2022 sequel) thoughts

[mistressofmuses]

As always, I keep feeling like I *almost* want to go back to reviewing horror stuff, but I know that I don't have the time to devote to it regularly... If I did devote the time, it would take away from something else.

But... Netflix's new version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is actually supposed to be a direct sequel to the original 1974 film, was... not great.

Holy hell, how does this franchise have NINE FILMS and FOUR SEPARATE CONTINUITIES? (This movie is the first new installment of the fourth branch.) The answer is that the rights to the franchise keep changing hands, and every new group that purchases those rights decides to make their own reboot/sequel series to it. But in practicality... I hate it.

I will say that this isn't a franchise I have a deep and abiding love for or anything. I definitely haven't seen all of the films, and I'd be hard pressed to tell you which ones I have, besides the original.

But boy was this one... mediocre.

Slashers definitely always have to sort of tread the line between "Oh no, I'm rooting for these poor victims to somehow make it, despite the fact that they're almost all going to die" and the sort of gleeful carnage of "I'm rooting for this horrible killer to murder almost all of these people." And honestly... I didn't feel either of those things very strongly.

I don't ask *all* my horror movies to be preachy or moralizing or anything... but it's definitely not a genre lacking in social commentary. And I can't say I really... enjoyed what it seemed to be saying?

It definitely seems to be aware of a lot of social issues, and kind of acknowledges them. One of our initial main characters is a black guy, who is understandably nervous about getting pulled over at random by a rural Texas sheriff. Another of the four mains is the survivor of a school shooting, and she's dealing with pretty clear PTSD.

But the plot, in terms of setting off the titular massacre, as well as the earlier pre-massacre conflict is... these young, racially diverse kids are pushing out the nice, (all white) folks who used to live in this now mostly-abandoned Texas town. The black guy literally attempts and fails to pull down a Confederate flag from one of the buildings. Yike.

That may very well be one of those Unintentional Unfortunate Implications things, but it felt sort of... gross, to me.

Another iffy bit - that the school shooting victim's arc is in part learning to overcome her PTSD fear of guns... by getting to be the one firing the gun. In a better movie that could have been an interesting arc, and she was the closest to being a character I kinda cared about, but it came across as a hint of maybe-unintentional "the solution to trauma from gun violence is more guns" or "you're either a victim or a perpetrator."

I am also not a fan of how it treated Sally. :/ (Don't fuck with one of the OG Final Girls, dammit.)

Also, I am all for wildly improbable kills and unlikely quantities of blood and all in a slasher film... but no one is taking a chainsaw through the gut and then getting up to fire parting shots at the villain a few minutes later.

Also also, how damn many times can a gun jam at a critical moment before it stops adding to any real sense of suspense or drama? If there is a line, this movie absolutely crossed it.

-

I feel like, having also seen Scream (the OTHER same-title-as-the-first-one-but-actually-a-sequel-entry-in-a-horror-franchise that came out so far in 2022), it's hard not to compare them at least a little bit.

It doesn't improve how Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes across.

Scream, as a franchise, has always been about the meta. While I've definitely bitched before about things that utilize self-awareness in a way that feels self-conscious, in Scream, the characters being very aware of horror tropes and the way horror films play out is the whole point. And the newest incarnation dealt with that really well!

A good portion of the meta within the newest film was about dissatisfied, obsessive fans who believe they should be in control of the franchise they love. [Which doesn't feel that different from yet another rights owner deciding to create their own continuity for the franchise.]

One of the characters points out the rules of a good "requel", including the inclusion of legacy characters. [Like Sally, the only surviving character of the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.]

One of the killers points out the necessity of killing off a legacy character, in order to show that this new version is serious business.

Comparing that meta list within Scream to how completely Texas Chainsaw Massacre ticked off those same boxes, yet without anything terribly interesting behind it, just sort of emphasizes how empty it felt.

I realize asking for a soulful, incisive entry into a what-it-says-on-the-tin slasher franchise is a losing prospect, but I really do like when movies feel like they have something to say. Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of seemed not to really know what it was trying to say, and I didn't feel like much of a fan of what it did.

Comments

[scarlipswolfwife]

The only thing that made me want to possibly watch the new Chainsaw movie is that an actor from the series Vikings (Moe Dunford) is in it, but even his presence isn't compelling me to watch it. I've never been a fan of the Chainsaw movies, and even the original left me confused and far too giggly at the end when he was doing his pas de deux with the chainsaw. I was left more with a feeling of "What the fuck did I just watch?" than anything even remotely 'horror' feeling. I've just never been invested. I think I get creepier vibes from the X-Files episode "Home" than I do Chainsaw.

Scream 5, though. I liked that one a lot. I didn't like the death of the Legacy character at all, especially listening/reading the interviews with the actor because they had no idea that it was going to be the end-end for that character, and they actually had to pause to register the loss. It was overwhelming for them. I did like the commentary that it made on obsessive fans, and let's face it. You can look at the fans of certain TV series *coughcoughSPNcoughcough* and see exactly the point they were making in Scream 5. I liked the two tributes to Wes Craven, though - the not-subtle one at the end with the credits and the one character named Wes. You can't tell me that wasn't intentional. It was really interesting that all of the characters were connected to other legacy characters. The Billy Loomis connection was interesting, and it's not like the first movie gave us a reason to suspect that could exist, but it was still an interesting connection. I think there was a teeny tiny part of me that hoped there would somehow be yet another video from Randy, but I don't think Randy could've anticipated the rabid obsessive fan theory. LOL I still love, "I'm Sydney fucking Prescott. Of course, I have a gun."

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah, of all the slasher franchises out there, Chainsaw hasn't ever been one I cared about much. I've seen better solo films that explore the same sort of horror in ways that feel more impactful. I'll second "Home" as an example, too!

I did really like Scream, though. (But I agree - even with the meta reasoning, I hate that they died that way! Though hey - at least it's a franchise that made me care enough to be sad about a death!) SPN was absolutely where my thoughts went about obsessive fandom, though it's not hard to think of plenty more.

And yes. The party and the toast to Wes (the character) was definitely intended for Wes Craven. While I didn't catch them when I watched, apparently a lot of actors from previous Scream movies participated in the toast scene, and they had voiceover from previous crewmembers and Wes Craven's widow to be part of the toast too, which is... sweet. Sweet sounds like a weird way to describe a slasher movie scene, but...

The Billy Loomis connection was interesting (and was glad they got Skeet Ulrich back to play him.)

And yes, "I'm Sydney fucking Prescott. Of course I have a gun" is a wonderful line.

[windowsmillennialed]

Horror as a genre in general is super challenging for me to appreciate for much of the reasoning you detail above. I loathe "gore porn" and violence for its own sake, but if it has a point or at least somewhat decent messaging behind it, I tend to view that vastly differently as a thought experiment or similar. The Purge franchise for example, is terribly written but poses a stark social commentary that friends and I spent hours talking about after watching it. Despite those film's various flaws, I definitely appreciated and enjoyed the conversations that followed. But for the most part, as illustrated in your assessments above, most franchises really seem to have little worthwhile commentary or intrigue? That, or the social commentary is so weak it just doesn't do anything for me? Not sure where I'm going with this reply (my apologies haha) except to say I hadn't intended to watch either of these but I have even less desire to now. I'd definitely be curious if you have a "good horror" recommend list alternatively though?

[mistressofmuses]

I really enjoy horror, but there are definitely types of horror I like far better than others. Slashers and "torture-porn" are... not my faves. I tend to like either paranormal or psychological horror a lot more. OR I at least want it to be saying something interesting through the horror lens!
I like the Scream franchise for the meta take that it has on the genre, in part because I DO watch so many horror movies that it's fun to watch something kind of satirize the genre without going all the way to full-on parody.

The Purge franchise is a good example of something that at least has something underpinning it. It's an interesting suspension of disbelief "okay, but what if", that does at least have things to say about people and society, and would people behave that way if there was nothing external stopping them? Some probably would.

For good horror... I guess I've got "basic" taste, because the stuff I tend to think is really good... is the same stuff other people also say is really good.

Jordan Peele's stuff is great, and I think it's actually really helped by the fact he was more famous for comedy first... because there are some really interesting aspects of timing and discomfort and something being "off" that go into both. But I did very much enjoy both Get Out and Us.

Guillermo del Toro is pretty much also always a favorite. Pan's Labyrinth is more dark fantasy than horror, and the horror aspects are more from the real world setting during the Spanish Civil War, but it's a beautiful film. Crimson Peak is more of a classic Gothic ghost story, so it's a bit between murder mystery/paranormal/period romance, (and I think the marketing as straight horror did it a disservice) but again, absolutely gorgeous in a lot of ways.

Annihilation is a pretty good eco-horror, but while I liked the movie (and it has some fantastic visuals), I loved the book. The book Annihilation is the first book of the Southern Reach trilogy, and I highly recommend all three.

I very much enjoy the Silent Hill movie, though it has a couple pretty gory scenes. Not the sequel, never the sequel, we don't talk about the sequel. I very much love the older video games, and opinions on the movie tend to be split among game fans, but I thought it was quite good. It utilizes its atmosphere really well.

Another one I've rewatched a ton is Session 9. It has one famously badly delivered line in it, but the movie as a whole I think is pretty good. Another that uses atmosphere really well - set in an abandoned asylum being renovated.

I also like The Descent, (though again, not the sequel.)

I can give actual brief summaries of any of them, if you want - I just didn't want to go into too much detail, especially if any of them are ones you've already seen, haha.

[scarlipswolfwife]

Random, sort of, but I can't remember if you've mentioned seeing it, but have you guys checked out the movie Antlers yet?

Give it a go if you haven't. I'm watching it again on HBO Max, but it could be on another streaming channel. Or you could download it. That's how I saw it the first time. It's really good.

[mistressofmuses]

I haven't! That was one that we really wanted to see and wound up missing... I think it was in theaters while either Alex or I was super sick, or something else prevented it.

I don't have HBO, but I'll absolutely keep an eye out for it on other streaming options! (Or if I get a computer that can handle piracy!)

It seemed like an interesting movie, and I still want to see it!

[scarlipswolfwife]

It's really really good, and I think it's one you would really like. It was different and unusual and everyone was really good in it. I hope you can find it somehow. Even if you rent it from Redbox or something. Looks like it's also on Hulu, though, if you have that one.

[mistressofmuses]

I definitely want to see it! I'll have to look for it on Hulu - we do have Hulu, but some stuff is on channels that require an extra subscription. But if it's available on there, I'll definitely watch it! Or maybe check redbox.

[scarlipswolfwife]

Heads up! Not sure if it's Hulu that you have to pay extra for or just Hulu if you already have a subscription for it, but Fresh is on Hulu now! This is the 'dark romance' with Sebastian Stan.

If you think you can download it, https://rarbg.to/torrent/sqo5vpn

But otherwise, it's on Hulu!!!!!

[mistressofmuses]

Excellent! I will add it to my watch list. I remember how much you liked it!