mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-02-19 07:35 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-02-19 07:35 pm
Entry tags:
Pseudo-review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the 2022 sequel) + bonus Scream (2022 sequel) thoughts
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.
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.