![]() He can still flail the chainsaw in circular mayhem, but there's nothing to Leatherface outside his linebacker sprints and heavy plodding feet. Mark Burnham's performance as Leatherface requires mainly physical imposition, less vocal in the slasher's later years. So much about Sally Hardesty's inclusion and Leatherface's solo mission misses what even Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation gets right about the psychological horrors of each film atop butcher's shop carnage. ![]() I'm especially reminded how Leatherface is a vastly more interesting character when he's following orders from bloodline psychopaths (cannibalistic or not), not operating as just another masked brute. These sweaty visual callbacks to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre endure while other elements feel like a middle finger to the franchise's legacy. Hunter-killer terror unfolds under sunshine strong enough to toast sunflower fields, while the abandoned town of Harlow feels claustrophobic and isolated. Production design recalls better Texas Chainsaw movies as cinematographer Ricardo Diaz captures the blistery, sweltering Lone Star heat on screen. Despite a few townsfolk flying their Confederate flags and holstering handguns, outsiders Melody and Lila eventually lead the show - a brutal display of violence at the expense of a script that's all gristle, no meat. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is no different, as social media chef Dante (Jacob Latimore) charters a pimped-out bus full of investors to Harlow in hopes of gentrifying the dust bowl ghost town. As most chainsaw massacres go, victims are shuttled to the middle of rural nowhere to meet Leatherface's whirring blade. The post-millennial cast, including the Instafamous Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) - a school shooting survivor - provokes Leatherface (Mark Burnham) in Harlow, Texas, after 50 years of peaceful dormancy. Texas Chainsaw Massacre positions itself as a clean restart for a franchise with legendary whiffs, but Garcia's messy-as-ever slasher isn’t even better than some of the sequels it dares to erase. It's a cocky move by producers and credited story creators Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues, who boast proper credentials after their remarkable success with the 2013 “requel” Evil Dead. David Blue Garcia's entry, the ninth one in the southern slaughterhouse franchise, retcons everything except Tobe Hooper's 1974 original, so forget Matthew McConaughey's maniac and Alexandra Daddario tripping over that comically short fence. It'd take a college semester to inform those who aren't Leatherface superfans how we've gotten to 2022's Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
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