Texas Chainsaw Massacre Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs
Better than you're probably expecting, but still a mess.
Five years after the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise seemingly sputtered out with the critically reviled straight-to-video prequel Leatherface, the series is back with its ninth (!) entry, confusingly entitled "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
If you've been following the film's production at all, you'll surely be aware that this direct sequel to Tobe Hooper's beloved 1974 original has had quite the tough journey to the screen.
Original directors Ryan and Andy Tohill were fired just a week into shooting amid creative differences, before being speedily replaced by David Blue Garcia, who re-shot all of the existing footage.
In addition to that, the producers' decision to skip a theatrical release and instead sell the horror sequel to Netflix certainly seemed to suggest it was being dumped to streaming because, well, they knew they had a turkey on their hands.
And while the marketing hasn't done much to convince otherwise, ultimately Texas Chainsaw Massacre is hardly among the very worst films in the wildly uneven franchise.
Is it particularly good? Not really, but it's hardly an offensive, sacrilegious betrayal of what came before, and at least delivers enough brutal gore across a speedy runtime to be basically watchable.
But again, not a good film overall, and so here's what it got wrong...