Texas Chainsaw Massacre Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Clumsy, Cringe-Worthy Social Commentary

The film's deranged attempt at social commentary is sure to be its most divisive aspect, as rather than simply recycle inbred redneck tropes yet again, this movie turns its lens towards its more liberal, open-minded protagonists.

The movie is set in the small, dilapidated Texas town of Harlow, where a group of young millennials and Gen-Z kids have bought up some of the local real estate in the hope of redeveloping the area into something tourists would actually want to visit.

In the early going the script thickly lays on a shallow critique of both gentrification and smug young liberals, contrasting them with the more set-in-their-ways locals who evidently fear change.

It's all incredibly surface-level, though, and while the already-infamous scene in which Leatherface gets livestreamed and "cancelled" on social media while attempting to hack up a bus full of investors is undeniably cringe-worthy, the subsequent gory payoff at least somewhat makes up for it.

There's no real commitment to a distinct perspective or point-of-view here, and so the lampooning of young kids, forever buried in their phones and fearful of guns, feel a bit tepid and toothless.