‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (2022) Movie Review

This second attempt at a Texas Chainsaw requel (with the first being the abysmal Texas Chainsaw 3D from 2013) sees a group of social media influencers buying up a Texas ghost town in order to refurbish it into a new sort of influencer hub. These include Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), the ringleader Dante (Jacob Latimore), and their other friend Ruth (Nell Hudson). When they arrive in town, they meet an old woman (Alice Krige) still living on the premises in what used to be an orphanage. It turns out that she’s also harboring Leatherface (Mark Burnham), and he’s out for revenge.

Like with the Halloween franchise, different entries in the Texas Chainsaw series have created various diverging timelines, but this film seems to be creating an entirely new one, which I’m honestly okay with. Texas Chainsaw Massacre ‘22 is a mixed bag, but I’d say that it ultimately adds up to adequate. One thing I cannot praise enough is the gore, which looks great and is bountiful, to say the least. A lot of people forget that the original wasn’t really all that gory. It was still shocking and gritty, but it implied more than it showed in most cases. Since then, however, they've gradually gotten bloodier, especially since the remake in 2003, which I actually really enjoy. This new film might very well be the bloodiest yet, and that's probably the best part about this movie. There's a particularly awesome scene that takes place on a party bus, and as a friend of mine said, it might be the truest definition of a "massacre" the franchise has had to date.

The acting is acceptable, but nothing special. Yarkin, Fisher, and Krige in particular are good actors, but it's not really an actors' film. The main characters are mainly there to be chainsaw fodder, so it's not especially crucial. Mark Burnham makes a good Leatherface, although the character should probably be a bit older than Burnham is. But that's neither here nor there. One actress I haven't mentioned yet is Olwen Fouéré, who plays the now-much older Sally Hardesty. The original actress, Marylin Burns, passed away in 2014, so the character was recast. The main reason I didn’t mention her in the beginning synopsis is that she’s actually barely in it. She’s honestly a pretty inconsequential person, and in the end, they really do her dirty. It seemed pretty clear that she was added later in an attempt to imitate and then subvert the Halloween requel trilogy. But their attempt to subvert expectations ended up feeling kind of disrespectful. Plus, since they weren’t able to bring back the original star, why even bother incorporating a legacy character? The movie is not particularly long, and it’s been reported that early cuts of the movie tested really poorly, so there were some pretty substantial cuts and reshoots. Sally’s return was almost certainly the result of those reshoots.

The other big issue with the film is the way it tries to include political commentary… or more accurately, doesn’t. There are multiple sociopolitical topics that the movie acknowledges, but it never seems to actually make a point, or even take a definite stance. It just sort of points out that things exist. There's a part in which an older lady is clearly somewhat racist, but the other characters reacting accordingly is almost made out to be negative or an overreaction. Now the way they treat her regarding a totally different matter is pretty shitty, but the film seemingly isn't even willing to take a stance against something as simple as racism. The implication is that it is the result of ignorance rather than hatred, but you would think that they would at least not make it look like calling it out is a dick move. They also flirt with addressing the gun debate, even leading to a reveal that (very mild spoiler) one character is a survivor of a school shooting. Again, regardless of whether or not I would agree with it, I do wish the movie had given some sort of indication that it has a particular message in regards to these issues. I know not everything is black and white (especially the latter issue), but I don't understand why they would even depict these things if the film had nothing to say regarding them. Maybe these were also things that were left on the cutting room floor, but I don't know.

As stupid as some of the movie was, I still found myself enjoying it. The story is pretty lacking, the characters are bland, and it has nothing to say about the social issues it teases. But the pacing is brisk, the gruesome violence is quite well-executed, and there are some incredibly creative kills. Maybe I just had low expectations, but I had a pretty good time watching it, and it makes for a decent late-night viewing with enough tolerance for the scenes in between the carnage. Plus, it's still a hell of a lot better than Texas Chainsaw 3D.

SCORE: 3.5/5

TRIGGER WARNING: school shooting