CAN THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022) REV UP THE FRANCHISE?

This review was originally posted to Letterboxd on February 18, 2022

More bad than good, unfortunately. That said, there still is some good here. The cinematography by Ricardo Diaz is consistently nice, there are some small moments with Leatherface that work, and the cast is solid, but wasted (They got Elsie Fisher from Eighth Grade to be the final girl) .

The film is definitely trying (such as giving our "final girl" a school shooter survivor backstory. Some might find it tasteless, I thought it mostly worked), but most of the kills aren't great (The first kill sequence in the van was the best one imo, there's also one with a sledgehammer that is certainly brutal. The Party Bus Massacre had so much potential, but is undone due to poor staging, shooting, and choreography).

Sally returns, and the attempt to pick up her story is appreciated but the OG actress died several years back, Sally's ultimate fate is a let down, and it really does feel like they included Sally just to piggy-back off of Halloween 2018 (Sally is in the film a bit, but doesn't really come into play until the final 25 minutes).

Another issue is that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 doesn't really get Leatherface. Some moments with him work, most don't (Sorry movie, Leatherface doesn't do tricks/traps. He is SEVERELY mentally handicapped. He literally doesn't have the mental capacity for it). I like that it's the death of his caretaker (caused by our main group of dumb, socially-conscious kids) that sets him off.

I also like that our main group are kind of villains in a way (Harlowe, Leatherface's home, has become a ghost town thanks to "late stage Capitalism". Our group swoops in and buys the entire town, planning to remake/rebuild it in their own image. The film makes it a point to show that almost everyone doesn't like our group).

Despite my many, many qualms with this film I still had a lot of fun with it. There were plenty of moments so bad or so stupid, I found myself laughing. It's definitely enjoyable in a "bad movie" or "so-bad-it's-good" kind of way. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 is not a good film, it does not successfully breathe life back into Leatherface. It is absolutely better than Leatherface (2017) and Texas Chainsaw 3D, though. So I guess that's something.

2.5 STARS