Director: David Blue Garcia
Notable Cast: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark
Burnham, Jacob Latimore, Moe Dunford, Olwen Fouéré, Jessica Allain, Nell
Hudson, Alice Krige, William Hope, Jolyon Coy, Sam Douglas, John Larroquette
A chainsaw is a fascinating instrument for a horror film. It
represents so many things on so many levels. Cinematically, it’s imposing
visually and abrasively loud. It’s a blunt instrument with its weight and it
still cuts, but not in nice lean slices. It rips things apart and leaves ragged
edges. It’s not a precise instrument of destruction, at least not in the hands
of most individuals. It’s an instrument seen for the working class, but a
skilled one, and it can be layered with so many more meanings. That’s why its
inclusion was such a provocative choice in the title for the original The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre and it was a statement piece in Tobe Hooper’s
original horror milestone classic.
In what some might deem a fun twist of fate, the latest
entry into this decades long-running horror franchise, confusingly titled Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, is a film that feels like a chainsaw had been taken to
it. It’s messy, choppy, loud, and - just like those chainsaw competitions that ESPN
shows on Saturday afternoons - it’s stupidly enjoyable with the appropriate
mindset.