Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) Review
Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre is elevated through a few effective sequences of suspense, some stunning scenery, and a routine supply of splendidly nasty gore. Sadly, the deviant glory of the film is undermined by a nonsense plot and an obnoxious insistence on its ignorant ideals.
The film quite shamelessly mimics the exact same premise of the recent Halloween movies, ignoring the previous sequels and featuring the original film’s now aged and hardened final girl in one last showdown against her old nemesis.
Leatherface (Mark Burnham) has finally been reunited with Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), and while Leatherface is the biggest name to come out of the Texas Chainsaw franchise, we’ve tossed the previous sequels. With that in mind, it makes no sense that Sally has sworn revenge against this one guy, when it’s a family of killers that’s responsible for her traumatizing, near-death experience. The extent to which the rest of the Sawyer family is ignored here made me feel as if I was going mad.
But, whatever. That’s a fundamental issue, and it’s not even the movie’s biggest problem. The most significant detriment to the experience of watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the way in which the movie manipulates the story to support its regressive views. And that’s what keeps me from recommending it, even solely as entertainment.
Yes, this is a dumb, gratuitous, seemingly-harmless slasher movie, but also one that deliberately paints a confederate flag owner in a sympathetic light. And, a school shooting survivor comes to learn that, well, guns aren’t so bad after all. It’s that kind of movie.
I think I’ve made my point. This movie sucks. Not even in a fun way.
