Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre                                          OK/G

The original 1974 film directed by the late Tobe Hooper is one of my favorite films; I’ve seen it countless times and it is still good to this day.  It’s amazing how a film made almost 50 years ago still manages to be raw and harrowing, almost as if what you’re watching is real.  The other films that followed are decent (take them for what they are), obviously nowhere near as good, the spoofy Next Generation being the only one I don’t really care for (the only other film I wrote a review for is Leatherface, which you can check out here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2018/01/mooby-reviews-1418.html).  This recently-released Netflix film claims to be a direct sequel to the Tobe Hooper original, following other franchise additions by simply dropping the The in the title (clearly The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was already taken, as was simply Texas Chainsaw, another film that was supposed to be a direct sequel to the original).  It didn’t feel like a remake (the 2003 one actually being decent) and not because it contained the return of the Sally character, obviously not played by the late Marilyn Burns, but certainly felt like a sequel, lacking the gritty realism of its alleged predecessor (it actually takes place now though, so of course it’s going to look modern).  Since the original film is beloved by so many (yours truly included), I, and likely many others, didn’t go into this expecting something equally as worthy.  As a standalone film, it really isn’t that bad.  As far as “sequels” released almost 50 years later and made for Netflix, it really isn’t that bad.  I actually kind of enjoyed a fair amount of it.  There is violence, a whole lot of it (some parts extreme), which it definitely succeeded in outdoing its “predecessor (the original doesn’t have much of the red stuff, but clearly demonstrates you don’t necessarily need gore in order to be effective; it was also released in 1974, after all).”  It does still suffer a bit from “sequel-itis” given it does claim to be a sequel, and it was really short in that it felt like it was over and done instantly, but, as mentioned, as far as sequels released 48 years later on Netflix, it could’ve been much worse…much worse.  2/19/2022

Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

Beware of the Klowns  >>>EH

Bryan Loves You  >>>EH

Dimland  >>>EH

#FromJennifer   >>>OK

Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop  >>>EH

Pine Ridge  >>>OK

---Sean O.

2/20/2022