Texas Chainsaw Massacre series

  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

    The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) A few people claim that the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre had some respectability. Despite its grand-guignolesque violence, their argument goes, it had stripped-down naturalistic cinematography that did much, in the early 1970s, to take the horror genre forward and (also) into slashers. Well, that original respectability certainly isn’t carried over to its sequel, which was made on the other side of the slasher craze it helped create and as a result goes nuts on ludicrous gore while leaving any attempt at realism well behind. What was halfway believable in the prequel is now completely crazy in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, taking advantage of heightened audience expectations and pumped-up gore effects. What saves the film (and earns begrudging respect from this slasher-hater critic) is director Tobe Hooper’s willingness to indulge into satire of the slasher genre itself. What is over the top is deliberately over-the-top, highlighted in so many ways that the film almost thinks of itself as a comedy. It doesn’t exactly endear me to the result, but it does raise The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 above the copycat nature of many of its mid-1980s slasher equivalents.

  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

    The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, July 2016) Slick, loud and utterly forgettable, 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot exemplified early on the defining characteristics of the recent (and hopefully disappearing) craze for remaking classic horror movies. The technical values are quite a bit better than the originals, but while the story structure remains the same, it’s filtered through a homogenizing process that removes nearly all the rough edges and quirks of the inspiration. The result usually feels lifeless, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake couldn’t be more representative of the trend. Featuring young protagonists facing down hillbillies, it’s a predictable by-the-number exercise in genre horror, with largely forgettable set pieces that are executed well enough to measure up to current production standards, but not so memorably as to warrant any sustained attention. It’s purely a teen slasher in backwater country, and there’s nothing worth pondering in terms of themes or style. Nobody will care about the limp attempt at framing the movie as a true-crime story. Jessica Biel is the notional protagonist here, but this won’t figure on her filmography as anything more than a stepping stone to more visible roles. Gorier yet less disturbing than the original, this Texas Chainsaw Massacre also shares another crucial characteristic of remakes: It’s unnecessary, and will quickly be forgotten in favour of its predecessor.