Review
"Do your thing, cuz!" - Heather
Heather Miller receives word she has inherited a house from her recently deceased Grandmother and decides visiting the abode on the way to a vacation with her homies in Florida would be worthwhile. Enroute they pick up a Hitchhiker, as you do in rural Texas, who is only too happy to chip money in for gas and take in the detour to remote Texas redneck territory. Arriving at her newly inherited property Heather and team discover she has inherited a mansion. Along with the mansion come certain responsibilities that Heather would have known about if she bothered reading a final letter from her Gran given to her by the estate Lawyer. Guess who's hanging out downstairs in the cellar, with chainsaws at the ready!
Needless to say Leatherface is ready to party, and takes little time at all in ripping through Heather's crew, though there was an assist from a panicked Deputy. Seems the Sawyers went down in a hail of gunfire after the events in 1974 due to intended victim Sally making her escape and the local townsfolk taking matters into their own hands. With Heather on the run Leatherface isn't making the same mistake but doesn't take into account the remorseless hatred the local Mayor has for all things Sawyer. Worse yet Heather is Leatherface's cousin, and has a hankering to follow in the family tradition when the shit goes down. Can the local Sherriff sort this mess out or will 1974 be repeated, well it was but uhmm no spoilers.
To be honest I lost track of this franchise after Tobe Hooper's follow up to the original classic road trip to Texas. There's been any number of movies since, including a remake, so guess we should be venturing into Sawyer clan territory to see what's been happening in my absence. Actually have two previous movies in the franchise in the review queue but couldn't resist this one as it just started streaming via our good friends at Netflix. So yeah clearly I'm not watching this in 3D, but have to say the movie doesn't lose anything in translation to normal viewing nor does it have an overabundance of things being pointed at the screen. So hey ho on with the review, this movie has some major problems but the lead actress is easy on the eye so not a total loss folks.
We do get a flashback of the Sawyer clan post 1974 massacre of the visiting teenagers, but they appear to be in a completely different house though still front and centre is the chook in a cage. Are the team visiting relatives, and have taken the chicken along for the festivities or something? Don't drop your linen and definitely don't start your grinning, as we get to meet each member of the clan we flashback to one of the original kids meeting their fate at the hands of the murderous family. Big mistake, this modern attempt at reclaiming former glories really shouldn't be reminding us of how much better the original movie was than the one we are about to sit through. Anyways the Sherriff has arrived and wants the clan to send out good old Jed "Leatherface" Sawyer, which is going to cause some ruction in the family. Just when Drayton Sawyer and crew come down on the side of the needs of the one don't outweigh the needs of the many, the local townsfolk have arrived to extract vengeance and its gunfight time. With more firepower being brought to bear than was used in your average Normandy beach landing, the Sawyers are pretty much toast. However Loretta Sawyer manages to escape out the back with her baby daughter Edith Rose. This doesn't end up well for the Mom but the baby is secretively whisked away by a couple who haven't been able to have their own kids.
Flash forward twenty odd years and we met Heather, Edith Rose grown up, who is following in the family meat processing business. She learns she has an inheritance waiting in rural Texas and it's off to the races as Heather, her boyfriend, and her best mate and another bloke head out in the ubiquitous minivan picking up a hitch hiker along the way. Naturally we also get a dead armadillo as hey we're in the 1990s and road kill is still a thing ever since it was made popular in 1974. At this stage I was actually quite bouncy with excitement, we have met the meat, are wondering how Heather is going to get on when she gets the inevitable family reunion, and just what might be in granny's letter - which Heather is steadfast refusing to read, cause that might explain the situation and save a few lives maybe.
From there things start to deteriorate as we get a poorly written script, zero in the way of character development, and the expected gore as Leatherface gets unleashed. Problems start to mount almost immediately, hey we're in the 1990s and apparently iPhones were the preferred mobile phone in an age when at best mobile phones were pretty primitive and Apple hadn't brainwashed everyone into their market gamble of last generation tech. This is your sort of Hollywood period failure in setting horror in a past decade, they invariably fail to cover all basis. About the only character showing some resilience is Heather who ends up so unbelievable by end of the movie that I was actually groaning with each new development.
Speaking of gore director John Luessenhop picks up a paint brush and slathers that onto the screen like it might be going out of fashion. Now I know the TCM franchise isn't exactly known for its restrained nature, well since the first movie anyway which was more of a you see more than you think you do blind date, but seriously 3D simply went over the top. Now a bit of the gruesome is to be expected in a horror flick, but seriously this one was using it to gross the audience out because the Director lacked the single ability to actually scare the audience. Sorry Stephen King in some cases grossing out the audience isn't a desirable quality, this movie descended into gorenography as the only tactic available to slam dunk viewers. If you are of faint heart then give this one a miss, the viscera is dripping off the screen, and to no really good effect to be honest.
If there's ones scene in the movie that sums up how actually dumb the script is then look no further than the fun park rampage by Leatherface. The big fella is chasing Heather, hey losing chicks isn't a habit the chainsaw wielding one wants to develop, and people are running screaming everywhere as things are starting to look dicey. Naturally, this being Texas and all, no one is sporting any sort of weapon to stop the deranged killer, cause it's against State law or something. Actually we get some kid wielding a make believe chainsaw confronting Mr Jeb Sawyer for a moment, and hey that was so funny I almost, well, stopped yawning. In the aftermath, with surprisingly no bodies, there's no possie being put together or the local law seemingly remotely interested. All part of the festivities in rural Texas I guess.
So by now you are probably getting the picture, Leatherface hunts down interlopers at the Sawyer mansion and does away with them in grisly fashion, though he does visit the local slaughterhouse at one stage for a particularly gruesome demise. As this movie relies on body parts being chopped off there is nothing in the way of tension and chills going down your spine. The movie simply ain't that good folks. I did get a few warm feelings with the atmosphere however, this movie might be downright grubby but at least the sets - here talking Casa del Sawyer - were getting my nod of approval even though in the interim years since 1974 the Sawyers seem to have renovated, we're talking less eccentric décor and Leatherface's workroom seemingly having been moved to another location in the manse. Hey horror geek over here, I note the little things.
So the latest in the TCM franchise is a bit of a fizzer to be honest, but heck not the worse in the franchise so even Stevens for mine. Not one I would recommend, hey caught it to review on Netflixs, this is simply an exercise in gore for gore's sake rather than a movie chock full of art or evaluation of the human condition. If you are a Leatherface fan then dial in, otherwise you have pretty much seen this one already in the previous movies in the franchise. Can we close the book on the Sawyer clan once and for all, there must be some other monsters lurking in the great state of Texas, surely.
The buzz isn't back, let this franchise rest in pieces.