There are two sides to the Halloween season: 1) pumpkin spice lattes, Pinterest-perfect pumpkin pies, harvest decorations, cozy fall Hallmark movies, or 2) haunted houses, horror movies, Jack-O-Lanterns, zombie costumes. Regardless of which side of Halloween you’re on, we all love that feeling of turning off the lights, snuggling under a blanket, and turning on a movie. In this article, I’ll be talking about an American staple: horror movies. Specifically, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and its 2022 counterpart.
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an American horror classic. Regardless of its low budget, Tobe Hooper creates a cinematic masterpiece that is ominous, eerie, bloody, and scary, incorporating the classic elements of an American horror movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of five friends, including brother and sister Franklin and Sally Hardesty. Suspecting that her grandfather’s grave might have been vandalized, Sally and her companions journey to rural Texas to investigate. Along the way, they come across the old farmhouse of the Hardesty family and decide to take a detour. Adjacent to the farmhouse is another, seemingly abandoned, residence. However, the group of friends soon discovers that it is the home of a murderous, crazed family. One by one, Sally and her companions become victims to the ruthless, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is filmed in a documentary format based on the real-life story of Ed Geins’ killing spree in 1973. This movie established the foundation for many horror-genre films that followed, popularizing the hitch-hiker theme, introducing a truly inhuman, sadistic villain, and disdaining gimmicky gore scenes. In those respects, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has endured as the holy grail of slasher films. It is thrilling, terrifying, and stress-inducing: a true horror film.
However, critics were quick to denounce its 2022 counterpart. Directed by David Garcia, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), is set in modern-day Texas. Similar to the original, it follows a group of Gen-Z influencers, including sisters Melody and Lila. The group is on their way to Harlow, a small, mostly abandoned town, to conduct gentrification. Upon arriving, Melody’s first interaction with one of the townsfolk is with an elderly woman named Virginia, Harlow’s former orphanage director. A few minutes into the film, we find out that Virginia is the ‘mother’ of Leatherface, and he has apparently spent his whole life in this orphanage. This woman ends up dying from a heart attack, which sparks Leatherface’s killing spree. Sally Hardesty, the lone survivor of the original film, is conveniently located just a few miles outside of town, serving as a ranger. She has devoted her life to finding Leatherface, killing him, and avenging her friends. Upon hearing of his return, she leaps into action once again, willing to sacrifice herself for Leatherface’s demise
Honestly, this movie is okay. On paper, it has what a horror movie should have: action-packed scenes, good jump-scares, a lot of blood, but it’s just…missing something. The plot revolves around the modernized-sequel stereotype, and the ‘lone survivor of the original, back for revenge’ cliche. These are often relatively good tropes but, overall, the entire movie tended to bore me.
Not to mention the several gaping plot-holes! In the original 1974 film, Leatherface is living with his father and brothers in the woods; no mother is brought up or even alluded to, nor is any orphanage mentioned. The 2022 version claims that Leatherface had lived with his mother in the orphanage since he was a child…so how does that make sense? Honestly, it feels as if all the character development Leatherface had gone through in the original TCM Saga vanished in this 2022 sequel.
I would criticize the 2022 sequel for its inability to truly develop a character. Everytime we begin to see some advancement, Garcia kills them off! The ‘mother’ of Leatherface is dead in the first 20 minutes, forcing Leatherface into a meaningless series of tantrums and killings. However, regardless of the mounds of criticism this movie has received, it’s still a decent film. It has well-formatted jumpscares, a certain ominous appeal, and a decent cast. However, it is simply inadequate in relation to the 1974 original.
It is said that the original is always better than the sequel, and this especially holds true in the case of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Though the 2022 version is passable, it would be an insult to Tobe Hooper to regard it as superior to the 1974 original.
