The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise began back in 1974 with the release of the original film, and Leatherface is still terrorizing audiences all these years later. The latest installment, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is now streaming on Netflix. This time around, director David Blue Garcia was responsible for bringing the notorious killer to the screen.
Screen Rant spoke with Garcia to discuss his experience making Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the new film's place in the series timeline, Easter eggs, and more.
Screen Rant: Let's back it all the way up. Do you remember the first time you saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and what went through your mind when you watched it?
David Blue Garcia: It's funny, I've been getting asked that question a lot and, in fact, I would say it's one of the main cinema memories I have. There's certain movies that you watch throughout your childhood that really stand out. One of them is Jurassic Park, for me, but one of them is Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which came on cable late at night and I turned the TV on, I was watching it, 30-40 minutes in Leatherface pops out and I was so terrified. I turned the TV off. But then I had to see how the story ended so I watched the rest of it. But it was just so dark and scary and I'd never seen anything like it.
I don't know why the camera sounds scared me more than almost anything in the movie. I don't know why I found them so scary.
David Blue Garcia: The sound design and the score for that movie are really out of this world.
And then, of course, Marilyn Burns screaming in the trunk at the end. It's just so iconic. I also thought it was a true story because I was too young.
David Blue Garcia: Absolutely. A lot of people grew up thinking that and still think that this day.
Can you talk about how you landed in the director's chair for this one and just go through that backstory a little bit?
David Blue Garcia: I'm a native Texan I grew up in Texas, still live here. My first film is called Tejano, which means Texan in Spanish. So I think the studio saw me and was like, "That's the guy. That's the perfect guy to helm this movie.” Also, the first Texan in quite a long while to helm this franchise. So Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel, and me. It was a little bit of luck, also meeting the right people. Once the opportunity came, I had to go with it.
There are quite a few Texas Chainsaw movies, like you mentioned, how do you wrap your head around the continuity of it all and where this film fits in? Does it ignore everything else but the 1974 movie?
David Blue Garcia: We like to call this a direct sequel to the original. Not that it ignores all the other films in between, but those aren't as important to the story. You can pick and choose what you want to from those other films. We're picking the movie up 50 years later and Leatherface has kind of been lying low in this orphanage and is disturbed by these millennial protagonists who come to town.
What was the most important element of the first movie and the franchise for you to incorporate in the new film?
David Blue Garcia: For me, it was kind of the spirit. The spirit of the filmmaking of that first movie. I don't like to watch movies while I make movies. So I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original, and then I didn't watch anything else for two months while I shot this. To me, it just kind of gives me an idea for what I want to do. But I'm not actually directly copying anything from the original. It just gave me sort of a feel.
Something that stood out to me about the original that not a lot of people talk about, is how darkly funny it is. So I made sure to bring a little bit of levity into this film as well. You might have seen it, the bus scene when Leatherface walks on and all the characters raise their cell phones. That's one of the first things I added when I came on.
What was the hardest battle for you in making this movie? What was the hardest thing for you to get right?
David Blue Garcia: I think shooting practically, a lot of the blood and gore is always a challenge. It's so easy for a director to just be like, "Oh, it's easier, we'll just add some blood in post. We'll add some CGI blood in post. We'll just shoot it and move on." But, really sticking with that discipline and trying to get it right in-camera takes a lot of patience. That was hard to learn. But [I] had Fede Álvarez helping me, guiding me through that process. He's done that many times before. So it was a great learning experience.
What's the blood made out of these days?
David Blue Garcia: Every department has their own mixture of blood. I know the makeup department has blood that goes on skin. The special effects department has their own blood, and the mask department has their own blood. So I actually don't know the chemical compounds that go into these different bloods. It was all blood to me.
You touched on this a little bit, but we get to see Leatherface again, of course. How has Leatherface changed since the last time we saw him?
David Blue Garcia: I think the most notable change is that he has aged quite a bit. People like to talk about, "Oh, he would be so old" or "How would it feel to move around or lift a chainsaw?" And I don't think those people have been to Texas and seen these old farmers that I've seen. I mean, these guys are 80 years old and still hauling bags of grain and stuff over their shoulder. So, I have no doubt that Leatherface eating and living well for 50 years, not eating fast food, would be a very healthy and robust man. But he hasn't been on the internet or anything like that. He's basically living in the same mental time period as the first film until he walks onto that bus and it's like he time-traveled from 1974 to 2022 and he sees all these hipsters.
He's like, "goodbye."
David Blue Garcia: He's like "I do not like this."
The vibes are off, they're gone.
Of course, we see Sally, which is awesome to bring her back. Can you talk about bringing her back and how she's changed since the last time we saw her?
David Blue Garcia: I think Sally was important to bring back because we wanted to sort of pass the torch from her character to the next group of characters, and it quite literally happens in the film. In 50 years, she's been dealing with her own past, her own trauma, something she ran from initially. But now she's trying to fight. She wants to get her revenge, but she just hasn't been able to find Leatherface. It's nice to be able to tell and complete her story, continue her story.
You also use one of the original chainsaws from the original film, correct? How did you get it and what was it like to use on set?
David Blue Garcia: We had this very old chainsaw and I was told it's one of the original chainsaws from the first movie. This is what I was told. So I had a sort of reverence for it. And I will tell you, it's very old and it hardly ever started. I would take 10 to 15 to 20 minutes sometimes of just [revving noises] trying to get it started, and once it was on, we didn't know how long it would stay on because it would just turn off whenever it wanted. It put out these terrible fumes. I mean, so much smoke to the point where I say that if Leatherface had really walked onto that bus, he could have just stood there for about 30 seconds and everyone would have died of asphyxiation before he even had a chance to cut them up.
It's like the shark from Jaws.
David Blue Garcia: Yes. I had a lot of prop saws too that I would use before I had to use the original. But I use the original for obviously, all the close-ups and the real star takes.
That's awesome. What was your true geek-out moment on set where you're just like, "Oh, hell yeah, I'm making Texas Chainsaw Massacre baby!"
David Blue Garcia: It's when you're finally filming that scene of Leatherface running and chasing someone. That's the iconic moments, you know what I mean? There's a lot of cat and mouse scary stuff that we were filming. But as soon as you see him running full tilt with that chainsaw up in the air and the backlit smoke billowing behind him, that's when you know you've made it.
Do you have a favorite Easter egg that eagle-eyed fans should watch out for?
David Blue Garcia: There's a lot of easter eggs in the film, some of which I'm still discovering because I forgot that we put them in. When I rewatch the movie, I'm like, "oh yeah! Forgot about that." But one of my favorites is, if you just look in the bus scene, look in the windows. Look in the lightning flashes in the windows and you'll see something pretty interesting.
I was just talking to Elsie [Fisher] and Sarah [Yarkin] and they were talking about when he puts the phone up and they're scrolling, you can see the names are the writers and Fede [Alvarez] and all that.
David Blue Garcia: I'm in there. I have a cameo as one of those little names in the Instagram Live.
I love that. Just a Leatherface being on set, you have Mark Burnham playing him. What was he like on set? Was he actually freaky?
David Blue Garcia: Mark Burnham is a really nice guy, but when you see him standing there at six foot six, wearing the mask, just filling up the doorway, it's a little scary, you know what I mean? I'd be like, "Mark, don't don't sneak up on me like that." But it was a lot less scary when I'd see him sitting down in his chair drinking a Diet Coke. So I'd be like, "Okay, good. I'm not going to get murdered."
When you see Sally and him standing next to each other or across from each other, that's when you're like, "Oh my God. He is huge."
David Blue Garcia: Yeah, Mark is a beastly man. Really big guy. Gentle Giant and brought a lot of really great ideas to the movie and a really interesting performance for Leatherface, even behind the mask, and that's hard to do.
This kind of has a nice wrapped bow on it. But do you have a sequel in mind? Do you have more plans for more Texas Chainsaws?
David Blue Garcia: I have a ton of ideas if we get to do another movie, but that's up to the powers at be, and Netflix, and other people. I'd love to be able to explore what happens next.
