Netflix’s upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot looks like a fun, tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy, which is a far cry from the intense, gritty horror of 1974’s original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Released in 1974, director Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is widely considered to be a horror masterpiece. The gruesome proto-slasher saw a group of unfortunate teens hunted down in the Texan badlands by a chainsaw-wielding maniac and his unhinged, cannibalistic family. However, the modern re-imagining looks set to undermine much of this legacy.
As is evident from the synopsis, the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was not a particularly fun watch. As such, fans of the franchise who were looking forward to Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 reboot may be dismayed by the movie’s latest trailer. A direct sequel to the original 1974 movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 adds an element of broad humor to proceedings that could conflict with its intended tone.
Hooper’s original movie is not perfect, but the standout quality of 1974's original is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s relentless intensity. Few mainstream horror productions in the intervening decades have recaptured the constant sense of impending dread, rapidly escalating terror, and palpably gross, grimy atmosphere of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. None of the movie’s official sequels, prequels, or remakes garnered as much critical favor as Hooper’s movie due to their inability to recapture this brutally effective tone. In contrast, 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel is polished, slick, and, according to the latest trailer, features goofy one-liners like a tourist threatening to “cancel” Leatherface if he attacks. While this could be an homage to the blackly comedic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, by playing up the humorous elements of the story, the sequel runs the risk of failing to emulate what made the original movie such a terrifying success.
As proven by the funny, clever Scream 2022’s surprisingly dour and self-serious trailer, promotional materials are not always an accurate indicator of a project’s tone. However, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022’s trailer misses the tone of the original movie by a wide margin whereas Halloween’s otherwise comparable 2018 sequel recaptured the feel of the original movie despite adding legacy characters and a more complicated, languidly-paced plot. This doesn’t bode well for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022’s prospects as, without re-creating the vicious impact of the original movie, the franchise reboot does not have a lot else going for it.
Where both the Halloween and Scream franchises have recurring characters who their long-awaited reboots could revisit, the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre worked partially because of how anonymous its central cast was. While Scream fans await fan-favorite character returns, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s characters existed mostly as conduits for unbearably tense chase sequences. Few viewers care where the original movie’s lone survivor Sally Hardest has been in the intervening years since the events of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, meaning the Netflix reboot can’t rely on nostalgia in the way both Halloween 2018 and Scream 2022 could. Without an atmosphere of non-stop terror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 will fall flat as a follow-up to the brutal original movie, which makes the goofy one-liners of the trailer look like bad news for the franchise’s future.