An Exercise In Nonsense

The first must-see film of the year.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

What a cast! Renée Zellweger? Matthew McConaughey? Not exactly the cast I would picture in a film about crazy redneck murderers. Same classic (classy?) leather faced masked man and his hillbilly, my-name-is-Mud, crazed family. Matthew McConaughey has no trouble acting as a killer. A character who would fit right in at a Donald Trump rally. He never does explain why he hates all these prom-swagged early 90s teens. Maybe he had abusive parents, maybe he's never had the opportunity to be educated and he is jealous of the kids, we may never know. There are moments when he is physically quite rough with the women in this film. Surprisingly there isn't actually much gore for a movie about a massacre. There is however a lot of abuse. I give this movie 5 bags of popcorn. For a truly immersive experience watch this movie on prom night!

In the mid-1970s, Tobe Hooper had unleashed horror in a new way to moviegoers with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). It was a film that had so much going for it. It may have been outrageously controversial for its depiction of sadistic violence but it served its purpose in being a scary film. It relied on simplicity and minimalism in order to drive its viewers crazy. Then Hooper created the long awaited sequel that confused his original fans by attempting to keep continuity while simultaneously changing everything else. It turned out being more of spoof of itself than being a sequel. When the franchise finally released its second sequel, it was even more mixed in reception due to its further lack of connection to the last two movies even though its title said otherwise. At that point, it would've been thought that maybe the franchise was suffering from lack of attention. Apparently the next sequel (this one) shockingly was neglected even further. It by far is the most confusing and disappointing to say the least.The overall idea behind the story is no different from that of the other movies before it. A group of teens end up crossing paths with Leatherface and his notorious family of cannibals. This sequel was written and directed Kim Henkel, the original co-writer to the original film that blew everyone away. According to Hinkel it was supposed to be the official sequel to the original film. As to what he thought consisted of making it the official sequel is barely visible. The writing is all over the place and the continuity is very unfaithful. Like the films before it, it begins with a monologue recounting the past events, yet it was supposed to ignore them too. So how does that work? There's also a subplot about Leatherface's family having some kind of government connection or something along those lines. Allegedly they report to a higher authority and their motives go higher than their personal needs? The most painful part of the writing belongs to the dialog and the actors don't make it any better.Almost the entire cast essentially is an over the top exaggeration of some horror trope but worse. Starring as the heroine is Renée Zellweger best known for her breakout role in Jerry Maguire (1996). She's also accompanied by Lisa Marie Newmyer as Heather, who constantly spouts out useless sentences that don't add anything to develop her role. There's also Tyler Shea Cone playing Heather's boyfriend Barry who is none the more likable. They also come across a local who tries to help them played by Tonie Perensky. All of which can't deliver a line that sounds the least bit believable. The only thing that really keeps a viewers' attention is because of how bad the actors are. The only actor who has some saving grace (for himself) is now esteemed actor Matthew McConaughey playing Vilmer, a member of Leatherface's family. McConaughey just hams it up playing his role as psychotic as possible. Playing Leatherface is Robert Jacks who is annoyingly bad because all he does is scream nonstop.The only other positives worth mentioning are the practical and makeup effects. There's not an abundance of practical effects but the fact that it was used shows effort. The same could be said for the makeup. McConaughey's character is part robotic with a hydraulic leg and that does make it interesting to see. How he got that way and as to where he came from, if this is the "official sequel" to the original, is never explained either. What a surprise. This is it though for pluses. Even though there are practical effects, there is almost no gore to this movie. It makes the previous film to this franchise look bloodthirsty. It's actually very surprising. With all the inhumane and off putting scenes that involve grotesque acts, there's hardly a drop of blood shown throughout the running time to this movie. Sure, minimalism works to an extent but if nothing else is really working in the overall product, at least give the audience something visual.That also goes for background elements. The director of photography to this project was Levie Isaacks. Isaacks is best known for being the DP to movies of Guyver (1991) and the infamous horror movie Leprechaun (1993). The work that Isaacks presents here isn't much to talk about. Much of the shots throughout the film consist of turning away from anything gory and refusing to place any establishing shots. Viewers will see the disarray of the cannibal house but there's no real setup. The films before it at least had some kind of arrangement. Here it's just everything everywhere with no real order and it's boring. For music, Wayne Bell from the original film returns and his composition is uneventful too. There are moments where he creates a tune or two that establish a nice sense of dread but other than that there's nothing memorable about it. Much of the instruments involved are synthesizers and since it is not used properly, the audio is rarely effective. So sad it got this bad.It's a shocking film all right. It's shocking that people who were involved with the original returned and had completely forgotten what made it so unique. Matthew McConaughey is possibly the only actor who tries (somewhat) and there are some okay looking effects. The rest isn't good. It makes the other sequels before it look like it they had better writers. Not even a gorehound would enjoy this.

I am a huge fan of horror. I'm the sort of viewer that tracks down obscure movies that most people have never heard about before. In all of my travels through the world of horror, my absolute favorite film still remains THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE. So, it is with some embarrassment that I admit I am also a big fan of the sequels. As a horror fan, you have to generally accept that sequels are rarely good and never match up to the original. The further into a series you get, the lower the quality generally continues to drop. Generally, these movies can make up for it somewhat by upping the body count or going way over the top in the plot lines.I say all of this to acknowledge that I love the Chainsaw series. I own this movie on DVD. I know that horror sequels are usually bad. Yet, this movie is REALLY BAD. I mean, it makes other horror sequels look good in comparison. There is really nothing redeeming about this movie that I can even say, it's bad but..No, it's just bad.We can start with the obvious horror fan complaint that the body count is pretty low in this movie and what deaths we do see on screen are low-key, boring and not inventive at all. There is very little gore, no atmosphere and no real scares to be had. The original is actually pretty low on gore, as well, but viewers hardly noticed because of the terrifying atmosphere established by director Tobe Hooper. Without that atmosphere to lean back on, a movie like this usually has to give the audience something else, but sadly fails to do that.The movie can't decide if it's a sequel or a remake, so goes for some mixed up combination of the two. It remakes many of the iconic scenes of the original (the hook in the back, the window escape, the dinner party) but these are such pale imitations that it just makes the movie look even worse in comparison. The biggest factor in this is that the characters are just awful. I'm not speaking of the acting necessarily, but they're just never given anything to do. Renee Zellwegger is the greatest example of this. She might be the worst final girl in the history of horror. Not really because Zellwegger fails to act up to the part, but because the part is so horribly written. There is no real background given to her, no character development, no emotion almost at all. She is simply a plot contrivance for things to happen to and around, but never really feels like an involved part of anything.The one solid thing about this is McConaughey who plays the only character that's worth of the TCM family. Yet even this character becomes a joke in the end as we have the ridiculous plot device of him having a bio-mechanical leg constructed from old wires and a vacuum cleaner that is, for some reason, controlled by old television remotes. Yes, a sinister organization would replace a leg yet make it controllable by generic remotes. There is no biological reasoning for this. It serves only as a stupid plot tool so that several characters can control him using one of the multitude of handy extra remotes lying around the home.We won't even get started on the ludicrous Illuminati plot. It's so bad, I think writer Kim Henkel was actually trying to make it bad. It's almost like the rights would revert back to someone if they could make a sequel that was so horrible it would sink the franchise forever.I still watch this every few years when I go through an inevitable TCM marathon, but each time I'm a little more embarrassed that I own this on DVD. It's really just plain awful.

This TCM;Next Generation is an accidental cult classic.I wasn't scared watching this movie,but finally figured out i'm not supposed to be horrified.It is subtly funny,and it is obvious Renee and Mathew and the others were trying not to burst out laughing half the time.It was a load of fun to watch.The actors were having too much fun to try to give Oscar performances and for that their performances are brilliant.This is Renee's best role.Not that she isn't a great actress in general...i just love her so much in this role.She is a young actress who seems like she is just having fun.Mathew is amazing..how on earth this movie gets such low scores is beyond me.Watch it...you'll love it.