Leatherface makes a tepid return at Netflix in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Review

 What has Leatherface been up to since 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

Leatherface is back! Streaming giant Netflix is the exclusive home of the 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s not the first sequel or reboot in the storied franchise, but it’s a back-to-basics approach and a direct sequel to the 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, making it at least somewhat unique as a legacyquel akin to 2018’s Halloween.The slasher is co-written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues and directed by David Blue Garcia. Read on for what we know about the film and our Texas Chainsaw Massacre review below.

And if you haven’t watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you can check it out on Netflix by hitting the link below.A brief logline from Netflix reads, “After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town.The new film is thus tied directly to a legacy character  Sally  and recreates, to some degree, the basic structure of the original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In short, young outsiders come to town and accidentally stumble upon the Sawyer family home, where Leatherface waits.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a mean little horror movie, with plenty of gruesome kills and bloody suspense. It also adds a fresh twist on the classic premise. While the 1974 film saw some young victims on vacation, suddenly terrorized by locals, 2022’s legacyquel adds some class conflict. The original was always concerned with class, offering a monstrous family of cannibalistic murderers who were a dark reflection of the American Dream, but the new film ramps that up with more of an overt clash between its characters.

In the new film, the victims present a new kind of twisted American Dream, as gentrifiers entering an established community to “revitalize” it with little interest or respect for what came before. Leatherface, who has lived in hiding all this time, suddenly finds his reality disturbed and goes on a rampage. It’s a solid set-up.