PLOT SUMMARY: Melody and her friends accidentally awaken Leatherface's hunger for revenge and blood after an incident involving the house and his mother.
We've officially entered the era of "requels", you know, the combination of reboot and sequel...requel.
After Scream, we now have Texas Chainsaw Massacre gracing our screens with a story that has a new generation of characters, a legacy character and the introduction of a character that may lead the franchise forward.
I have to wonder, though, are these requels becoming a safe bet because the audience has become too sensitive for original stories? It seems, that nowadays, something or the other manages to offend some people to the point that they find the need to raise their voice against it.
Imagine working on an original story, paying every two minutes to cut out dialogues that maybe deemed too racist or sexist or insensitive.
What's the point of writing then? If you can't write fiction freely, then why put in the work in the first place.
And so yes, requels, tried and tested stories are a safer bet to put money into.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Movie Plot
Lila, along with her sister Mel, her sister's friend Dante and his girlfriend Ruth, are travelling to a small town in Texas, Harlow.
Apparently Mel and Dante bought the town at a bankruptcy sale and are planning to auction off properties so that they can modernise the town.
On the way, at a gas station, Lila is watching a documentary on Leatherface and how the only survivor of his killing spree was Sally Hardesty.
Lila asks the attendant what happened to Sally and he replies that she spent most of her life searching for the killer without much luck.
While filling up their tank, a man in a truck arrives. He's minding his own business as he fills up his fuel tank but Mel finds it necessary to comment on the gun he's carrying. The man tries to ignore her comments but then tells her how necessary it is to carry a gun to safeguard himself.
The friends drive away and are then stopped by two policemen. Dante readies himself to receive some racist remarks and then doesn't really. The policemen are only dubious about what the friends intend to do with the town.
When they reach Harlow they find out that the contractor in charge of restoration is a man called Richter, the same guy they riled up at the gas station.
As they roam about town, Dante notices a building with the confederate flag still waving. He gets pissed and wants to remove it immediately. He and Mel go inside and find out it is an orphanage and that an old woman called Mrs Mc is still living there.
Mel and Dante sit her down and tell her that she cannot live here anymore as they have bought the whole town. Mrs Mc insists that there had been a misunderstanding but that she sorted it out with the bank. Dante is in defensive mode and keen to be offended. Mrs Mc tells him she had taken care of plenty of boys like him in the past. Dante makes a big deal about the comment and walks about then calls the police.
Mel tries to convince the older woman to leave but she tells him she cannot and is nervous about something.
As Mel and Dante keep pestering her, a large man comes downstairs and observes them from the landing. Mrs. Mc sends him away saying she's fine but clearly she's anxious upon his arrival.
The police come and start escorting the older woman out when she vomits and collapses.
Mel is stunned and the ambulance is called. The large man from upstairs comes down in heavy strides and picks up the old woman and takes her into the ambulance. The policemen and Mel follow but just then a bus full of investors arrive and Ruth offers to go with the old lady so Mel can give meet with the investors.
Lila and Richter sort of become allies when Lila confides in him that she was a survivor of a mass school shooting.
In the ambulance, the old lady takes her last breath and the large man mourns her death.
The policeman sitting behind tries to offer condolences but the large man is now in revenge mode. He takes the policeman's wrist, twists it until the bone pops out and then uses that to stab the policeman in the neck.
Ruth is shocked as she had just been texting Mel about the woman's demise. Blood splatters everywhere as the man then shoots the policeman driving the ambulance, causing them all to crash.
Now Ruth wishes she had never come on this trip.
In the town, when Richter learns that the old lady has died, he gets pissed off. He takes away the keys to the bus and demands that Dante proves he is indeed the owner of the house.
Dante, confident he's right, goes to the orphanage to look for the deed.
Mel helps him although she's having serious doubts with the way things are going down.
While Dante is roving about, Mel goes to the one obvious place in the whole house where the deed could be...in the old woman's bedroom. In a chest, she finds the title deed and realizes the house did belong to her. Uh-oh.
Ruth wakes up and from the rear-view mirror, notices the large man using a knife to peel out his mother's face. He then raises it so that Ruth can see the mask properly and then wears it.
Beside her, the policeman groans and Ruth tries to shush him but Leatherface has already heard. Ruth manages to radio for help before Leatherface comes and crushes the policeman's head with the oxygen tank. Ruth pretends to be unconscious but Leatherface doesn't fall for her ploy. He comes to her side and uses a knife to slit open her stomach. She dies.
Leatherface walks back to town with revenge on his mind.
At the gas station, the attendant has received Ruth's distress message. He immediately calls Sally who is now very old but looks like she weight-lifts. When she realizes Leatherface is back, she packs up some weapons and rides to the town.
While Dante is doing a terrible job of looking for the deed and Mel still hasn't told him she's got it, Leatherface has returns home and uses a cleaver on Dante's face.
He then goes upstairs. Mel hears him and hides under the bed.
At first, Leatherface sits down and applies makeup to the mask, possibly missing the old woman. Then when he hears music and noises of celebration from outside, he snarls and uses a sledgehammer to smash the walls. Behind the walls, hidden, is his beloved Chainsaw.
Dante stumbles outside to warn everyone. Richter picks up a gun and walks into the orphanage while the rest go into the bus.
Richter is clearly no match for Leatherface who is a bulk of a man. He is easily subdued and while on the floor, notices Mel under the bed. Richter realizes his folly in taking away the keys and tries to hand it over to Mel who watches helpfully as Leatherface smashes Richter's head with a sledgehammer.
He goes into another room to repair his Chainsaw while Mel grabs the keys. Leatherface manages to get his Chainsaw working and notices Mel moving about. He tries to get her with it but Mel manages to escape with her sister's help.
Meanwhile Sally finds the crashed ambulance and investigates. She does think it is the work of Leatherface and finds confirmation in the middle of the fields. Leatherface, after having cut off the old woman's face, has made her sit in the fields as if she were having a picnic. Sally panics and heads to town.
Everyone is in the bus which suddenly stalls. The driver gets out to investigate. Minutes later, his head is tossed in like a football. The rest of the passengers don't really freak out when Leatherface makes an appearance. They remove their cellphones so that they can "cancel" him.
Clearly, the makers of this movie are poking fun at the generation who is too influenced by social media. But seriously, at the first sign of trouble, would you want to record or take cover and hide or better yet, look for a weapon to defends yourself with.
Leatherface just decapitate the driver. The rest of the passengers are standing there and think Leatherface is going to be humiliated after being "cancelled"? This scene is barely humorous or makes sense. Leatherface doesn't care much for losing his Internet reputation. He probably doesn't even know what the Internet is. All he cares about is that his Chainsaw is working and there are plenty of people to use it on.
As he gets to work to "cancel" the passengers literally, Lila and Mel make an escape through the emergency exit and run.
Sally comes in to be a hero and tries to fight off Leatherface, forcing him to acknowledge that he ruined her life and murdered her friends. Leatherface isn't much of a talker and goes after the two younger girls.
This irks Sally who fights him only to have a Chainsaw run through her stomach. As she takes her last breath, she tells Lila the futility of running away.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Lila and Mel are in a car and try to attempt a hit and run with Leatherface. It doesn't work as he dodges and the girls crash the car. Mel finds a rod stuck in her thigh and is unable to move.
Lila does some running around while Leatherface who was shot by Sally before she passed away, limps towards a theater. Lila goes after him with a shotgun
Mel manages to get the rod out and go after her sister.
Lila and Leatherface are fighting when they fall into a pit of water. Lila tries to grab her gun when she surfaces but Leatherface is faster.
Mel arrives to jump piggyback on Leatherface. As he tries to figure out who climbed his back, Lila manages to grab the gun and shoot him. Mel uses the Chainsaw on Leatherface who falls back into the water.
The girls are certain that he has been defeated and get into a self-driving car. As the car moves away, Leatherface appears, angry about the advancements in technology and pretentious young adults. He grabs Mel just as Lila joked about moving into this town.
Lila gets up through the sun roof just to see Leatherface cut off her sister's head with a Chainsaw. Lila screams and cries as the car takes her away from there.
Leatherface then has a waltz with his beloved Chainsaw.
The movie ends but an after the credits scene shows Leatherface trudging towards his house.
The movie...this requel, has established Lila as the character who will take the franchise forward from now on.
Should there be a sequel, and quite possibly there will be, chances are Lila will make an appearance after a dozen or so teens and young adults are slaughtered to offer her expert advice on how to tackle Leatherface.
However, Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn't exactly a gripping or terrifying movie. In a way, it twists the story to a point that the victims appear insufferable while Leatherface is seen as the real victim here who lost his only family when the newcomers harassed the old woman who was like a mother to him.
Leatherface didn't want to meddle at first, which is evident when Mel and Dante are in the orphanage, interrogating the old woman. He did leave but it was his concern for Mrs. Mc that made his come out and it was when she passed away that he went on revenge mode.
The previous movies did nothing to humanise Leatherface and so it was easy to fear and despise him.
This movie doesn't exactly make you want to support the newbies which is why the intense scenes aren't exactly frightening except for the one scene where Mel is under the bed.
Scare Scale: 2.5/5
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