Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre cast, Leatherface, weird plot, revealed

A reboot-like, sequel-ish continuation Texas Chain Saw Massacre Netflix will release the movie on February 18, 2022. The new movie, which differentiates from Tobe Hopper’s 1974 original by dropping that film’s “The” and connecting the “Chainsaw” is meant to be a direct sequel of that original, while not entirely dropping the continuity of the original’s sequels. If that sounds confusing, producer Fede Álvarez’s breaks it down in a new interview in Entertainment Weekly.

“When I say ‘direct sequel’ I wouldn’t say it skips everything,” the director of the 2013 Evil Dead reboot, says. “When movies do that, sometimes it feels a bit disrespectful to all the other films. Some people love Texas Chainsaw 2.. I love a lot of things about that movie — it’s so wacky and of its time. However, the rest of the movie is a complete mess. I think it’s up to you to decide when and how the events of the other movies happen.”

It can be difficult enough to maintain continuity with an almost 50-year-old movie. What has Leatherface, the franchise’s chainsaw-swinging murderer, been doing all this time when we see him in Texas Chain Saw Massacre? He’s “been in hiding for a long, long time, trying to be a good person,” according to Álvarez, until newcomers to his small town “awaken the giant.” Leatherface’s good deeds between murder sprees remain to be seen.

The cast has also been updated with new photos noted on TwitterDo you notice a striking resemblance with Stranger Things.

Yana Blajeva/Legendary, Courtesy Netflix

But it’s unfair to judge a movie from one still image. The timing seems right for Leatherface’s latest wrath. It’s hard to understate the impact of Hooper’s original — on the 29-year old director, the city of Austin, Texas, the possibilities of the horror genre, and moviemaking in general.

As Hooper told Texas Monthly in 2004, he didn’t originally want to make a horror movie. But with no money, no cast, and only one other unsuccessful movie behind him, an art-house project that mainly attracted the hippies who’d later become Leatherface’s targets, the director didn’t have many options. “What do you do? Horror films is about it.”

Hooper was in a holiday rush when the idea for the film came to him. “There were these big Christmas crowds, I was frustrated, and I found myself near a display rack of chain saws,” Hooper told Texas Monthly. “I just kind of zoned in on it. I did a rack focus to the saws, and I thought, ‘I know a way I could get through this crowd really quickly.’ I went home, sat down, all the channels just tuned in, the zeitgeist blew through, and the whole damn story came to me in what seemed like about thirty seconds.”

Those daydreamy 30 seconds have created a legacy that’s now over 30 years old. Perhaps a movie so quickly conceived was never meant to spawn a franchise, but that’s what happened. Hooper directed an 1986 sequel that dropped the cinéma véritéapproached for more comedic elements. It received mixed reviews. Next came The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: LeatherfaceThis 1990 episode features Viggo Mortensen, a 32 year old, and lots of gore but little else.

In 2003 Michael Bay funded a reboot of the franchise. Now it appears that each generation is getting the opportunity to own the franchise. Texas Chainsaw Massacre You are the one they deserve. David Blue Garcia, the director of this new film (Tejano) told EW that “Fede hammered, ‘Practical, practical, practical,’” and that, while shooting in Bulgaria, “there were times when I’d walk into the hotel after a day of shooting and be covered head to toe in blood.” Of course, practical effects aren’t the same as when Hooper was first shooting, and there surely will be some visual effects work on the finished product. However, the ultimate goal was for something to be visceral.

Garcia intends to make a movie about the changes in Texas, even though Garcia did not shoot on-location. Austin once was a city where both outlaws and hippies looked each other unfavorably, reuniting only to see Willie Nelson concerts. Hooper’s ’70s Texas is long gone, replaced by a rapidly growing tech sector that is now considered the “biggest winner” of the COVID-19 pandemic, with workers rapidly expanding the city and driving up rent. This is the horror of a completely different species.

In the new movie’s description provided by Netflix, “Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), head to the remote town of Harlow, Texas to start an idealistic new business venture.”

Whether the movie’s new incarnation of Leatherface will saw techies in half remains to be seen.