So what do I think about a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Film being released on Netflix? Not mad about it actually. I went to bed early to get SOME sleep, set my alarm for 3;30 am and yet I was so EXCITED to watch this movie! I tossed and turned, woke up at 2am, watched a tv show on Netflix then got sleepy again so I went to sleep until my alarm woke me up. I jolted up and turned my tv back on, clicked on the Netflix app on my PS4 and saw that it was there so I pressed play, feeling like a kid waking up on Christmas morning but instead of presents, there's a crazed madman wearing someone else's face as his own. Hey beggars can't be choosers.
So I'll begin with non spoilers before I go and ruin this whole movie for you if you haven't watched it yet (what are you waiting for?). I really enjoyed this film, I felt like the pacing of it was spot on, the cinematography was just absolutely stunning and the kills were bloody brutal. I'm going to steal a phrase from Randy Meeks and call the kills "CARNAGE CANDY"!!!! It was a blast, it built up tension at the best of times, the story flowed fairly well and the characters you actually cared if they lived or if they died. Leatherface, I was skeptical with before watching this, but I feel like the actor Mark Burnham played Leatherface very well. The mannerisms, the body stature, I think he played the part and made it his own. There were some flaws but no horror movie is perfect, lets face it, but overall it was one hell of a ride that you would want to go on again....
SPOILER WARNING!!!!: Now entering the Party Bus, no exit here if you want to read about the spoilers...Leatherface WILL cancel you.
So the sisters Lila and Melody are the main focus in this movie for two different reasons upon further observation. Melody with her friend Dante, were planning on revamping a deserted town, not knowing that they were trespassing and forcing someone out of their house without proof that the property was even theirs to take. Lila is just along for the ride, being treated as if she can't take care of herself because of previous traumas caused by a school shooting, leaving her near death and haunted. Melody is the type of character that doesn't sit right with you at first, you just want to see Leatherface adjust her attitude but as the film progresses, you do grow to like her. Also another character by the name Richter, he is perceived as the jerk, another character you don't care for at first, but then he shows himself to be heroic.
Dante gets a horrible death but I also adore how it was shot, with him walking around the house, then he sees the reflection of Leatherface through a pot that is hanging then he is attacked by a meat cleaver. While the camera pans out with the door swinging, that shot was just perfection to me, we were not seeing everything but we were seeing enough. Oh, but Dante is not dead yet though, he is able to walk down the street with his jaw just dangling and it seamlessly causes Leatherface to go towards him so that the bus scene can take place.
A bus full of people and Leatherface? What could go wrong you ask? Well some dipstick pulling out his phone threatening a man who is wielding a chainsaw, telling him that he's going to get cancelled if he tries anything...that could go wrong. Well of course this will go the way we expected. He slaughters them, blood spurting everywhere and the sisters are stuck on the bus as bodies fly around them. They hide in the bathroom, thinking that this is it, but then they see the emergency latch above them. Lila climbs out while Melody freezes in fear as Leatherface cuts the door to get to them. But quick thinking, Melody stabs Leatherface with the corkscrew that she conveniently purchased at the gas station before they arrived at that town.
I'm jumping all over the place but this movie just makes me want to talk about everything especially when Leatherface snaps. In the police van, his "mother" who took him in from an orphanage, is dying due to shock of her house being taken away and also knowing the consequence of angering "him", does in fact die. So then the real fun begins as Leatherface once again awakens. We get some bloody good kills and then Ruth, Dante's girlfriend who decided to go with them to make sure the woman was okay, is sitting in the front of the van, watching as Leatherface cuts his "mother's" face off of her body for him to wear as his own. If that's not bonding, I don't know what is? So she plays it smart in this scene, for the most part, she stays quiet, she plays dead as he beats the other officer to a bloody pulp. The tension is done so well in this scene, I was expecting everything to happen as I anticipated Leatherface to pop up and scare the sunflowers out of all of us. He does kill her and then he goes on his merry way onto a whole bloody killing spree.
I also loved the scene when Melody is hiding under the bed from Leatherface while he is breaking the wall, trying to get to his chainsaw. I like how they incorporated how he was going to obtain his well known weapon of choice. Then when Richter comes into the room, Melody helps him by moving the mirror so that he can see that Leatherface is behind him. That's when I started to like Melody, in that moment and then Richter returns the favor as he dies, grabbing the keys out of his pocket so that Melody can escape....if only it were ever that easy but the scene between them, showed growth right before our eyes and I appreciated that.
Now I know what you're probably thinking....you are missing someone who is quite important in this film. Well, I saved her for last but really didn't have to, knowing how the film progressed without her pretty much. Sally Hardesty is much older now with the same scars, the same trauma but she is a Ranger now, hoping to exact her revenge on the masked maniac who terrorized her friends back then. She finds out that Leatherface has returned. After waiting so many years, trying to find him knowing it'd be a needle in a haystack due to him wearing a mask. She takes her gun and she saves the sisters as they are running from Leatherface after the party bus fiasco. She does a whole "Say my name......don't you remember me" bit instead of just shooting him and ending her own misery. I wasn't fond of those lines, she didn't need to say much, I think her eyes should have expressed her vengeance in my opinion.
But she ends up getting killed by Leatherface, she meets the bladed end of his chainsaw as he throws her off to the side. She of course has her last hoorah by giving Lila the gun, telling her that if she runs, he will continue to haunt her. I just have to say that Lila is my favorite character, I am a sucker for the quiet characters that carry heavier undertones within them and you see more as the story goes on. She is a survivor that carries survivor's guilt and a literal scar that reminds her of that guilt. She has a sister who doesn't believe in her strength until the end of the movie. I wanted to like the end of this movie, but they had to do that whole, is he dead, no he's not, then pops up for one more kill while he dances with his chainsaw bit. I really liked the scene before that though, Lila was faced with the difficulty of touching a gun, the object that haunts her, only to find out there's no bullets in the gun and Melody is fighting off Leatherface. The way Melody picks up the chainsaw and just "BOOPS" him in the chin with the chainsaw.....kind of wanted to see more but that's what they gave us. He then falls into the water, slowly fading into the depths. And then the post ending credits scene........
Will Leatherface be going home?....
Outstanding TCM review!! Keep these coming!