When I picked up this “part-sequel part-remake” of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre second-hand from a video store for a couple dollars, I was fully expecting a very bad movie. And, hoo boy, it did not disappoint!
Yeah, Leatherface isn’t scary when he looks like this…
This film actually warrants the description “so bad it’s good.” It loosely rips off the plot of the original, but with the creepy realism replaced by complete absurdity. When we first meet Leatherface, he looks like a grotesque Danny McBride, but by the time he’s wearing lipstick and an evening gown it’s clear the film is at least partly trying to be humorous.
A great deal of the humour isn’t intentional, but that doesn’t make it any less funny. By the finale, featuring a completely unexplained crop-duster plane taking out a villain out of nowhere, followed by the Final Girl absconding in an equally inexplicable limousine, my sides were hurting from laughter.
The Next Generation is infamous for featuring the yet-to-be-famous Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger. If you put the two together, you might get one decent performance – McConaughey, equipped with a mechanical leg and a manic redneck cackle, overacts outrageously, while Zellweger’s line readings are so sedate that “acting” is a generous description.
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