I’ll give Texas Chainsaw this – it’s a very different take on remaking a classic horror film. The 2003 remake of Tobe Hooper’s classic was essentially a repackage of the main plot points (basically: Leatherface kills people), modernized with a higher budget and more attractive cast but none of the twisted charm of the original…
Halloween may not been the first masked killer movie (arriving four years after Leatherface), but the implacable Michael Myers’ shadow stretches long across the genre; establishing many significant tropes (the killer is invulnerable until he is unmasked. A perfunctory backstory that doesn’t disguise how the masked man – it’s always a man – stands in…
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an immensely influential film; ever since that steel door swung closed, Leatherface’s hulking descendants have descended upon foolhardy teenagers venturing into the woods and cabins and campsites therein. If only its influence were more widely felt in modern horror, though! It’s a rare slasher that can boast sound design that…
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! This film actually warrants the description “so bad it’s good.” It loosely rips off the plot of the original,…
Frontière(s) is the best horror film I’ve seen from the last decade. It’s been characterised as “torture porn” or a French ripoff of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and while neither description is completely inaccurate, they don’t capture the blistering intensity, the bone-shaking strength of the film. Frontière(s) is set after the election of an unseen…
The Driller Killer is a scabrous pustule of a film, grotesque, ugly, but transfixing despite this. It was the directorial debut of Abel Ferrara (best known for Bad Lieutenant), but there’s little to suggest future promise here, with murky, grimy cinematography and clumsy editing – plus a superfluous lesbian shower scene suggesting Ferrara’s porn pedigree.…
This straight-to-video sequel establishes a tonal shift from the relatively serious Wrong Turn in its opening scene. A young starlet spouts hammy dialogue into her mobile, speeding along country roads in a red convertible, before a deformed hillbilly literally splits her in two with a hatchet. The scene is far broader – and more enjoyable…
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s power stems from its verisimilitude, how it feels like a gritty documentary. The remake largely abandons any attempt at this and makes a host of baffling choices: The film seems compelled to make its leads as unlikable as possible, setting them up as crass, unsympathetic drug traffickers –…
ccpopculture 