The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

Evan Slead rightfully started out his review by saying, “The third iteration of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise attempted to give it's lead slasher a standalone film in the same vain as Freddy, Jason and Michael. When that ideas success fell through, it seemed that approaching the other popular slasher trope of the 90's was its best bet. Explaining the origins of a killer or what drives them to kill was the cap to the major franchises during the mid to late 90's and in 1994 Leatherface was given the same treatment.” The original writer of the first film, Kim Henkel, came back for the monstrosity of 1994 known as, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation” as not only the writer, but also the director. If “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” was Tobe Hooper’s growth on the grotesque work the Sawyer family does, then “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation” is Henkel’s final nail in the coffin in this tale. Because this was the only movie Henkel ever directed, the budget for this one was way lower than the others, and yes, that includes the original. Slead was right when he said, “There was room to run with the low budget, horribly acted, and head scratching plot, however TCMNG attempts to play it all too straight and ultimately creates a bore.”

Jenny, played by the beautiful Renée Zellweger, is going to her high school prom even though she is anti-social. Her prom date Sean (John Harrison) is in the same ballpark as her and they instead say to spend their night in the back of Heather’s (Lisa Newmyer) car by doing drugs. When Heather and her prom date Barry (Tyler Crone) say they should move their fight from the dance to the car, they speed off and find out they have two in the back seat. On the way home, they make a wrong turn and their night becomes a nightmare. Vilmer (Matthew McConaughey) encounters these kids and drags them to meet the Sawyer family, including Leatherface (Robert Jacks) and Darla (Tonie Perenski). Slead said, “As the body count starts to rise, the truth behind the chainsaw clans need to kill reaches conspiracy theory levels.”

This film is completely mental. Slead mentioned, “The plot delves into the government driven conspiracy realm; a place that never seemed possible for a story revolving around cannibalistic country bumpkins. Much like the Thorn cult in the Halloween franchise, the explanation here takes the characters to new heights that live and die in the set up of said explanation. What Halloween does successfully is filter extreme characters and acting around the crazy plot to make it all flow like a waterslide.” “The Next Generation” has all the insane characteristics but never uses them in the right way. Like if you look at the performances, they never get to the high point of insanity that would expect for McConaughey’s Vilmer and Jack’s Leatherface. The remainder of the cast is boring and completely atrocious, but it’s on a thread which would make you bored compared to falling on the floor laughing. Slead credited, “Vilmer and Leatherface are characters that match the hysteria of a men in black plot and are a joy when on screen.”

Usually low budget is praiseworthy in the horror genre because the director makes originality with a thinker’s film and enjoyment with very little money. However, Henkel has so many head scratching directing decisions that make the low budget look like a flaw. When the kids first enter the forest they complain it’s too dark, despite that the film being covered in floodlights so the actors know where to go which makes the look for a flashlight and saying it’s too dark makes you wonder why that was written. Even though parts like that might make you laugh or be a reason for everyone to watch together and point out the negativity, the overall movie just has so many bad choices and no enjoyment. There could have been a “so bad its good sequel” in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation,” but Henkel’s decision to make an insane story and boring performances made it unclear.

Head my advice and don’t ever watch this movie. If you can believe it, this is the worst installment in the franchise. They took this great slasher villain and turned him into a complete joke. Instead of maybe thinking up of something nice to extend the storyline, they decided to take the reboot method and failed.

If you can believe it, they actually decided to reboot the film again nine years later. If you want to know if that was worse, check in tomorrow in the next installment of my “Texas Chainsaw Massacre marathon” for this year’s “Halloween Month.”