Name: Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 2022-02-18T00:00:00+00:00
Cast: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham, Jacob Latimore, Moe Dunford

The opening shot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) lingers on a Polaroid photo burning in the dirt, its edges curling into ash—an immediate, visceral statement of intent. Director David Blue Garcia’s film doesn’t just want to scare you; it wants to provoke, to unsettle with the same raw, unfiltered energy that defined Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original. Unfortunately, what follows is a messy, uneven attempt at revitalizing a horror icon.

The premise is familiar: a group of idealistic influencers (Sarah Yarkin’s Melody, Elsie Fisher’s Lila, and their friends) stumble into the path of Leatherface (Mark Burnham), who has been hiding for nearly 50 years. The film borrows heavily from Hooper’s aesthetic—gritty cinematography, claustrophobic spaces, and a relentless sense of dread—but struggles to carve out its own identity. Garcia leans hard into the original’s grimy, sunbaked Texas setting, but the modern sensibilities clash with the timeless horror of the source material.

Where Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) succeeds is in its performances. Elsie Fisher, best known for her role in Eighth Grade, delivers a standout turn as Lila, the group’s moral compass. Her character is given more depth than typical horror fare, and Fisher imbues her with a vulnerability that makes her survival feel earned. Mark Burnham’s Leatherface is also a highlight, capturing the brute force and tragic pathos of the original Gunnar Hansen’s portrayal. The mask may be the same, but Burnham brings a fresh physicality to the role, making each swing of the chainsaw feel visceral.

The film’s pacing, however, is a disaster. Garcia struggles to balance exposition with suspense, resulting in a bloated runtime that drags in the middle. The influencers’ backstories are introduced with heavy-handed dialogue, and the film stumbles when it tries to inject social commentary about cancel culture and online fame. These themes feel tacked on rather than organic, undermining the film’s horror elements.

The soundtrack is another misfire. Where Hooper’s original used silence and diegetic sound to amplify tension, Garcia’s film relies on a bombastic score that often undercuts the scares. The sound design, while effective in moments (the chainsaw’s roar is particularly chilling), is inconsistent, with some scenes suffering from muddy audio that makes dialogue hard to discern.

The final act picks up the pace, delivering a few genuinely tense sequences, including a standout chase scene through a slaughterhouse. But even here, the film can’t escape its own contradictions. The influencers’ survival feels more like luck than skill, and the climax devolves into a series of contrived set pieces that lack the psychological weight of the original.

In the end, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) is a frustrating watch—one that occasionally glimpses the brilliance of its predecessor but ultimately falls short.