LEATHERFACE (2017). Now out locally on disc, this latest instalment in the line of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE sequels, prequels and reboots, has been almost universally panned, and sadly within thirty seconds of the film starting I knew we were in trouble. CHAINSAW completists and the undemanding horror fan will find it a mildly diverting watch, and there’s enough grue to make the gorehounds happy, but it is just the complete antithesis of all the elements that made Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original such an audacious and terrifying piece of work. It looks so bland and cheap and its 1950s/60s period setting has about as much authenticity as the re-enactment sequences in an average episode of FORENSIC FILES.
I’m not a fan of taking horror icons and classic boogeymen and giving them an unnecessary backstory, which only serves to dilute their original aura, but if they HAD to go that route here did they have to give Leatherface such a boring and unexceptional origin? Lilli Taylor is completely wasted in this ugly-looking meld of Bonnie and Clyde and NATURAL BORN KILLERS which accomplishes nothing other than to remind us of just what a masterpiece the original is.
I’m not a fan of taking horror icons and classic boogeymen and giving them an unnecessary backstory, which only serves to dilute their original aura, but if they HAD to go that route here did they have to give Leatherface such a boring and unexceptional origin? Lilli Taylor is completely wasted in this ugly-looking meld of Bonnie and Clyde and NATURAL BORN KILLERS which accomplishes nothing other than to remind us of just what a masterpiece the original is.
