The new Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Leatherface gets the Halloween treatment
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a monumental hit in 1974, spawning an array of sequels, spin-offs based around the dreaded Sawyer family and the face-wearing cannibal, Leatherface. There is even an upcoming asymmetrical horror game from the developers behind Friday the 13th multiplayer game. Now it has an upcoming Netflix film, and while I should probably be hyped, there’s something about it that has me feeling like I’m experiencing a case of deja vu!
The trailer, released yesterday, shows the hulking giant that stalked our dreams back up to his old tricks in the town of Harlow, Texas. This time around it isn’t a group of traveling teens that has him revving his saw, but a group of business owners who want to bring new life to the ghost town that Leatherface and his family assumingly live in.
That’s fine and all, but unfortunately this trailer of the sequel left me feeling more than a little pessimistic once I’d finished watching. I know what you’re going to say, “it’s just a trailer, it tries to fool you, deceive you” etc, etc, but trailers are also designed in a way that also tries to appeal to their audience. In even a small deception there is a grain of truth, so that’s why I’m so genuinely confused over the setup of one particular choice in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022).
The choice to bring back the character, Sally Hardesty. For those who can’t remember her in the same way you remember other final girls like Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott, I’m talking about the protagonist of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sally is the sole survivor of the 1974 film. As for her friends, they get chopped and strung up like pigs for the pleasure and entertainment of the Sawyer family.
On the surface, and when I think about it more, the return of Sally Hardesty isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Her story in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is tragic in that she not only lost her friends due to Leatherface and the Sawyers, but her brother was killed too. There are a lot of reasons, good ones, to explore Sally and her story after Leatherface. But the way the official Netflix trailer presents her story is…worrying.
For one thing, the introduction to Sally Hardesty feels like a carbon copy of the introduction to Laurie Strode in 2018’s Halloween. Both are hardened from their experience with their signature boogeymen, both are around the same age, and both have (seemingly) become outcasts due to their utter fixation on getting vengeance. Hell, Sally even says she’s been waiting for Leatherface for 50 years to get her revenge – something which sounds eerily familiar to Laurie’s own admission of waiting for Michael to get out so she could kill him. It’s not original at all.
More importantly, it doesn’t make a lick of sense for Sally to be gung-ho about killing Leatherface. Unlike Laurie, Sally only appears in the original film and doesn’t have a connection to Leatherface in the same way Laurie does with Michael Myers. Sally’s importance only lasts until the end of the original film and then she’s barely mentioned ever again. That’s not to say Sally isn’t important in horror history, she was the blueprint of the ‘final girl’ that the slasher genre adores, but her connection to her slasher is threadbare to the point that I personally find it hard to believe she held a grudge against Leatherface for 50 years. Sorry, I just don’t buy it.
But I can’t fault the producers and directors for this direction completely, because Laurie Strode being a badass woman with a shotgun was genuinely delightful, as was her moments of vulnerability. If the ‘hardened badass’ is the same direction they’re going for with Sally – and it sure looks like they are – then I may not get it, but ultimately? I’m okay with it and for one reason only: victims getting revenge on their aggressors is the wish fulfillment that I am more than eager to eat up. The only downside is that… Leatherface is a victim too.
Now don’t get me wrong, Leatherface is a character that’s far from innocent. But it does leave a bad taste in my mouth that the focus on Leatherface is as rampant killer with an actual desire to kill in the same vein as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. To me that feels more than a little false when taken into account that Leatherface was tormented and treated terribly by his family to the point that he was terrified to ever disobey.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) may be a film that I end up thoroughly enjoying, that was the case with The Last of Us Part 2 after all and I absolutely despised the trailers running up to the game, but as of now? I’m keeping my expectations in check.
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