Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Decent Slasher, So-So Texas Chainsaw Sequel

Here we go, again. When Halloween found success going back to basics, it was only a matter of time before other horror franchises followed. Technically, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre already went this route. Before we were calling them legacy sequels or ‘re-quels’, the awful Texas Chainsaw 3D positioned itself as a direct follow-up to the […]

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Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III Substitutes Grimy Gore For Tension

As an individual movie, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains among the greatest horror movies produced. Unfortunately, the legacy of its sequels, prequels, and remakes is checkered. In between Hooper’s misunderstood sequel and the crater-sized disaster that was Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, New Line Pictures took a more straightforward approach to the […]

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Shocking Audiences After Five Decades

As we roll into October, what better way to kick off the Halloween season then with one of the genre’s classics. Believe it or not, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre premiered 46 years ago on October 1st, 1974. With all the sequels and remakes, it’s hard to believe that several countries outright banned Tobe Hooper’s original […]

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Texas Chainsaw 3D: No Massacre In Any Dimension

Everything may be bigger in Texas, but that’s little comfort to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. After 40 years, Tobe Hooper’s original low-budget horror movie remains a disturbing classic. Even Hooper’s belated sequel has earned a critical re-appraisal. And about that 2003 remake – it’s better than most fans are willing to admit. Nevertheless, most […]

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The Next Generation: The Best ‘Worst’ Texas Chainsaw Sequel

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains a pivotal modern horror film. Tobe Hooper’s nihilistic masterpiece was a forerunner to the 80’s slasher craze. Yet as compared to the film franchises it inspired, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a pretty spotty franchise track record. There are bad Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Elm Street movies. But those […]

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The ‘Rural Other’ in Backwoods Horror

John Boorman’s 1972 film Deliverance is considered a landmark achievement in cinema. Its story of four ‘big city’ friends stalked and assaulted by backwoods locals on a wilderness canoe trip earned multiple Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. While not a horror film, Deliverance played a significant role in popularizing one of horror’s most popular subgenres […]

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Leatherface: Witness the Retconning of a Legend

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an undisputed horror classic. Yet the history of the franchise itself is pretty convoluted. Unlike its its horror counterparts, Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street, the TCM series has a spotty track record. To date, there have been three sequels spanning the 1980’s and 1990’s with questionable […]

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