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Texas Chainsaw Massacre review round-up: Netflix sequel branded ‘comically bad’ by viewers

Critics have also torn into the ‘unnecessary and anonymous’ horror sequel

Louis Chilton
Sunday 20 February 2022 11:12 GMT
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) trailer

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Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel has been released – but viewers are somewhat less than impressed.

The film, the ninth instalment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, currently sits in fourth place in Netflix’s Top 10 rankings today.

Set several decades after the 1974 original film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who are set upon by the terrifying serial killer Leatherface.

However, the film was widely disparaged by critics, and currently holds a rating of just 30 per cent on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Atlantic’s David Sims described the films as “unnecessary and anonymous, leaning on crass visual shocks while failing to match the unsparing brutality of its lodestar”.

Jocelyn Noveck wrote in her one-star review for Associated Press that the film suffered from a “lack of imagination, creativity or even basic attention to logic” and a “perfunctory and downright silly script”.

Viewers at home, meanwhile, have been no kinder on the whole, with many using social media to voice their opinions about the horror sequel.

“Hate to be that guy but damn this movie was so bad,” wrote one person. “So many things were so comically bad.”

“The cinematography was gorgeous, but the writing was p*** poor and unimaginative,” wrote another. “The dialog was AWFUL and the sub plot is basically a rip off 2018 Halloween. The actual movies plot is just a poorly imagined vessel to facilitate some mildly good gore scenes.”

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Elsie Fisher as Lila in ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Elsie Fisher as Lila in ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (Yana Blajeva / Legendary, Courtesy of Netflix)

“Dreadful,” wrote someone else. “Barely 75 minutes long, insufferable characters, really terrible locations and sets.”

Others, however, were more positive about the film, praising the simplicity of its plot and full-blooded gore.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre can be watched on Netflix now.

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