Years after being taken into care, a group of inmates escape, taking a young nurse with them as a hostage. They are perused by a lawman out for revenge over the death of his daughter years before as one of the escapees is from the notorious Sawyer family...
Origin stories are all the rage these days. Rather than make a sequel, on the whole we are getting prequels. instead. Sequels have an advantage, in that they can simply pick up from where the previous film ended and continue the story. Prequels have the difficult task of coming up with a story, where, on the whole everyone will know where the story will end. So, when your title tells you what this story is about, the origin of Leatherface, the question you have to ask is how do you approach it?
Well, the writer Seth M. Sherwood decides to try and make it a mystery of sorts, as to which of the escapees will turn out to be Leatherface. However, there is a problem with that. It's easy to figure out which one it will be, almost from the moment we see him in the asylum. There's really no surprise at all.
This goes throughout the film in truth. There really is no surprises in this film at all. So, if the story is pretty straightforward, does the film have anything working in its favour?
Yes, the directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. The story might be straightforward, but the duo wrangle every moment of tension they can get from it, staging some brutal and bloody moments, the standout being staged in a diner. Right up to the final moments, the blood spills and flies across the screen.
But this bloody carnage forgets one of the best things about the original film; that what we think we see if more horrifying than what we do see. If you look at the original film, a lot of the violence is quick, or as much in your own thoughts as shown onscreen. But what the film has going for it is a tension and atmosphere that keeps you on edge right up to the end credits.
As I said, most of the films that came after in this series have forgotten this, instead going for the blood and gore. Now, there is nothing wrong with this approach, a number of great horror films have taken this approach, but sometimes your film needs a bit more than that and although Bustillo and Maury do sustain the tension, the violence can't cover the weaknesses in the story.
The cast do their best, despite the weakness of the story. Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor bring their experience to the roles of vengeful lawman and the matriarch of the Sawyer family respectively. Of the others, Finn Jones (Iron Fist in the Netflix series) has a small role as a deputy. Most of the other cast members, Jessica Masden, Vanessa Grasse, Sam Coleman and Sam Strike to name a few do their best with their characters as written.
As I said at the beginning, when you know how the story has to end, can it hold any surprises? Sadly there isn't. However, that isn't to say that the film is a disaster. It's never a dull film at all, moving at a good pace building to an ending that actually works well.
It has to be said that for a film that in truth was not needed at all, it holds the attention for the most part and while it doesn't hold a candle to the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as a prequel to a horror classic, it's not bad overall.
Rating - 3/5
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