The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994)

Directed by Kim Henkel [Other horror films: N/A]

This is a movie (better known under the title Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation) I’ve long been interested in seeing. I had heard that it wasn’t a particularly good movie, but even so, as long as it was better than the second movie (which is a popular film, but it never sat well with me), I’d probably be okay.

It took a long while to finally watch, though, mainly because the theatrical cut was far more commonly available than the director’s cut. Aside from a scene between Jenny and her step-father at the beginning, I’m not sure what differences there are, if any, but when I watch a movie, I always aim to watch the most complete version possible. With that in mind, even knowing it wasn’t likely to be a good movie, I just bought this one on Blu-ray.

And, well, I don’t know. It honestly wasn’t terrible, at least until the final 25 minutes or so. Otherwise, it was generic; a bit annoying as far as the family element went, but not without some charm. If it weren’t for the final twenty or so minutes, I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more than the second movie. That said, I don’t know if it’s worse – I know my stance on the second film is unpopular, but I probably enjoyed this one just a little more than the second one, and I definitely preferred the family dynamics here.

Speaking of which, while nowhere near as functional as the family from Part III, it was amusing seeing how much fun Matthew McConaughey was having. The family here consists of five members (technically six, if you count the grandfather, but he did very little), being: Vilmer (McConaughey), W.E. (Joe Stevens), Darla (Tonie Perensky), Leatherface (Robert Jacks), and Rothman (James Gale).

Technically speaking, I don’t know if Rothman is in the family. It’s his inclusion in the film that makes this a far less enjoyable affair. He pops up toward the end, driven to the house in a limousine. It’s not clear what his relationship with Vilmer is, but later on, he apologizes to Jenny and drops her at a police station. Oh, and he speaks French. I have no idea who he is, or what his relationship to anyone is, or why he was there, but I didn’t care for it whatsoever.

Another character I didn’t care for would be Darla, who just felt too steeped in comedy to amount to much. I was sort of thinking that Jenny could break through to her – that Jenny’s experience in dealing with her abusive step-father would play a role in getting Darla to help her escape from Vilmer – but it wasn’t to be. She did pick up pizza, though, with Jenny tied up in her trunk, so that was something.

Vilmer, W.E., and Leatherface were all fine. Well, I did think that Vilmer felt a bit too psychotic at times, but at least he wasn’t Chop Top. W.E. didn’t do much, aside from attacking people with cattle prods. Leatherface got a few decent chase scenes in, one kill almost reminiscent of the quick hammer attack from the original movie. His screaming was a bit ridiculous, but this family is all off their meds, so I wouldn’t expect a healthy approach to mental health from them.

What stood out pretty clear to me, and this is something I rarely find the need to speak about, is how atrocious some of the delivery was in this movie. Some of the dialogue was bad anyways, but boy, the delivery didn’t do any additional wonders. It was sometimes amusing – Jenny’s been abducted and attacked by multiple members of this family, and she’s still trying to logically figure out what’s going on. I wouldn’t call this movie necessarily horrible, but I do think those that do have good reason, especially concerning the performances.

Like I said, Matthew McConaughey (Frailty) is having a lot of fun, so there’s no issue there. Delivery aside, I actually rather liked Renée Zellweger (Case 39). Neither Tyler Cone nor Lisa Newmyer did much for me, as their characters were pretty awful, but at least they occasionally provided for some okay violence, when the movie veered that way (which wasn’t very often). Otherwise, it’s tough to find any other performance worth mentioning in a positive manner, as this film doesn’t offer much in that department.

What it also doesn’t offer is much in the way of violence. Sure, the first movie was a bit light on actual gore, but it had a grittiness that stands up to this day. Here, there was a scene of a character being hit over the head with a hammer, and another character got shoved onto a meathook, but that was it. In fact, now that I think on it, while Leatherface was waving his chainsaw around throughout the movie, I don’t believe he ever once hit anything. I guess that someone did get their head crushed with a hydraulic leg, and another got hit with the propeller of a small plane, but this movie didn’t have much else.

I have to admit, with as many negative things as I’ve heard about this film, I’m surprised it wasn’t worse. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that I often heard having Leatherface dress up as a woman was stupid, but I don’t see what the big deal is about. If he wears the faces of women, I can easily see why he’d want to also wear their attire. Ignoring that, though, while the movie is definitely sketchy, I don’t think it’s awful. Some of the humor was meh, some characters (Darla and Rothman) rather bad, and the ending was complete and utter trash, but I can’t say I hated it.

It’s obviously not as good as the first movie, though, and it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as the third, but honestly, the more I think about it, I might say it’s slightly better than the second. #DealWithIt

5.5/10