How Netflix's “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” Rewrites the Classic Slasher Film

Netflix

Netflix’s latest horror release takes a chainsaw to the classic slasher film and comes out the other side with a nightmarish story that, while terrifying, sparks an important conversation.

Set in the tumbleweed town of Harlow, TX, the newest edition to the Leatherface franchise, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” takes a page from the original script, showing a standard horror story through the eyes of a newer generation. The story follows Melody (Sarah Yarkin); her sister, Lila (Elsie Fisher); Melody’s business partner, Dante (Jacob Latimore); and Dante’s girlfriend, Ruth (Nell Hudson), as they step into the tiny town in pursuit of a new business venture. When they inadvertently uproot Leatherface from his home and drive away his only living family member, the chainsaw rips and no one’s limbs are safe from what happens next. Furious Leatherface goes on a rampage through town, summoning Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the original film’s sole survivor, who’s hell-bent on getting revenge for her friends’ deaths almost 50 years earlier.

Packed with gory chase scenes and blood-curdling screams, the trailer alone is enough to make us backflip over our sofas, remote in hand, and never return. Chainsaw-wielding serial killer in our living rooms? No, thank you. Still, for horror-lovers, the film – which is directed by “Tejano’s” David Blue Garcia – is rife with jump scares and surprising twists that raise the little hairs on the back of our necks in a way that’s strangely satisfying.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” premieres on Netflix on Feb. 18. Read on to hear from Fisher and Yarkin about what it was like to take Leatherface on, how the film subverts horror movie stereotypes through its portrayal of strong women characters, and how the onscreen sisters felt about that majorly unexpected character death.

Related Posts
Latest Celebrity
The End.

The next story, coming up!