We live in a world where the easiest way to market a horror movie is to stick a flag in anything you can find from the 70s or 80s, make sure everyone is looking, then yell, “REBOOT!” But it looks like Twisted Pictures is going to use their recently acquired chainsaw and attempt to cut their way out of that mold.
Last week, rights changed hands for the three-and-a-half decade old Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise as Twisted snatched them away from the previous owners at Platinum Dunes, who have enough horror remaking going on as it is. Now, in an interview with Shock 'Till You Drop, producer Mark Burg says that instead of trying to recreate that new car smell that you can never get quite right, they're going to start throwing around a word that might have them washing their mouths out with soap...sequel.
"We're coming up with the idea. It's a 'what if?' It's 35 years later, there's a relative going back. Why is he going back? I don't want to set it in a dusty town. How do we make it more urban but keep that feel. There will be some relatives, some new people. There's still the subtext of 'are they eating these people?' The whole idea of cannibalism, we're bringing it back."
The story is being penned by legendary screenwriter Stephen Susco, (there's no font for this yet, but read 'legendary' in the most sarcastic tone possible) whose name you'll see on the J-Horror import The Grudge. With Burg claiming that they will be modernizing this “saga" with the help of Susco, hopefully we'll see something just as great if not outshining Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan which totally reinvented the series in a way I think Twisted is looking for. In case you missed it again, there's a tone that just can't be captured by text.13th VIII was awful, and so shall a Texas Chainsaw in the city be.
Unimpressed by the Marcus Nispel remake, the whole idea of more bastardizations of one of my favorite horror classics does not excite me in the slightest. Put Tobe Hooper behind the lens of a broken down 16mm camera and then we'll talk.
