The horror genre has been experiencing a renaissance this decade on the big screen, be it through one-off stories like Ready or Not (though we’re game for that one getting a follow-up) or new franchises like The Conjuring. But every now and then, one of the old school horror characters will resurface in some form or fashion, and while it hasn’t been that long since we last saw Leatherface, word’s come in that the reset button could be pressed on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise in a manner similar to what was done with last year’s Halloween.
Last year, it was reported that more Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies could be on the way, as Millennium Pictures lost the rights to the franchise and Legendary Pictures was swooping in to grab them. Now Bloody Disgusting reports that not only has Legendary closed a deal to shepherd the next era of Texas Chainsaw Massacre tales, but Fede Álvarez, who has previous horror experience with Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe, is on board to produce, and a different filmmaker will be brought in to direct.
The outlet also mentioned that while nothing is “set in stone yet,” the goal is for this new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie to be a direct sequel to the 1974 original and ignore everything else that came after. This is the approach that Blumhouse’s Halloween took, and that movie was critically and commercially successful, resulting in two more Halloween sequels getting the green light.
Of course, those who are familiar with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise know that this isn’t the first time this kind of ‘ignoring continuity’ approach has been taken, and that’s not even counting the 2003 remake. While the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel came out in 1986, 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D delivered a different, direct follow-up to the 1974 original, and assuming this new project gets off the ground, we’ll once again be working with a mostly blank slate.
As Bloody Disgusting noted, Marilyn Burns, who played survivor Sally Hardesty in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and reprised her role in Texas Chainsaw 3D, passed away in 2014. So it’s unclear how this new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie would specifically tie to its predecessor, whether it’s by following Sally’s children or grandchildren, or perhaps focusing on the state of the cannibalistic Sawyer family in the present day.
Either way, fingers crossed that the next movie can get the franchise back on more solid ground. The most recent entry, the prequel Leatherface, was met with mixed-to-negative reception, and Texas Chainsaw 3D fared even worse. With someone like Fede Álvarez being a guiding force, maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre can be revitalized the same way Halloween was.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on what’s in store for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise next, but in the meantime, find out what’s heading to a theater near you for the rest of the year in our 2019 release schedule.
