Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation Movie Download

6 / 10

Bizarre comedy sequel is okay as long as you don’t take it seriously
This, the fourth in the original series of CHAINSAW films, is without a doubt the oddest yet. Gone is the grinding horror of the original movie, in favour of an out-and-out comedy. It’s easy to see why no more sequels were released after this, at least until Michael Bay’s franchise ‘reboot’ – the formula had been worked into the ground and only repetition could follow. THE NEXT GENERATION is widely regarded as the worst of the series, a total non-event with more horror to be found in a pair of smelly socks, but I think critics are missing the point. This isn’t MEANT to be a horror flick – instead it’s a comedy.

The threadbare plot is nothing new, a simple sequence of events designed to get some innocent teenagers into the chainsaw household. Once here, the sole surviving female finds herself menaced by a group of mad men (and a woman!). Director Kim Henkel, who wrote and produced the original classic, has plenty of affinity with his material and his focus here is to create new extremes out of old. The film is a chronicle of screeching insanity with every actor encouraged to go way over the top in the call of duty, and I have to admit, I enjoyed the film simply because it’s so odd.

Of course, it’s saddled with cheesy ’90s production values and a dearth of characterisation. The teenage ‘good guys’ are utterly devoid of interest, and the only interesting thing about the main character of Jenny is that the actress portraying her is Renee Zellweger, years before she became really famous in Hollywood. There’s no sign of future greatness here, Zellweger is no different from a hundred other teenage scream queens. No, the real interest comes from the complete nutters portraying the ‘family’. Leatherface is back, acted by a different actor and this time dressing up as an old woman; he’s not menacing at all here, but instead slightly endearing and completely loopy, screaming just as much as Zellweger! The real star of the show, though, is another pre-stardom actor, Matthew McConaughey, playing demented murderer Vilmer. Interesting, McConaughey takes over from ANOTHER pre-stardom actor, Viggo Mortensen, who played virtually the same character in the previous sequel, Leatherface. McConaughey goes above and beyond with a performance of immense energy and physicality and watching him creeping around, complete with bionic leg (!) and harassing people is what makes the film.

So there you have THE NEXT GENERATION. It’s an overpadded film, full of long, slightly dull chase scenes and an overacting McConaughey literally chewing up the scenery. It may not be art, but I did laugh a lot in comparison to many other so-called Hollywood ‘comedies’.Read More