For many, the release of each successive Texas Chainsaw movie only seems to further damage the franchise. A once gruesome, yet engrossing horror universe has been marred by quickly-conceived and hastily-produced ephemera. For a case in point, look no further than Texas Chainsaw 3D: a flimsy, forgettable, and gimmick-relying disaster that found some box-office success, but that seriously, if not fatally, lacked originality and narrative inventiveness.
However, while we heard awhile back about the upcoming franchise prequel known simply as Leatherface, a director had not yet been selected and, believe it or not, sturdy and assured direction can be a significant, even indispensable, boon for genre films as well. Well, now two directors have been announced. French horror devotees and filmmakers Julian Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, known for their French-lanugage films Inside and Livid, will be given a chance to inject the movie with a new sensibility that, if it lands well, could jumpstart a lamentably sidelined franchise.
The synopsis of Leatherface reads:
“In this prequel to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” a young nurse is kidnapped by four violent teens who escape from a mental hospital and take her on a road trip from hell. Pursued by an equally deranged lawman out for revenge, one of these teens is destined for tragedy and horrors that will destroy his mind; molding him into the monster we now call Leatherface.”
Prequels are certainly interesting beasts, but it looks like the treatment could be onto something compelling and, indeed, deranged.
