Before this evening, when I kick off the second and longer phase of the Summer of Blood ’08, a quick reflection on where I’ve been-
For being one of the pillars of the slasher subgenre, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise isn’t all that slashery; the second and third of the six films are something else entirely. While the films’ structure is a bit like the typical psycho killer killing teens picture – first act, meet the victims, second act, watch the victims prance about, third act, watch the victims die – the TCM films have their own special story framework, with a vastly extended third act and plenty of esoteric setpieces that you just don’t see elsewhere.
The films have their own rhythm, and I never quite got into it; and topping that off with the fact that three of them really aren’t any fucking good at all, making it all the way through the series was far more a chore than I expected, perhaps hoping that the first film wasn’t quite as much of an outlier in quality as it proved to be. Even more than the much-benighted Friday the 13th series, TCM felt like it was just the same damn movie over and over again but with different faces, and wildly variant quality. That said, the level of craft across the series – except for the fourth – is much higher than the norm for cheap horror pictures, particularly the cinematography, particularly when Daniel Pearl shot the movie.
Ranked:
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
3. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation