Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

What happens when you throw a couple of big Hollywood names in a B-grade horror flick that's just screaming for attention? Pretty much the same thing you'd get with similar B-grade trash without the 'star power'. As the name implies, there is no need to guess what this movie is all about. The overall concept on which such films are based upon is getting way too old and to my surprise these films never seem to go out of style. Oh yes, who could forget similarly themed flicks as Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses & Wrong Turn that featured a bunch of confused teenagers being picked off by a gang of demented rednecks.

The 'teenagers' in this movie did not have to drive all the way to backwoods West Virginia to get themselves in trouble. Instead they simply made a wrong turn just a short way from their high school and somehow ended up in redneck country. Such films wouldn't be complete without a rundown old house full of junk & dead bodies and not forgetting of course, a crazed family of blade-wielding rednecks. The chief baddie here is played by Matthew McConaughey who is ( in my opinion ) a poor choice for being way too pretty. It's lot like getting Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves to play a role fit for someone like Anthony Perkins.

Then there's Renee Zellweger who is normally a good actress in other movies but obviously she does not fare too well when it comes to doing scream flicks. At times, her character appeared more confused rather than being scared to death after being chased around by a giant chainsaw wielding maniac. She also manages to survive getting zapped multiple times with a cattle prod and thrown around like a rag doll by pretty boy psycho Vilmer ( Matthew McConaughey ).

A large portion of the movie is devoted to Zellweger's character being chased around the old redneck house and finding herself cornered by her crazed captors. Along with that, you also get a lot of unconvincing kicking and screaming as she tries to evade from being turned into a pile of human mincemeat. The movie isn't really as gory as it sounds. With a title like that, you'd probably expect to see a ton of limbs getting sawn off or something similar but thankfully ( or regretably to some of you ), there isn't much to see here. And by that I mean, no one actually gets sawn to bits by a chainsaw. Even worse, they turned Leatherface into a giant wimp with a high pitched voice. The movie tries hard to be funny at times but nobody seems to be laughing here.


While I'm not exactly a fan of such movies, I have to admit Wrong Turn ( minus the star power ) was way better than this one. Unless there's nothing else left in the horror section at your video rental store, I'd suggest getting something else, like a cheap zombie flick.