The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the latest classic horror franchise getting the reboot treatment. Legendary Pictures have tapped Ryan and Andy Tohill (The Dig) to direct. Chris Thomas Devlin is writing the script, while Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe) is onboard as producer.
“The Tohill’s vision is exactly what the fans want”, Alvarez said in a statement. “It’s violent, exciting and so depraved that it will stay with you forever”. What that vision actually consists of, we don’t yet know. It’s hard to imagine any Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie getting more “violent, exciting and depraved” than the original, but Hollywood will continue trying.
Tobe Hooper‘s 1974 film is a classic and has gone through a variety of incarnations since. There were the sequels, including the bizarre comedic (yep) 1986 follow-up directed by Hooper himself and 1994’s The Next Generation, a film so bad that stars Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger‘s agents successfully delayed its release, fearing it would harm their client’s careers.
2003 brought the inevitable direct remake, and since then there have been plenty of TCM-related films that have fitted into the original story in various ways, including a 3D sequel in 2013.
The question is, with so many remakes/reboots/sequels of the 1974 film, what can the Tohill’s possibly bring to the franchise that it hasn’t seen before? It’s hard to imagine the remake coming anywhere close to the impact of the original. Though Alvarez, although only producing, is the director behind one of the most successful horror remakes ever – 2013’s Evil Dead.
The Tohills landed this gig thanks to their 2018 debut The Dig, a thriller that follows an amnesiac murderer recently released from prison and forced to dig up a body he can’t remember. We’ll wait to hear whether they’re bringing anything exciting to this TCM remake.
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