Audiences have become used to seeing every notable horror franchise reinvented and updated with each passing generation, but the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series has notably featured a laundry list of names who went on to enjoy huge success later on in their careers.
Viggo Mortensen, future Academy Award winners Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger, Jessica Biel, Matt Bomer, Alexandra Daddario, and Scott Eastwood are some of the famous faces to have made early appearances in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, so being terrorized by Leatherface can often be a huge opportunity for rising talent.
Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, and Nell Hudson are hoping to hit similar heights, and Netflix subscribers will be able to see the trio run for their lives when David Blue Garcia’s direct sequel to the classic 1974 original comes to Netflix this Friday.
Ahead of Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s release, We Got This Covered had the opportunity to ask Yarkin, Fisher, and Hudson if they felt any pressure or the weight of expectation boarding a property that’s been around for almost half a century and boasts a huge number of fans.
Fisher said she didn’t really feel under that much pressure at all, thanks largely to the atmosphere created by the cast and crew on set.
“Yeah, I think there’s totally a lot of pressure. Yeah, just because it is a very beloved franchise. But I don’t know. I think the on-set vibes were so chill, it was probably a little hard to keep that in mind. We had more fun just kind of making it.”
As for Hudson, she admitted that there’s plenty of responsibility that comes with taking up the mantle of starring in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, especially when her own family were confused as to how it fit into the mythology.
“It’s funny you should say that. When I first got the role, I think it was my godmother that I told I was going to be in a Texas Chainsaw reboot. And she was like, ‘Are you playing Sally Hardesty?’. Because I’m blonde, and she just assumed it was a straight-up remake of the original. So, luckily, because it’s not, and it’s new characters, that sort of takes the pressure off a little bit. In that, you know, we’re starting a whole new thing ourselves. But of course, there’s a bit of responsibility towards a beloved franchise.”
Yarkin wasn’t even familiar with the back catalogue until being cast in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it didn’t take her long to figure out that a lot of people have high hopes for the latest chapter.
“I hadn’t seen the first one until I got the role, because I don’t like horror movies, and I’m scared of things. So then when I did watch it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s a lot of pressure’. This is a movie I’ve heard about my whole life. I never watched it because I’m a baby. And then seeing it, I’m like, ‘That’s so much pressure. I don’t want to f*ck this up’. So, I did feel a lot of pressure.”
Nine movies in, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains as popular among genre aficionados as ever, with an entire new set of fans potentially being drawn in alongside longtime supporters when the blood-soaked slasher arrives on Netflix this coming Friday, February 18.
