Horror fans finally got a peek at Netflix’s new sequel to the seminal slasher movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when the trailer dropped on Saturday at Comic Con Experience. The Netflix sequel, which takes place after the events of the first film and disregards all the previous sequels to this point, is the first installment in the multi-decade spanning franchise since Lionsgate Films lost the rights to it after their release of Leatherface in 2017.
Producer and project helm, Fede Álvarez, already a name in horror following his reimagining of the original Evil Dead film in 2013 and the Sam Raimi co-produced Don’t Breathe series, made the bold decision to set the project following the first movie and disavowing the subsequent sequels from canon. The new film, directed by Cobweb director David Blue Garcia, will take place at some point in the 2000s and feature a 60-year-old Leatherface. New Leatherface actor Mark Burnham, who replaces the late Gunnar Hansen, features prominently in the new trailer and can be seen reclaiming his weapon of choice from its hiding place in the walls of the Sawyer family home.
Other additions to the cast include Outlander’s Nell Hudson as Ruthe and Elsie Fisher, best known as the lead in Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade as Elsie’s wheelchair-using sister, Lila. Irish actor Olwen Fouéré has been cast as Sally Hardesty, the “Final Girl” of the original picture. The original actress who portrayed Sally, Marilyn Burns passed away in 2014. Sarah Yarkin and Jacob Latimore will also co-star.
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is widely considered to be one of the best examples of the slasher genre ever, ranking in most top ten lists among classics such as Halloween and Friday the 13th. The new sequel is expected to hew somewhat along similar lines to the original but with modern updates to reflect the concerns of the present day. According to Álvarez, “I think the first movie really hit a nerve when portraying that culture clash between the countryside and the city. Back in the ’70s, the hippies were representing the youth of the city. This time, they’re more like millennial hipsters from Austin who are very entrepreneurial and have a dream of getting away from the city and back to the countryside. They’re trying to gentrify small-town America — and let’s just say they encounter some pushback.”
Sarah Yarkin, who portrays developer Melody in the movie, explains, “Me and my business partner Dante [Latimore] are these young hip people that come to this ghost town in Texas and try to get other people to come there and make it the next hip place to be. Our fatal flaw is that we ignore the history that came before us.”
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be released on February 18, 2022 on Netflix.