Kim Henkel’s only directorial outing was 1994’s ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation’. Writer-director Kim Henkel gained fame co-writing the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre alongside Tobe Hooper. And now here was an opportunity to put all that untapped creativeness in front of the camera herself. No such luck.
I can’t really describe how much mind-numbing boredom, bad acting and drivel soaked dialogue kicks off this movie. And that’s pretty much how it is through the first 40 minutes. There’s awful chitchat, a painfully dull walk in the woods and odd reactions to more severe situations. However you do get a brief glimpse of Tonie Perensky’s pristine boobies. Mmmmmm.
Of course in recent times this as a DVD has been repackaged and resold to a new generation (no pun intended!) due to the fact that it features two well known actors who at this point were still clearly laying the tracks of their careers. Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger. Like many other horror titles in particular movies like this are always being re-released, trying to financially gain off the back of an early appearance by a rising up-and-coming bonified movie star. And for that reason I didn’t actually expect to see much of Matthew or Renée. But I was wrong and they clearly are the leading parts in this movie.
The two leads hold their own and I guess McConaughey is half decent as the insanity filled Vilmer. But again his portrayal of such a character uses the same overused deranged tendencies and psychotic clichés that we’ve seen a million times before. Although I was a tad impressed with the kitchen and Renée’s character holding the gun scene. It was insane and nicely built-up.
OVERALL SUMMARY
The beginning is slow and uneventful. The middle is a little muddled. And the ending (no read on if you hate spoilers) is weak and pointless and throwing in a cameo from Marilyn Burns (star of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) makes up for nothing! It is a shame how often horror sequels, the higher the number, seem to get worse and worse as the series develops.
