Leatherface (2017) Directed by Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury
This movie is a bit of a weird one. It is not terrible as a movie, but as a sequel and origin movie, which it of course is, it is a quite bad and disappointing one.
It never seems like a good idea to put a human face on a 'monster' and try to make him a more sympathetic one, by showing his backstory and early days. That of course is exactly what this movie does, but in the case of Leatherface this still feels sort of OK. After all, his character always obviously seemed to be a victim of his family. Someone who wasn't necessarily born evil, but turned that way by growing up in a rural area, with his deranged family. Not that the character ever was much of a sympathetic, but you could always sort of get and feel where he was coming from. Does this movie add anything to that? Not really. It makes this a pretty unnecessary prequel, but what is worse is that it isn't done very well as a prequel.
Thing about the movie is that it attempts to set up a background story for its main character, without actually providing much background information. I mean, it just shows things happening, without really explaining all that much. Biggest problem is that the characters are all quite terrible ones. Not because of their actions, but because of how they are written. None of the characters are well developed, though they obviously are important to the forming of 'Leatherface'. In a way this movie really needs another prequel to show how the family got formed, in order to understand them. Seriously, where is the grandpa Sawyer prequel? I just don't know what makes them tick and why it is so important to them to turn 'sweet' innocent little Bubba into such a cold blooded and maniacal killer. This movie provides more questions than answers really. As a matter of fact, it provides very little answers at all.
The movie gives you far too little to root- and care for. This goes for the story as well as all of its characters. The movie lacks a decent 'hero', main characters as well as a solid enough main villain in it. I honestly don't know who was supposed to be the hero, main character and villain of the movie. You would say that Leatherface should be all of them, but he at times really seems nothing more but a secondary character, who isn't even all that important to the story.
It also definitely is nothing more than just another average, modern slasher flick, with its approach and story. It does everything you could expect from a movie of this sort, without doing anything that new or surprising. But even as a simple slasher it does remain a lacking one. It has a terrible build up to things, which means that the entire movie is basically devoid of any good suspense and it most definitely never becomes a very scary one neither. It is mostly just a gory one, but it seems to be gory just for the sake of being gory at parts. Certainly nothing too realistic or memorable. It is also weird how it is hiding some of its gore at times, by letting things take place off the screen. This just doesn't suit the character and story approach, that is all about flying limbs and intestines.
The movie is saved by the fact that it is a pretty good looking- and otherwise still well made movie. Certainly nothing cheap or clumsy about it, even though the movie at the same time never really impresses. It makes this a watchable enough genre attempt, though as a part of- and especially as a prequel to the 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' series, the movie falls incredibly flat and is nothing more but a ratter pointless and weak one, that adds absolutely nothing to the series and does very little new or original in general.
5/10
Watch trailer
It never seems like a good idea to put a human face on a 'monster' and try to make him a more sympathetic one, by showing his backstory and early days. That of course is exactly what this movie does, but in the case of Leatherface this still feels sort of OK. After all, his character always obviously seemed to be a victim of his family. Someone who wasn't necessarily born evil, but turned that way by growing up in a rural area, with his deranged family. Not that the character ever was much of a sympathetic, but you could always sort of get and feel where he was coming from. Does this movie add anything to that? Not really. It makes this a pretty unnecessary prequel, but what is worse is that it isn't done very well as a prequel.
Thing about the movie is that it attempts to set up a background story for its main character, without actually providing much background information. I mean, it just shows things happening, without really explaining all that much. Biggest problem is that the characters are all quite terrible ones. Not because of their actions, but because of how they are written. None of the characters are well developed, though they obviously are important to the forming of 'Leatherface'. In a way this movie really needs another prequel to show how the family got formed, in order to understand them. Seriously, where is the grandpa Sawyer prequel? I just don't know what makes them tick and why it is so important to them to turn 'sweet' innocent little Bubba into such a cold blooded and maniacal killer. This movie provides more questions than answers really. As a matter of fact, it provides very little answers at all.
The movie gives you far too little to root- and care for. This goes for the story as well as all of its characters. The movie lacks a decent 'hero', main characters as well as a solid enough main villain in it. I honestly don't know who was supposed to be the hero, main character and villain of the movie. You would say that Leatherface should be all of them, but he at times really seems nothing more but a secondary character, who isn't even all that important to the story.
It also definitely is nothing more than just another average, modern slasher flick, with its approach and story. It does everything you could expect from a movie of this sort, without doing anything that new or surprising. But even as a simple slasher it does remain a lacking one. It has a terrible build up to things, which means that the entire movie is basically devoid of any good suspense and it most definitely never becomes a very scary one neither. It is mostly just a gory one, but it seems to be gory just for the sake of being gory at parts. Certainly nothing too realistic or memorable. It is also weird how it is hiding some of its gore at times, by letting things take place off the screen. This just doesn't suit the character and story approach, that is all about flying limbs and intestines.
The movie is saved by the fact that it is a pretty good looking- and otherwise still well made movie. Certainly nothing cheap or clumsy about it, even though the movie at the same time never really impresses. It makes this a watchable enough genre attempt, though as a part of- and especially as a prequel to the 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' series, the movie falls incredibly flat and is nothing more but a ratter pointless and weak one, that adds absolutely nothing to the series and does very little new or original in general.
5/10
Watch trailer
