Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994) – IMDB

Licking. Crossdressing. Silliness. Pizza. Welcome to the weird 90’s offering of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There’s nothing painfully worthy to get in to here so I’ll make this quick. I was curious about seeing this one depending on the two leads. Every actor has one horror movie to star in, mostly at the beginning of their career, The Next Generation has two! Is worth your time and curiosity? Bottom line, no. Letting the movie sink in after a couple days, I’m realizing I wasted my time watching it and the overall experience became degraded. In fact I’m not entirely sure why this was made. It didn’t offer anything new, it was simply a rehash of the classic. What it did do was show how weird and wild southern hillybillies can be in their most crazed dysfunctional family fashion.

Leatherface appears small and like a dog complaining for a toy he can’t reach. To be screamed at with mad man wielding a chainsaw sounds terrifying when they’re grunting for action but something about this 90’s flick doesn’t cut it.

The two leads give the best performances. Unfortunately they shouldn’t be given the hillbilly script and oblivious sense of characters. They gotta start somewhere right? Renee Zellweger is the unfiltered heroine with untapped, shining light of courage to her later career highlight for me Cold Mountain. Her chemistry is cut throat and intense with Matthew McConaughey who is raw, menacing, and his on-screen presence full of demand. His crazed persona threatens the very character he lovingly portrays in any rom-com.

The two leads were the best thing about Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Outside of that there really isn’t anything to watch. It’s laughable with a side of eye rolling. Not gory or disturbing as you’d come to expect from this genre/franchise. Zellweger and McConaughey did great in their roles for what was given, I wouldn’t say it’s worth your curiosity though.