Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)  ★★½

THE latest instalment in the loose Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise offers a mixed result.

On the one hand it has some excellent gore that will satisfy plenty of horror fans and a few decent jump scares.

There are two standout sequences – in a police van and later on a bus – that warrant taking a look at the film by themselves.

It’s also pretty well made and shot with Bulgaria proving a good stand-in for Texas. If I hadn’t looked it up I wouldn’t have guessed.

But that’s where the good news ends for director David Blue Garcia whose efforts are let down by a script that tries to bring a modern sensibility to a slasher film that really didn’t need it.

Consequently, by trying to modernise the film with story threads on rural gentrification, female empowerment and even gun control it only becomes forced and confusing.

The gun control aspect in particular is so clumsily handled in the heroine’s back story as a school shooting survivor it almost becomes offensive.

Garcia’s film is comparable to several of the other sequels or remakes, but places into insignificance alongside Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 film which continues to be an all-time horror classic.

The new film is set 50 years after the events of the original which makes it problematic from the moment we encounter a Leatherface much younger than he should be.

The cast is fine and it’s far from bad, but there is nothing like the power and intensity of the original which terrorised audiences despite little gore actually being shown on-screen.