3 Years After a Failed Sequel, One of the 1970s Best Horror Movies Is Getting Rebooted Again (And It Might Actually Work This Time)

Hollywood’s attempts at rebooting classic horror franchises is a tactic that goes back decades. In recent years that has taken the form of the legacy sequel, with this summer seeing the release of a new I Know What You Did Last Summer that picked up decades after the original from 1997. The trend was fueled kicked into over drive of late by 2018’s Halloween, a 40-years-later sequel to John Carpenter’s movie that went on to become the highest grossing slasher movie of all-time. Attempts have been made by other franchises to follow in those footsteps too and the latest announcement in horror reveals that one of the longest-running franchises is getting a redo yet again.

Horror fans are well aware at his point how often Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been rebooted, and yet there’s new life in it once again. Reports have been swirling for months now that the rights to Chain Saw were up for auction with a variety of producers trying to grab a piece of it, and now the home that Leatherface will haunt may have finally been found. According to The InSneider, and corroborated by Deadline, A24 is poised to win the film and TV rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and their first plans for the series may have already taken shape as well.

What Happened to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, And What Comes Next?

Image courtesy Vortex Inc.

Since the franchise started in 1974, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre saw three sequels released over the course of twenty years (a far cry from the likes of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street that often had annual follow-ups in the 1980s). The first attempt at rebooting the series came with 2003’s film, a revival from Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company that put the spotlight on gore and 2000s aesthetics over a grimy, meditative creep show that the 1974 original offered.

Additional reboots came later, with 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D marking the first decades later legacy sequel that ignored every movie but the first. 2017 saw the release of Leatherface, a prequel movie that attempted to tell the story of how the main family from the first film even came to be. That was followed by 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a second reboot that treated only the first movie as canon. Following lackluster box office and poor critical reception from all of these, the saw has been silent ever since then.

With A24 seemingly the new home for Leatherface and his trusty chainsaw though, the future of the series might actually be in the best place it’s been in decades. According to the trade that reported on the news, the first order of business for A24 after the ink has dried is a Texas Chainsaw Massacre television series from JT Mollner (Strange Darling, The Long Walk) with Roy Lee and the previously reported Glen Powell also developing it (Powell will seemingly not star in the series however). This would mark new territory for the series for sure, and could be just one reason it might actually work.

A24’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Reboot Could Be the One That Works

Image courtesy Vortex Inc.

As reports have swirled the past few months that studios were attempting to gain the rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the one name that has never gone away from being in contention was A24. The likes of Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), even Yellowstone creator Tailor Sheridan, were said to have thrown their hat in the ring, but none have came out on top. Even with those eccentric and exciting filmmakers seemingly no longer being in contention to reboot the 1974 classic, fans might actually be able to hold on to some hope with this one.

A24 previously made a name for themselves by producing independent films like Ex Machina and Spring Breakers, but quickly developed a reputation as an interesting genre house thanks to movies like Hereditary, The Witch, The Lighthouse, and, more recently, I Saw the TV Glow. The studio even dabbled in Chainsaw-adjacent horror with Ti West’s X, the backwoods, 70’s set slasher that took major cues from Tobe Hooper’s film. By becoming the studio that will be the new home for the series, we can look at what A24 has already produced as a roadmap of sorts.

The biggest takeaway from A24’s body of work is that they’re unafraid of challenging conventional norms and definitely not concerned with releasing challenging work that leaves some audiences confused, or even irritated. Even the previously mentioned Hereditary, a horror film that put director Ari Aster on the map and became their highest-grossing movie at the time, was met with a D+ CinemaScore by general audiences. Though the critical reception was overwhelming, many struggled with the film’s lack of traditional horror structure and an open ending that offered few real answers.

Most importantly however for the future of Chain Saw, A24 has let the filmmakers behind their projects fully tell their own stories without interference. This is no more clear than in Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, their highest grossing movie of all-time currently, an oddball multiverse-dramedy that saw the studio take home their second Best Picture Oscar. Though major movies at other studios get put through focus groups and notes sessions, the raw talent of the filmmakers behind this one saw it to the end, and it paid off.

All told, these elements could pave the way for the exact right storyteller to bring The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to real glory. The history of A24 is just one piece of the puzzle though, but what the studio cannot overlook is the history of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to date. A clean slate that doesn’t acknowledge the continuity of the other movies seems like the best option, but it has been attempted multiple times to date, and each failed for one reason or another. If there’s a lesson to be learned from the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre however, it’s that this series isn’t a slasher movie like Halloween, or even a franchise machine like Saw. There’s a deeper, almost meditative quality to the Hansel & Gretel structure of Tobe Hooper’s movie, one where the violence is almost never explicitly shown and the descent into madness is the real journey, not the body count along the way.

So what does the future of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like? Better than it has in at least twenty years, but one that is still slightly mired in confusion. If a new project were to get off the ground this year it would be welcomed by fans, but decades of off-putting sequels and poorly planned revivals have been well tread territory here before.

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