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Leatherface is peeling off faces again in first trailer for Netflix's new 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will hack and slash its way onto Netflix Feb. 18, 2022.
Quiet! Do you hear that? It's the sound of a chainsaw engine revving back up in honor of the first trailer for Netflix's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What else would it be called in this current era of horror sequels/soft reboots that ignore all the head-scratching and convoluted continuity of previous installments?
Serving as a direct follow-up to the 1974 classic directed and co-written by the late Tobe Hooper, the upcoming movie finds Leatherface (the chainsaw-wielding maniac who likes to peel off and wear other people's faces) terrorizing a new group of young people unlucky enough to disturb his precarious isolation in the small Texas town of Harlow.
The cast of characters includes: Melody (Sarah Yarkin); her teenage sister, Lila (Elsie Fisher); and their two friends, Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson). Olwen Fouéré (The Northman) steps into the supporting role of Sally Hardesty, the first girl to ever escape the clutches of Leatherface. Marilyn Burns, who played Sally in the original, sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 65.
Watch the trailer (complete with the series' iconic and unnerving flashbulb sound effect) below:
David Blue Garcia (Tejano) directed the film, working off a screenplay written by Chris Thomas Devlin (Cobweb). Fede Álvarez and Rodolfo Sayagues — the creative duo behind 2013's Evil Dead remake and the Don't Breathe franchise — serve as producers alongside Kim Henkel (Hooper's co-writer on the '74 original). In addition, Álvarez and Sayagues conceived of the screen story upon which Devlin's script was ultimately based.
"It felt familiar somehow because it took us back to when I did Evil Dead," Álvarez explained to Entertainment Weekly. "Me and Rodo really wanted to make sure we don't disappoint the fans, and we are [among them]. So it's pretty hardcore. But at the same time it has the simplicity of that first film. We wanted to come up with a very simple premise [with] a powerful domino effect. Everything is set up in the right place — all you have to do is push the first domino and everything will happen effortlessly."
The producer went on to assure fans that the project's depiction of Leatherface is the same antagonist we met nearly five decades ago — just a little older. We're not dealing with "Son of Leatherface" here. With the character's OG actor, Gunnar Hansen, also no longer with us, Mark Burnham (Lowlife) was hired to pick up the character's blood-rusted chainsaw.
"It was quite a search," Álvarez continued. "Gunnar Hansen passed away. If Gunnar had been alive, I'm pretty sure he would have played [the part], so we were trying to find someone that could have been Gunnar today. We tried to find the best next thing. When [Burnham] showed up, we definitely felt like, 'This is the guy.' He had all the physicality we needed from him on camera. He has such an imposing figure."
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre arrives on Netflix Feb. 18. 2022. Check out a pair of first look teaser images below:
