Netflix’s #1 Movie Is Getting Slammed On Rotten Tomatoes
The big question is, with a story that so many have complained about, will Netflix be making yet another movie for the series?
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On February 18, 2022, Netflix released a new take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The movie quickly shot to the top spot on the streaming service, marking it as the most popular movie right now. While audiences may be hungry to check out the latest slasher flick, they’re not loving what they’re finding. With over 500 audience reviews, Rotten Tomatoes currently holds a crushing audience score of 37%. Critics like it even less. The critic rating currently sits at 30%. With a movie like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, audiences are going in with expectations for a slasher movie full of gore and excitement. But are they ending up finding? While the general consensus is that the movie is gory enough, it’s just not scary.
Dan Murrell said, “It’s the same dumb movie with the same dumb characters doing the same dumb things with the same bad acting that you’ve seen a million times before.” Clearly, Dan Murrell was not a fan of the new Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Unfortunately, Murrell was not alone. Valerie Complex from Deadline wrote, “nothing can save this Netflix movie from caving under the weight of its irrationality.” And Keith Watson of Slant Magazine wrote, “The new Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a deeply miscalculated mix of incoherent social commentary and over-the-top gore.”
While “gore” would be considered something that Texas Chainsaw Massacre fans would generally want from the slasher genre, it sounds like Netflix missed the mark with the story line. Many reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, and elsewhere are saying that the film was plenty gory and full of horror elements, but just wasn’t an entertaining story. Many reviewers said the characters simply made no sense and weren’t interesting to watch. These reviews follow a run up of days where horror fans were excited to check out the new movie.
One of the reasons hype was so high for the new Netflix take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that the film is meant to be a direct sequel to the 1974 hit. Meaning, the new movie had a specific angle for the story, and that was important to the fans showing up to check it out. Unfortunately, that hasn’t appeared to work out as well as planned. The story for the new movie takes place 50 years after the original film. A group of newcomers appears in the town. While there are new characters to play the victims, the original Leatherface is back. So is John Laroquette as the story’s narrator. He narrated the original movie as well.
It’ll be interesting to see how the new reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere impact the viewership on Netflix. Will fans continue to check out the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre installment despite the reviews? Will the movie manage to stay in the Top Ten Most Watched list on the streaming service for long? It seems most likely that fans will want to continue checking it out. Even though the reviews seem to agree that the horror movie’s story doesn’t live up to their expectations, a franchise is a franchise, and many will want to see how it holds up for themselves. And it seems fair to guess that even though many people aren’t enjoying the story, there will be plenty in the audience who can appreciate the new movie for what it is. The big question is, with a story that so many have complained about, will Netflix be making yet another movie for the horror series?
