In the realm of all things genre – particularly where the murky world of horror movies is concerned – it seems that barely a week goes by without rumblings of yet another remake, reimagining, reboot, relaunch, recalibration or rejig happening. And then there are those films and franchises that have more reboots than hot dinner. Yes, as the headline suggests, it appears that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series could well be set for yet another reboot.
Only this year, Leatherface was released in select cinemas and shown on the festival circuit. That film didn’t manage to get a full theatrical run here in the UK, but is available on home release from January 8th. In terms of continuity, Leatherface was a prequel to Texas Chainsaw 3D; itself a direct sequel to Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
While it was initially believed that Campbell Grobman and Millennium Films were initially planning on five Chainsaw pictures – of which Texas Chainsaw 3D and Leatherface were two of – it looks like the delays in Leatherface’s release have caused the rights on the franchise to lapse.
Responding to a fan on Twitter who asked about a Leatherface follow-up, producer Christa Campbell said, “I loved this film and I’m very proud. Unfortunately because of the time it took to release it we lost the rights sadly… so no… not from us at least.”
While that doesn’t outright say that another reboot for the franchise is happening, it basically means that if and when another Chainsaw movie does come out, it won’t be following the narrative of Leatherface. And let’s face it, it seems inconceivable that such a famed horror property won’t see another outing at some point down the line.
Of course, the continuity of the Chainsaw franchise is a muddied one. Following Hooper’s ’74 original, we’d get 1986’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 1990’s Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and 1994’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation that all followed the canon of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The franchise was then rebooted and relaunched with Marcus Nispel’s 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre redo of the ’74 film. That reboot was itself given a prequel with 2006’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. From there, continuity was again refreshed in 2013 with the aforementioned Texas Chainsaw 3D, which was a sequel to the original film that completely ignored any other pictures.
Still with us? We hope so. To cut to the chase, Campbell Grobman have lost the rights to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, meaning any films that happen in the future will seemingly ignore the most recent continuity established in Texas Chainsaw 3D and Leatherface and refresh things once again.
As ever, expect more on all things Texas Chainsaw as we get it.
