If there’s one movie that can be pinpointed as the exact moment Hollywood developed its obsession with dusting off and reinventing every single iconic horror property under the sun, then 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be the culprit.
Directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, the remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic essentially told the exact same story all over again without much in the way of deviation (to the extent that it’s even a period piece), while upping the levels of gore and gratuitous violence to appeal to the genre’s increasingly desensitized audience.
It would be an understatement to say the results spoke for themselves, with the project recouping its production budget 10 times over at the box office to bring in $107 million from theaters, in addition to generating countless millions more in home video revenue to plunge Leatherface’s return into level of black that matched the legendary dismemberer’s heart.
Of course, Texas Chainsaw Massacre V2.0 was panned by critics and largely greeted with a shrug of indifference by audiences, based on its respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 37 and 58 percent. However, the hardcore horror fans of Reddit have opted to give the unnecessary and underwhelming redux a pass, for the sole reason that it was made with a degree of care and love by the filmmakers.
In retrospect, it turned out to be one of the most influential films of the century based on how many horror franchises we’ve seen brought back to life in the two decades since, which is a place in history The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will never lose hold of, regardless of your personal opinions on the film.