LFF24: Chain Reactions Review

In 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre rampaged into the public consciousness and has remained there revving loudly and babbling nonsensically ever since. Now for its 50th anniversary, Alexandre O. Phillipe (78/52, Lynch/Oz) asks five famous faces to share their musings on Tobe Hooper’s feverish nightmare.

Getting straight to the point, Phillipe has organised a strong group of interviewees: comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, director Takashi Miike, critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author Stephen King, and director Karyn Kusama. Formally the film is a sequence of interviews, each talking head isolated to a chapter. The presentation is polished - intercutting footage from the original film, illustrative clips from the other films highlighted throughout, as well as archival footage, and new b-roll, not to mention the work put into the sound design - all to try and elevate the experience to something more than the sum of its parts. Despite these flourishes, the rigid interview structure, which admittedly allows the participants to give, longer, fuller thoughts, ultimately prevents the experience from evolving into something more poetic.

Therefore Chain Reactions’ enduring quality will largely be weighed on the content of the interviews. Testament to TCSM’s popularity it has been analysed over and over again, and therefore the anecdotes and insight provided generally follow the rule of the more personal, the more interesting. Whether it be Heller-Nicholas sharing that her first viewing of TCSM was on a terrible VHS copy and that the bleached images have now fused in her memories not only with the distinct yellows of Australian cinema, but those of the Ash Wednesday Bushfires. Notable too is Miike’s views on the motives, or lack thereof, behind the violent acts committed in the film, how it differed from Japanese cinema of the time, and how it has influenced his own work. Generally, however, there is a question of how much these interviews broaden our understanding and interpretation of the film. For instance, many of the films referenced are that within the general horror canon – Nosferatu, Frankenstein, The Haunting, The Blair Witch Project, Midsommar, etc. There is a mention of Ingmar Bergman, two of Stan Brakhage, a suggestion of Hieronymus Bosch, and a nod to Cormac McCarthy, but the circle of reference is relatively confined.  

Recent Blu-ray editions of TCSM include hours upon hours of extras, boasting several commentaries, documentaries, and featurettes, with insight from the cast and creators of the film as well as experts of the horror genre and other luminaries. There are many books and articles written about the film, the making of the film, the rumours surrounding the making of the film, and the impact of the film, including one by Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen - Chain Saw Confidential. Is Phillipe’s film any more essential than these other works? In a word, no. Equally, I have explored many of these materials, and well, more is more.