The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation Review (1994) Worth Watching?

It's about a group of teens driving home from prom who get lost and find themselves snooping around the Sawyers family house for help.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation was directed by Kim Henkel and stars Renée Zellweger (from Case 39), Matthew Mcconaughey (from The Dark Tower, Frailty) and John Dugan (from Butcher Boys, The Hospital).

If looks could kill

This is the 4th part of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise and a loose reboot of the original. This was clearly made to appeal to a younger audience, teens back in '94. It featured upcoming Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger as headliners, both of whom have only starred in a one or two other horrors in their careers. Texas Chainsaw 4 wasn't something either were too proud of, so that might be part of the reason they've stayed away from horror.

This movie isn't great. It's not even good. But, it IS better than Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, so at least it has that going for it. Were it not for McConaughey and his bat shit crazy role it would have taken last place for sure.

To give you an idea of what you're in for if you sit down for this one, the movie is about a group of teens driving home from prom who just happen to get lost in the middle of nowhere Texas. Then their car gets smashed up and they have to walk. Then they split up. Then there's fog everywhere for some reason. Then their flashlights start to flicker out. Yeah. If this were a modern movie, they would have also lost cell phone reception.

From here the movie starts to mirror the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre only with a new family and a Leatherface in drag.

The Illuminati also show up for some reason, apparently they pay the Sawyer's to terrorize random people? And the lead Illuminati member has 3 belly nipples with rings hanging off them. It's all very bizarre.

Worth Watching?

Hard pass. This one is so skippable you don't even know. It was such a tough watch I had to break up my Texas Chainsaw series review by watching something outside of the TCM franchise afterward. I just couldn't keep going.