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The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994) More at IMDbPro »

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31 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
Insanely bad!, 21 October 2003

Author: Bryce David

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I decided to watch the original "Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE", TCM 2, LEATHERFACE TCM 3 and TCM 4 in a row. I already seen the two first and I think they're great. But Leatherface and TCM 4 were new to me. Leatherface was extremely flat and boring but TCM 4 was, well, INSANELY BAD. I simply could not believe what I was watching. My jaw was on the floor. Is this a movie? It's a joke, right? I never laughed so much in a very long time. There are simply no words to describe how bizarre, SURREAL, and bad this movie is. Nothing makes sense so there's no point of trying to make sense of it. It's insane. Insanely bad. Insanely funny. Insanely directed. Insanely insulting to the whole series. Insanely watchable AND unwatchable. Yes, it's INSANELY entertaining to the masochist in me, who likes to witness the worst of the worst in movies, and TCM 4 is WRETCHED to the nth degree! It feels like the Hitchhiker from the original TCM directed this "movie". I have to admit that as bad as TCM 4 is, at least it's looks and feels more like the TCM world created by Tobe Hooper than the ultra boring and flat looking LEATHERFACE TCM 3.

There are so many moments in TCM 4 that have to be seen to be believed. The funniest being the moment when Renee and Matthew are battling over remotes that controls Matthew's piston powered leg (got that?). Or the funny scene of Leatherface (a cross-dresser here) standing behind clueless Heather and playing with her hair. Heather has to be one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. She's played by Lisa Marie Newmyer, who's a bimbo but with a lot of insight. In this "movie", Heather is attacked by Leatherface, placed in a freezer. Then she's hung on a hook, and for some unexplained reason, she got off the hook and tried to crawl away from the house only to be brought back to the house, where she lies on the floor, too bored or lazy to runaway. LOL!!! The whole thing is played as a comedy. But the comedy is often so bizarre that it's not really funny. What's also remarkable is that Renee and Matthew do have "star quality" and watching these "stars" in this insane movie just adds a lot more bizarre, wonky quality to the movie than it really deserved. The whole cast is game but I wonder, what did the director or producers do to have the cast go all out like that? Was it drugs? Was the whole crew and cast on drugs or drunk?!?! Matthew is very good in his role as, well, I don't know, a buff psycho? And Renee goes all out in her role as "survivor", running across the forest like an athlete trying to win a medal.

After I watched TCM4 for a second time, I've finally realized that it's all flippant parody of the first movie. I've noticed bizarre details, like the sound of crickets during the opening scene inside Jenny's house. The director, who co-wrote the original TCM, didn't take this new foray into the TCM universe seriously for one second. In the end, TCM 4 looked like an amalgamation of 'THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE' and TWIN PEAKS. The director was obviously influenced by the David Lynch TV series. When you look at the movie in this light, it's not the total disaster that everyone says it is BUT the movie still ends up looking pretty bad because of one major weak aspect about it: it's TOTALLY POINTLESS. If there's was a movie that was totally pointless, it's this one. Why basically remake the first movie a la David Lynch? What's next? The Quentin Tarantino version of TCM?

Anyway, personally, I prefer TCM 4 over LEATHERFACE TCM 3, which is just plain bad and is the worst movie of this bizarre so-called series. At least TCM 4 is so consciously bad that, even if it's an almost total embarrassment to the two first films, it's actually fun to watch if you're looking for something to laugh at or with, something that's insanely wacky, full of energy and 100% OVER-THE-TOP!

As a straightforward film, TCM 4 rates at a big fat ZERO. But as a "it's so bad it's good movie," TCM 4 rates a perfect 10. It's ranks up there along with GLEN OR GLENDA, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, TERROR IN THE JUNGLE, and THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE as the very best of the worst.

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34 out of 50 people found the following comment useful :-
El Stinko, 29 January 2000

Author: obiwan-27 (lckrause@gmail.com) from New England

If the director of this film was trying to recapture the atmosphere of the first TCM, he did a terrible job. If he was trying to make some kind of comedy or satire, he did an even worse job. This one isn't scary, nor is it funny, not even unintentionally--it's too awful to even laugh at. Watching this movie is like having someone kick you in the head for two hours, only to find out that you have just survived the warm-up session and the worst is yet to come. Whenever you think the movie cannot possibly get any worse, it does. And then it does it again, and again, and... well, you get the idea.

I'm no stranger to B-movies or horror films or horror comedies. DEAD ALIVE is one of my favorite movies. I've watched SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS and various Troma films multiple times because I think they're so hilarious. I worship the EVIL DEAD trilogy. Basically I've been a huge horror fan for most of my life. It is with that background that I am warning you away from this movie. It is one of the worst I've ever seen and is completely without value. I am truly stunned that Renee Zellwieger (however she spells it) and Matthew McConaughey had careers after this. They never mention this movie in public, and for good reason.

In conclusion: Stay away, far away. Do not rent the video. If this comes on TV, change the channel. Utter garbage.

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21 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
No stars., 6 December 2004

Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The third sequel in the Texas Chainsaw series is now more famous for starring Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger, neither of whom, at the time the film was made, knew better than to accept such trashy roles. The film begins by asking us to care about a group of teens who leave their prom due to a couple having a fight and end up lost in the woods. This mere minutes after having driven away from their high school, which presumably resides in their hometown. Clearly they have not learned their way around much, but no matter. Before too long, they very soon find themselves running for their lives away from the famous freaky family, not only lost in their home town but, before long, also without their car.

One of the biggest gripes that people have with this film (which is saying a lot, because there is nothing but stuff to gripe about) is that Leatherface seems to have become a transvestite. You can almost watch the transformation in the film, which seems to me to be sort of the result of trying to make Leatherface too complex. There is a point in the film where the trapped Jenny (Zellweger) tries to get Leatherface to help her escape, talking to him exactly like a psychiatrist would talk to a disturbed child.

Come on, we know Leatherface is disturbed; I just don't understand why cross-dressing had to be added to his impressive list of deviations from the pattern of behaviors generally associated with reasonably well-adjusted people. On the other hand, Kim Henkel did co-write the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Tobe Hooper, and has thus been granted at least some right to tamper with the character. What you see in the movie, however, is a lot of tampering gone horribly, horribly wrong. If it ain't broken, as they say, don't fix it. You may end up making it worse.

What is amazing to me is how far McConaughey and Zellweger have both come in spite of this film. As I was watching the film, I couldn't believe I was watching the same actor who had turned in such wonderful performances in movies like Bridget Jones' Diary and Cold Mountain, as well as another actor who displayed strong acting presence in movies like EdTV and U-571. Why the focus on Leatherface being a transvestite? Leatherface is a side character anyway, it is Vilmer (McConaughey) who is the star, which is sad because he plays such a belligerent, disgusting character. If you don't believe me that he's more the star than Leatherface, count how many people Leatherface, or anyone else, kills with a chainsaw in the movie (hint: none).

Vilmer is the new head of household in the backwoods family, working as a tow-truck driver/reckless murderer and who has the fascinating addition of an electric leg that is operated by remote control. At one point, a high school kid pleads for help, then when he realizes Vilmer's one of the bad guys, he runs away from the truck (running straight down the street rather than into the woods to relative safety, of course), Vilmer gleefully chases him down, laughing and hooting and hollering all the while, and then runs him over five or six times before stashing his body on the back of the truck to later taunt one of his little friends with.

As is to be expected, there is never any motive given behind any of the random killings, this is all just the sickening actions of an insane family in the woods, evidently comfortably separate from any sort of law enforcement or even the most tenuous interaction with greater civilization, waiting for unsuspecting teenagers to stumble into their midst. Interesting that the movie starts out as such a gigantic horror movie cliché, and still manages to go downhill from there.

Horror movie sequels are first faced with the usually daunting task of justifying themselves. A horror movie sequel has to have a premise that gives it a reason for having been made, otherwise it is clearly a cash cow made to cash in on the success of the original film. Texas Chainsaw 4, instead, simply passes itself off as something of a remake of the original, rather than another sequel, and turns from the more plodding and slow-moving original to the mindless, completely over-the-top belligerence that you see here.

The scenes at the house are peppered with stupid violence, at one point Vilmer throws Darla to the ground and steps on her neck with his powerful leg, nearly killing her by suffocation or by breaking her neck, clearly not caring which. Naturally, she gets up and complains that she could easily leave him and go back to her husband. Charming. Add cannibalism to the mix and you have a hilariously bad movie.

Jenny spends much of the latter half of the movie trying to escape from the hungry hungry hicks, as we are constantly bombarded with the stupid, stupid characters and plot twists that the movie makes as it ineptly tries to combine the horror and comedy that even the most mildly competent horror film can display. This is exactly the kind of thing that really makes me wonder why, every time a new movie comes out in a certain series, I always go back and watch the whole series before watching it. I'm still working on The Friday the 13th movies, the Nightmares on Elm Street, and the Child's Play films, which are decidedly more fun than the Texas Chainsaws. And to make matters worse, I have heard nothing but bad things about the 2003 Texas Chainsaw.

And given how right all the bad reviews of this movie are, that is certainly a sinking feeling.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
It's back all right. For better or worse..., 3 August 2003
Author: Cameo87 from USA

This is one of those movies that's so damn bad; it's actually somewhat enjoyable. Unlike its absolutely horrid predecessor "Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III", which was so bad that it went past good then back to bad again (little quote from "Ghost World" there), "The Next Generation" was just bad enough to be enjoyable...well, for some people.

Co-writer/creator of the original 1974 masterpiece "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Kim Henkel has returned to put a modern-day spin on the successful horror franchise. Originally intended as a remake of the original (thank God they changed their minds), the movie was given the sequel title of "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Unfortunately, it wasn't released for about two years after it was made until its two main stars, Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, unlike the rest of the cast, actually made something of themselves. In order to cash-in on the two main stars' newfound fame, they changed the title to "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" and gave it a very limited release to theatres. If it had been shown where I live, I probably would have seen it. However, TCM 4 is not a good theatre movie. This is pure rental material.

The story is probably one of the most enjoyable of the series. It starts out on prom night at a local Texas high school where the self-proclaimed bitch Heather (Lisa Marie Newmyer) is searching for her missing boyfriend Barry (Tyler Cone), and finds him feeling up some slut! In an act of rage, Heather runs out to the parking lot and steals Barry's most valuable possession - his car. Barry chases after her and jumps in right before Heather peels out of the parking lot. Unbeknownst to the quarreling couple, Jenny (Renée Zellweger) and her date Sean (John Harrison) were using Barry's car for a make-out session in the backseat and are unwillingly taken along for the ride.

Here is where some of the most original and realistic dialogue in the "Texas Chainsaw" series takes place. Not only is it funny, but it also fits in some character development here and there (a rarity in the TCM series). However, the foursome loses their way and drives down a dirt road in the backwoods, where they accidentally collide with an on-coming car. Everyone seems all right, except for the other driver, who gets out of his car and says "I'm not hurt" right before he faints.

Unable to use either car, Jenny, Barry and Heather start hiking down the road as Sean waits behind with the I'm Not Hurt guy. From there on the movie starts following the typical "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" formula, paying particular homages to the original classic TCM film. The movie has some high points, but all in all the story and entertainment value take a wild downward spiral into the land of cinematic garbage.

These "particular high points" I mentioned before include Renée Zellweger's tedious chase scene (this girl was smart and very resourceful), and the dinner scene where Renée has had enough, stands, tells everyone to shut the hell up and threatens to walk out (of course, it ain't that easy). The only things that even make this movie somewhat watchable are the first 20 or 30 minutes, some funny one-liners, and, of course, the talents of Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. They carry this movie entirley and without them it wouldn't be even half as watchable as it already is.

However, not even Renée and Matthew can save this travesty. Instead of the usually enjoyable clan of cannibals we are forced to watch a group of mediocre actors portray the typical white-trash family. They're not even cannibals! There's even a scene where they ACTUALLY go to a drive-thru to pick up some pizzas for dinner! "Are you kidding me?!" you ask? I kid you not!

And prepare yourself for some 'Grade-A' gag-inducing acting abilities, including: John Harrison (Sean), who, just before he's about to be turned into roadkill by one of the maniacs, stops to take a breather and says "Please, mister! You're scaring me!". Are you kidding me? Also, Joe Stevens (W.E.), whose character annoyingly spouts quotes from all the books he's memorized through his years of in-bred boredom every five seconds. GOD was that annoying as hell! And, of course, let me not neglect Robert Jacks, who gives the worst portrayal of Leatherface in the entire "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" series. For some reason, Leatherface has become a whiny little transvestite. What the hell?! He's not even creepy anymore! Alexis Arquette is scarier than he is! Now he's just...sad on so, so many levels.

The film offers a few surprising jolts and funny one-liners, but all in all its not scary in the slightest and tries to pull off some dumb subplot which (in a very X-files way) tries to explain why these people are doing these dreadful things, and unsuccessfully so. However, I can't get over the fact that maybe this movie was SUPPOSED to be bad. There's a scene where the mysterious man behind the mayhem pays a trip to the house, takes a look around and tells them how appalling it all is. Things like this make you wonder...

Anyway, it's a bad movie, but it's addictive. I personally can't stop watching it. I just like watching cheesy horror films sometimes. Anyway, I can understand why its on IMDb.com's "Bottom 100" list. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 4 gets a 4½/10.

PS: watch out for the Marilyn Burns ('Sally Hardesty' from TCM 1) cameo at the end!

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
"I Don't Understand!", 10 April 2001
Author: Muffy St. Bernard (muffysb@hotmail.com) from Waterloo, Ontario

At one point, a terrorized Jenny screams "I don't understand!" And Vilmer replies "Welcome to the real world." For me, this sums up everything I like about this movie.

The TCM series has -- at the best of times -- been about random violence...usually for the sake of sensationalism. But underneath it all is the creepy realization that not everybody thinks like you do. Some of them do things which make no sense to you. When you step into their reality, you're at their mercy, and you'll never understand exactly why.

This installment plays the "why?" theme to the hilt, eventually copping out somewhat near the end when they should have just left us wondering. Darla is wonderful as Vilmer's girlfriend, alternately getting hung up about seemingly trivial things -- having a quiet dinner for a change -- and goading Vilmer into continuing their twisted, mutually abusive relationship. Vilmer himself has fantastic moments, though none of the actors quite live up to Perensky & Zellweger's standards of convincing nuttiness and terror, respectively. Though Newmyer is also great in a role which is too small.

Outside of the mayhem, there's some wonderful dialogue, especially the first few lines in the movie: the teacher who simpers around the students and then gripes, "f*** I hate kids." Heather's friend with the absolutely bizarre mannerisms explaining that the gossip-monger is just trying to cause trouble. Heather saying that they might end up slaughtered and hidden away in somebody's basement, with Sean retorting, "that's stupid, the houses around here don't have basements." And finally, my favourite line: "Too bad about her face, Leather, but you can have her shoes!"

Despite all the bad press this movie's received, I hope Kim Henkel enjoys what she created as much as I enjoy watching it. Goofy, funny, real, unreal, terrifying and witty: good job.

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Wow, one of the most bizarre horror franchises ever!, 27 May 2000
Author: Jesse-45 from Florida

The latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is absolutely no rest from the bizarre first three horror films. Leatherface here is performed just like Gunnar Hansen's take in the 1974 granddaddy of all horror films, " The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The actors seem to overact sometimes, it's pretty corny...still the humor and craziness of the flick are entertaining, as well as the music and atmosphere. Definitely the best film of the two leading stars, who would go on to become Hollywood heartthrobs. You'll have a lot of fun if you're a horror fan who likes to see some weird B-ish stuff.

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23 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
honestly one of the best movies I've ever seen, 10 January 2007

Author: stu2006 from United States

You couldn't make a worse movie if you tried. This movie does everything wrong, leaves out HUGE parts of the plot line, and has some of the worst acting i've ever seen. This combination is basically the perfect storm for making one of the most poorly made and crappiest movies of all time. The thing is, thats what makes it freaking hilarious. The craptasical nature of this movie combined with the COMPLETE seriousness with which it is delivered is perfect. Honestly, when i say you couldn't make a worse movie, i mean you couldn't make a funnier one. This movie is one of the best comedies I've ever seen, hands down. Can we say matthew mcconaughey and a TV remote operated bionic leg? Yeah, best movie of 94 and truly kickstarted renee zelweger's career

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Creepy in many ways (I'm in the minority again), 22 April 2003

Author: Julie Hoverson from Seattle

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I liked this movie. I liked it in whole and in parts - meaning I enjoyed the film as a whole (and have watched it several times, inflicting it on various friends...), but there were touches in it that really creeped me, and that isn't something that happens every day.

The film is your basic teenagers on the way home from the prom get lost and stuck and run into spooky family in the middle of nowhere - mayhem ensues. Actually, this is the movie I thought of (fondly) when I first heard about "House of 1000 Corpses". I like this movie much better, and not just because I REALLY want to bring it to a "Matthew McConaghy Fan Club" movie night.

(SPOILERS)

It's the details that make this movie. The wall of drivers' licenses that you can see in the background in one room of the creepy family's house, which implies they've been at this for a while. The filthy bathroom where you can't see the human skin hanging on the back of the door until you're already inside with the door closed.

I've always found it hard to imagine a female villain character who actually "works" in a movie like this, unless she's either essentially browbeaten and incapable of individual action, or is utterly, irredeemably psychotic. This movie has a creepy female character who both casually flashes passersby from her office window (explaining only that she just got implants and everyone seems to want to see them) and flirts with cops while she has a girl tied up in her trunk. She also gives a variety of weird "conspiracy theory"ish explanations for why she goes along with what the spooky family does.

Most unusual of all is the weird guy in the limousine who shows up for no particular reason and implies that he put these people here for some reason - presumably to generate exactly the type of urban legends they are generating - and who might be.... Satan? Some underling, anyway. Maybe Ranger Asmodeus (from Equinox) has a cousin. ..

The movie left me wondering - in the best possible way. Not the usual "why did they make this?" or "how could they have thought this was good?" But instead "who is that guy? Does he have other enclaves of evil out there just waiting for his visits?" and "that woman - was she a victim at one point who talked her way into joining them as a survival mechanism, and then convinced herself that it was OK?"

Ya know?

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Great movie! Recommend!, 10 September 2007

Author: diglers69 from Latvia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just can't stop wondering, how you guys, who all consider yourself horror-fans, don't get the actual idea of this movie! TCM4 is brilliant! All the pseudo- seriousness, all the dumb dialogs, the plot that makes no sense (especialy the ending- a weird guy in a limo reading french right-wing parties newspaper and licking his victims, an elderly couple in a van drinking Pinacolada and an airplane coming out from nowhere...)~ it's SO surreal~ it's good! I agree, if this would have been an average movie it might be considered as bad, but this one- isn't about that! And just listen to the Hungarian violin music at the end, when the credits are shown! Soooo f**n cool! Not to mention Matthew as a psycho with a leg moved by a remote control, and Leatherface dressing himself as a transvestite and listening to Nazi marches.. This is the way it was meant to be~ bizarre and annoyingly bad! Enjoy it! It's not the best bad movie I've seen, but just because almost everyone else here thinks it's so bad, I'll go for 10 out of 10!

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
see this movie!, 24 February 2002

Author: psychogirl16_ from amsterdam

i can't begin to explain how this movie has changed my life. i once, like many of you, didn't understand how far the complications of the universe could go. now everything has changed. this is a great movie, pulled together magnificently by the top notch leading actor who played leatherface. the mystery if whether or not he was male or female, just added a wonderful aura of confusion, thrown in with minimal erotism. the soundtrack also just blew me away! watch this movie and get ready for the suprise ending and prepare to be blown to smithereens!!!!!.......ahhhh....i can still hear the sound of that chainsaw......

if you like movies with horror,comedy,confusion...and sexy results, i suggest you watch this film!

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