The Makers Of INSIDE Are On The Hook For LEATHERFACE

The bloody folks at Bloody Disgusting have a bloody exclusive on their bloody hands. They’re telling us that Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, the team behind 2007’s Inside (À l’intérieur), have been signed to direct the….*counts on fingers*...eighth film in the Texas Chain Saw franchise. This is the kind of nudge a guy like me needs to finally check out the duo’s acclaimed debut, and if that makes me a bad horror fan, well, then lock me up, your honor. They also have a new film coming called Among The Living, so I’ll have some homework to do before Texas Chainsaw: The Ocho.

While I can’t tell you much about Inside or the dudes who made it, I can tell you a little bit about the namesake of the film they’re about to make. The last film called Leatherface was released in 1990, when New Line acquired the franchise, hoping to make that sweet Freddy Krueger magic happen again. It did NOT. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III does indeed feel the most like “studio product” out of the four initial installments. But along with the production polish comes the too-attractive actors and the sloppy trims to the violence - the telltale signs of studio meddling. You can get an unrated cut on DVD, but this is a film so mediocre it’s got Viggo Mortensen AND Ken Foree in it, yet no one’s bothered to release a Blu-ray. The best thing about it remains its trailer.

ANYWAY, the upcoming film called Leatherface will be a prequel to the 1974 film, and will tell the origins of the masked, unknowable icon. Because that’s worked out well in the past. (Seriously, that’s what Platinum Dunes did in 2006, isn’t it? So this film alleges to be a prequel to the original, but might in fact be a remake or reimagining of the prequel to the remake.) As with 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D, the connection to the original intrigues me against my better judgement. If it’s a prequel to the original, does this mean we get to see more Bill Moseley as the Cook? Or a digitally de-aged Bill Moseley as pre-Vietnam Chop Top? Will Andy Serkis mo-cap the Hitchhiker? Is Grandpa ambulatory? Since this is from the same studio as the last entry, will they again take great pains in post to maybe suggest the original happened in 1993? Sounds like the makings of a migraine, and a quick glance at Maury and Bustillo’s Wikipedia page reveals that the team have had no qualms bouncing from reboot projects (Halloween II, Hellraiser) before. Godspeed, gentlemen.