Last September, following the launch of their own production shingle, news broke that Fede Alvarez and his collaborator Rodo Sayagues had signed on for the latest reboot of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. We assumed at the time that Alvarez himself would direct, but according to a new report from Variety, the Evil Dead and Don't Breathe filmmaker has selected Irish directing duo Andy and Ryan Tohill to take a crack at reimagining Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror classic. The Tohills, who made their feature directing debut with the 2018 thriller The Dig, will direct from a script written by Chris Thomas Devlin.
"The Tohills' vision is exactly what the fans want," said Alvarez in an official statement. "It’s violent, exciting and so depraved that it will stay with you forever." Most readers probably don't need reminding, but the original TCM followed a pair of siblings and their friends who take a road trip through Texas and find themselves trapped with a family of cannibals, including—most notably—the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface. Jessica Biel starred in the 2003 remake, which was followed by an underwhelming prequel in 2006 titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and a mediocre sequel in 2013 titled Texas Chainsaw 3D (it was in 3D). More recently, French duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Inside) directed another prequel; Leatherface starred Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor, and followed the deranged antics of a teenage Leatherface. As with their 2011 horror film Livid, the pair's TCM prequel was never released.
Alvarez delivered a satisfyingly bloody and entertaining take on Evil Dead, and as the quote above indicates, it seems the Tohills are operating on a similar wavelength. That might not be the best approach to take with a reboot of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but we'd love to be proven wrong.