In the lead up to the newest addition to the Saw Family, I decided to re-watch or watch for the first time every TCM movie after the original and the initial sequel (both of which I love and think are great for very different reasons) and after seeing the newest Netflix entry, my big take away from the Saw franchise is that it is so much more enjoyable when it's being bonkers, over the top and making fun of itself. When it tries to steer into serious, brooding, menacing territory it just fails and pales in comparison to how gritty and brutal the original film was and still is. It will never be topped so it just becomes a needless exercise in excess every time an attempt is made. Leatherface is a much better character when he's a blubbering, tumbling mess than an ultra menacing destructor.
I'm supremely frustrated by the new 2022 film because the directing as actually top notch. Several sequences and shots are actually quite memorable and gorgeous. The brutality and gore is also similarly at a top level. Which makes my frustration ten times worse when those elements are utterly failed by the writing, plotting and characterization making up the rest of the bloody meat pie. Several times I audibly questioned why a character was doing this or that or how this or that had come to be to the point where the truly good things in the film are easily forgotten.
My ranking of the TCM franchise would be as follows:
1. TCM 1974
2. TCM Part 2
3. TCM: The Next Generation
4. TCM Remake
5. Leatherface: TCM Part 3
6. TCM: The Beginning
7. Leatherface
8. TCM 2022
9. TC 3D
The Next Generation was my biggest discovery. It is a wild, kooky take on a Sawyer family that is so far gone and modern that one member doubles as a Real Estate agent type and they eat take out pizza since it's so readily available. Leatherface is so far gone that he's almost ineffective as a slasher villain, a meta commentary on the entire franchise as a whole, while he delves even further into his drag queen tendencies. The film features a sub plot pertaining to a secret, deep state level of the powerful elite who run the world that actually deliveries on its crazy premise. It is a bizarre, weird film set in the TCM universe and I love it unabashedly. The more scary and menacing and deadly this franchise tries to make ole Leatherface, the more I pine for Vilmer's remote controlled leg.
Also, it is absolutely nuts to me how many different continuities this franchise has within the span of 9 films. 4 different timelines now with the creation of this latest Netflix adaptation. That alone says a lot as to how so many people miss the mark and continually try to return to that unobtainable scariness of the original.