Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface (HHN 2024)

[Jake S]

Eh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.

 

[Wishmaster]

Eh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.

You are right about that but it was before it was event announced lol
Look at the turn of events smh
Anyways, I’m glad people are now excited.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I think the idea of incorporating all of the Leatherfaces through the guise of "Tasks" that the Sawyers give to Bubba is an ingenious element. It allows each Texas film to have some presence in a way that suits the kind of character that Leatherface is.

But I think the biggest gamble I am intently curious of; is that this seems to be the first true "Hyperviolent" house we've seen from HHN in a long time. I'd argue even further back to 2011's Hostel. Everything this house sounds like, is something that is genuinely gnarly and intending to be direct in what it wants to be.

Almost makes me wonder if it's a test of sorts--if another specific Hyperviolent IP can work in Hollywood if people find Texas this year to their liking (and y'all know the Artful IP I am talking about here).

 

[Jake S]

If it’s a test (I have no reason to think it is) it’s not a very good one.

 

[Wishmaster]

I think the idea of incorporating all of the Leatherfaces through the guise of "Tasks" that the Sawyers give to Bubba is an ingenious element. It allows each Texas film to have some presence in a way that suits the kind of character that Leatherface is.

But I think the biggest gamble I am intently curious of; is that this seems to be the first true "Hyperviolent" house we've seen from HHN in a long time. I'd argue even further back to 2011's Hostel. Everything this house sounds like, is something that is genuinely gnarly and intending to be direct in what it wants to be.

Almost makes me wonder if it's a test of sorts--if another specific Hyperviolent IP can work in Hollywood if people find Texas this year to their liking (and y'all know the Artful IP I am talking about here).

Ppl are very sensitive to Art so that is different than TCM.

 

[deadbydawn]

This panel was great and Murdy sold it. The house sounds disgusting!

 

[EAS]

Eh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.

I think this is spot on. For some posters like me (and I think Wishmaster), a classic slasher house is very exciting. When I first went to HHN Hollywood in 2008, the houses were Texas, F13, Elm Street, and the Strangers. That was great for me, given my tastes. But I do think it's cool that HHN now has more diversity - there is the more family friendly Ghostbusters, there are zombies, there are ghosts, there are monsters, there is horror comedy and there is splatter, etc. I think the reason the Texas announcement is so exciting for some is that classic slasher was missing from the slate and now it isn't, so that element is there. Of course, more than fair for that to not be to everyone's taste.

 

[ghostsarejerks]

I actually think a greatest hits approach is the best way to do any franchise maze, that's why stuff like Freddy vs Jason or Chucky are so memorable to me. I've changed my mind and now I'm glad they're essentially doing a tribute maze for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hollywood doesn't really do any HHN tributes but I'm happy to see we'll be doing a franchise tribute.

 

[DTH]

But it's kinda not a greatest hits maze. None of the scenes are from any of the movies, other than the end. It's not like you go into the slaughterhouse locker room and Jessica Biel's character slices at Leatherface's arm until she chops it off (which -- easily could and should be a scene).

Honestly, to me, it literally just sounds like a generic slaughterhouse maze. We've seen them DOZENS of times before. Except all the characters are different Leatherfaces. Which in a very weird way, is every generic slaughterhouse maze because usually the generic characters are biting Leatherface and half the time, are just straight up randomly using variant Leatherface masks. It's hard to be excited for, what essentially in my mind is, "generic slaughterhouse maze of the year #541." You can't throw your money anywhere and not find that maze at any haunt.

 

[chris.g]

^ BINGO! Actually surprised at how many in here are impressed by this. It sounds like they just threw in whatever TCM iconography they could pull from Fangoria and said "they'll definitely eat this up" (i mean, it sounds like most are). I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt no one's walked through this yet, but this is so lazy and thrown together it genuinely saddens me that we're excusing this for the standard HHN sets.

 

[DTH]

I think the history lesson Murdy gave made this feel different to people, along with the "multiverse" aspect. The details are important, sure, and give so much context. But when you're going through, it's literally going to just be a slaughterhouse like any ol' slaughterhouse. The music is going to have to keep this maze on its shoulders if it wants to be distinctive from any other slaughterhouse maze -- but other than the first film's sound effects and the remake's soundtrack, the rest of the series doesn't have anything else iconic enough to pull from to make it feel distinctive. Funny enough, TCM kinda set the standard with the slaughterhouse aspect at Haunts way before there was ever a proper TCM maze, but the haunt industry has driven it into the ground.

I would love to be wrong and this maze rock it. The cast could certainly make it impressive and intense. But standing back from it as a whole, it's nothing particularly interesting.

 

[EAS]

I think the history lesson Murdy gave made this feel different to people, along with the "multiverse" aspect. The details are important, sure, and give so much context. But when you're going through, it's literally going to just be a slaughterhouse like any ol' slaughterhouse. The music is going to have to keep this maze on its shoulders if it wants to be distinctive from any other slaughterhouse maze -- but other than the first film's sound effects and the remake's soundtrack, the rest of the series doesn't have anything else iconic enough to pull from to make it feel distinctive. Funny enough, TCM kinda set the standard with the slaughterhouse aspect at Haunts way before there was ever a proper TCM maze, but the haunt industry has driven it into the ground.

I would love to be wrong and this maze rock it. The cast could certainly make it impressive and intense. But standing back from it as a whole, it's nothing particularly interesting.

I think it's both interesting and awesome that fans can have such disparate takes. As a big fan of the TCM franchise, my feeling was that it will do a few things that personally made me excited. First, I think it will be quite interesting to see the slaughterhouse from the original timeline, since we only ever saw it in the 2003 film, Texas Chainsaw 3D, etc. That kind of inspires my imagination, and will make me think about what the characters from the 1974 film might have been doing when we didn't see them on screen. Getting to see every version of Leatherface as well as characters like the Old Man and Chop Top will be satisfying to me, because it will be fun to get to see a grab bag of all of the major characters from the franchise in one maze. I think that the slaughterhouse setting will allow for gore and slasher nastiness with an HHN level of quality. And lastly, I think Murdy's presentation did speak to his understanding of and reverence for the property - his remarks focusing on the quote from the Hitchhiker about how the family has alwyas been in meat, one of the key lines for the franchise's kind of dark social commentary, suggest that - and I think that will be fun to see translate in this anniversary edition.

It's definitely true that slaughterhouses, butcher shops, etc. are a well worn trope in the haunt community, drawn from TCM, and also that TCM itself has been at HHN a number of times before. But for me, I always find these houses to be among the most effective and gruesome around, so a very well done version - one that is intended to honor the legacy of the franchise that inspired basically the whole subgenre of hillbilly horror, etc. - is exciting to me.

Anyway, hopefully we are all thrilled by the ones at the top of our individual hype lists and pleasantly surprised by the ones towards the bottom.

 

[rageofthegods]

I think there's enough here beyond the franchise characters to differentiate it from the all the other Slaughterhouse mazes out there. Stuff like the big wheel, Grampa on a throne of bodies and walking through actual full human skins is the kind of thing that most other haunts just don't have the budget to do.

I'm still excited. Think about it this way: we've gotten dozens upon dozens of scarecrow mazes over the years. That doesn't change the fact that Scarecrow: The Reaping still beats most of them.

 

[DTH]

Slaughterhouse at KSF had just about all the crazy stuff you can imagine with a fairly elaborate set up. Human skins -- heck, I feel like even HHN had that at one point recent, but maybe I am misremembering because it isn't that rare to see that at a haunt.

And from my point of view, Cornstalkers (also at KSF) was WAY better than Scarecrow. Scarecrow was literally just TCM but with scarecrows.

 

[rageofthegods]

Slaughterhouse at KSF had just about all the crazy stuff you can imagine with a fairly elaborate set up. Human skins -- heck, I feel like even HHN had that at one point recent, but maybe I am misremembering because it isn't that rare to see that at a haunt.

And from my point of view, Cornstalkers (also at KSF) was WAY better than Scarecrow. Scarecrow was literally just TCM but with scarecrows.

I have a lot of fondness for Cornstalkers, but I think there's some nostalgia at play here. Even in its final year, that maze was a lot of plain corn walls in between the farmhouse and the barn.

 

[Lucky Planet]

im berry jelly....... wish orlando got it

 

[TheHaunter]

Honestly I was skeptical about TCM being the so called "Disturbing Maze" after seeing the midsummer scream panel it for sure just became my most anticipated maze the whole slaughterhouse aspect sounds every creepy and I love the idea of a multiverse TCM Maze. I also can't wait to walk through the actual slaughterhouse and seeing the many different rooms in it.

 

[Lucky Planet]

some people might complain about the multiverse angle or the lack of coherence, but I wish they did that for Jason Voorhees in Orlando.
have each room be each Jason movie. end with Jason x. the idea of multiple Leatherfaces is really awesome

 

[Freak]

Now that I finally have time to flesh out my thoughts on the house (No pun intended) here’s my two cents:

I’m honestly tired of the IP. I feel like it’s going to be a little generic for HHN standards. However, it does feel like they’re trying to bring back that shock factor/disgusting and distributing house in the likes of which we haven’t seen since Hostel. It will feel like an old-school HHN house from the late 00’s/early 10’s that will try to retain some of that grit.

I’m “eh” about this overall, but I think it has a good chance of being very raw and intense like Hostel was. Look, I love the original TCM, but I’m just….tired of this. If this HAD to terrible, I would’ve rather they just base it off of TCM 2. Maybe they can do that in 4 years lol

 

[Wigglepebbles]

The TCM legacy?
Two good movies and the rest is trite!
Don’t let this get leaked, but the final scene is Leatherface getting recruited by Nick Fury as a Titan of Terror