The Sawyer Massacre

Iconic horror characters are here to stay. No matter if we are talking about legendary horror characters such as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers or Leatherface, they all return now and then to fill our horror hearts with nostalgic moments. It´s not easy for film makers to come up with brand new horror characters, because you have to be able to make the character unique. A character that people will be fascinated in, and in some ways feel disgusted about as well. Since we talked about iconic characters earlier, we might as well get into one of the most legendary ones. And that has to be Leatherface from the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film from 1974. A film that have shocked audiences worldwide for almost 50 years, and is one of the true classics from legendary director Tobe Hooper ( who have made a lot of classics such as Eaten Alive, The Funhouse, Poltergeist and many others ). What made the original film of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre so unique from other horror films, was that the character of Leatherface had so much anger and a brutality we have not seen before. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of Sally Hardesty ( Marily Burns ) who together with her brother and some friends visit the grave of Hardesty´s grandfather to investigate reports of vandalism and grave robbing. After the investigation, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead. Their journey is about to become a true nightmare, on a level that no one could have imagined. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most classic slasher films ever made, and even if the film is getting closer to 50 years old, it is still a lot better than most slasher films released today. I really enjoy the sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from director Tobe Hooper as well. It is quite different from the original film, but really entertaining. We have had a lot of sequels, and prequels since then. Some of them i can watch just for fun ( the 2003 remake is actually not bad ), while others are just not that good. One of the things i have noticed over the last 5 years, is how many fan films are coming out, based on classics such as Friday The 13th and Halloween. Some of them are actually pretty good for being fan films, wich proves that fans have a love for the ground material. Speaking of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, for a while i heard about a fan film that had a campaign on Indiegogo called The Sawyer Massacre, an unofficial prequel to the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. The film was recently released on YouTube so i decided to give the film a chance. Is this a really well made fan film, or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

On June 30th, 1965, Gene ( Bryley Michael Bell ) and a friend take Jimmy ( Jordan O´Neal ) to the Texas countryside to escape city life after a terrible tragedy. When they need to get supplies at a local gas station run by Rex ( William Instone ), they are told that they can´t get it at his gas station, but should head over to a farmhouse not far away from here. What they don´t know, is that this is no ordinary farmhouse.

When you make a fan film, you know it will be difficult to please everyone who loves the original film of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You have a lot of pressure on you, since this film have so many fans worldwide. This is of course an unofficial prequel to the original film, so this definetely give the film crew some freedom to balance different ideas. And you can see that right from the beginning of this film, it is a little bit different from the original film. I actually think this is a good idea, instead of just following the original film and add something different. Let us get into the characters for a while, and let us begin with one of my personal favourite characters. And that is the character known as Rex, played by actor William Instone. When i saw the character of Rex for the first time and heard him speak, i immediately imagined that he would be perfect in a hillbilly horror film with a title such as The Hillbilly Banjo Hunter. Imagine the character of Rex shooting down zombies ( or a demonic scarecrow ? ), and now and then begin playing his banjo close to the corn fields, that´s a fantastic combination for a quality film. William Instone manage to deliver his dialogue in a charming way, and he really capture the hillbilly spirit with his character. Rex really belong in this film, and i would have liked to see more scenes with him. My second favourite is the Leatherface character, played by Scotty Parkin. He is actually not bad as Leatherface, and to see him kill victims in different ways is actually quite entertaning. When it comes to acting, one of the better acting performances comes from actress Alicia Jade as the character Loraine. Alicia is such a perfect match for this character, that i am actually quite surprised how good she does this role. I also have to mention actress Nika Louw as the character Alison, and i really enjoy her scenes with Alicia. You can tell that these two actors matched well during filming ( or they at least made it look that way ). Actress Trish D. Powell as the character Dixie is one of the most interesting characters, and is very easy to connect with. What about the horror elements in this film? It takes a while before we get into the actual horror scenes, and i can imagine that they wanted to introduce us to the characters. And that is actually a good idea, instead of just running into some butchery scenes from the very beginning. Once the slasher scenes kicks in, we do get some fun moments. So any problems with The Sawyer Massacre? The plot is not really that interesting, and nothing you will remember. I also feel that some of the characters you don´t really care about, and just want to see more kills instead. Since the budget is limited the practical effects have some good moments, but there are some scenes where you can tell that they could not do more because of the limited budget. I will say this, they did try and be creative and do what they could, and that is of course something worth mentioning on the postive note. Overall, i do feel that The Sawyer Massacre is a fan film that clearly loves the franchise, and they show that love clearly through the Leatherface scenes. Director Steve Merlo have made a technically well made fan horror film, and definetely give us a fan film that might actually be appreciated by fans of the franchise. The Sawyer Massacre show that if you have the love for a classic horror franchise, you can deliver something tasteful, and that is exactly what this film does. If there ever is a sequel made, i would love to do a cameo ( let´s hope director Steve Merlo see this, and hope for the best ).

Rating: DDD

P.S. You can watch this film on Sequanda Films very own YouTube channel if you want to check it out.