Chain Reactions (2024) Review

Chain Reactions (2024) Review

Fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE shocked the world, this feature-length documentary charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists – Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama.

Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (LYNCH/OZ, THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN), the doc had its World premiere at Venice Film Festival last year, before screening at a string of international festivals – including BFI (London), Night Visions (Finland), Sitges (Spain) and MIFF (Australia).

I was thrilled when the press screener link for CHAIN REACTIONS landed in my inbox for reviewing. As a die-hard fan of the Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and having been impressed by director Alexandre O. Philippe’s THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN (covering yet another favourite movie of mine) CHAIN REACTIONS looked set to deliver an essential documentary of an all-time horror classic.

What we have are five twenty-minute segments each featuring one of the artists listed above as they tell us about the profound impact the now fifty-year-old genre classic had upon them and their thoughts about it now in a world almost as chaotic and nightmarish as the subject matter. Connections are made such as the film’s referencing to the sun, which made sense to me, and how the film is bloodless despite what its title might imply, leaning more towards making the viewer feel the victim’s pain and panic rather than squander its value on cheap thrills.

As comedian/actor Patton Oswalt states “everyone watches a movie differently” citing how his then-girlfriend’s mother, upon commenting about the film they had just watched, another classic THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, also based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein, was more shocked by Buffalo Bill having a pierced nipple than by any of the film’s cannibalism or having someone wearing a suit made from the flesh of his victims. I take THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE for what I see it as, a grimy, relentless killing machine of a movie but now in having watched this documentary I am embracing other ways of savouring it.

Viewing the film as a home invasion flick whereby the character Leatherface is both fraught and panicked at the sudden influx of young people popping by unannounced at his family home, as one of the commentators suggests, is another theory that I feel also holds water and again afforded me with another way to both view and appreciate a film that I like so much already. This documentary’s approach is like that of 2012’s ROOM 237 which featured talking head interviews interspersed with footage from the Kubrick’s THE SHINING and afforded folks a platform to spout forth their interpretation of what they thought the classic 1980 movie was about.

Like ROOM 237, CHAIN REACTIONS makes for a dry, occasionally interesting watch but a watch that is dependent on whether you buy into what each talking head interview theorizes and puts forward. Sometimes it works, sometimes you zone out, much like you would if you felt your mate down the pub was talking nonsense about a subject matter that you held dear. Is it worth watching, overall, yes, but as stated, it will depend on whether you concur with the suggestions about what THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is about or whether you consider their views are to be embraced or dismissed.

Chain Reactions will be available on Digital and Blu-ray from 27th October.

Watch trailer here: