BELFAST - Summer's coming. Time to grab some friends and break out the bar-b-ques, cocktails, and... chainsaws? Leatherface is back and this time it's personal. This well-made sequel takes us back to 1974, the morning after the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It begins with a shootout between a local vigilante mob and the Sawyer family with exciting cameos by Chainsaw alumni Gunnar Hansen, Bill Mosely, and Marilyn Burns. With seemingly no survivors of the Sawyer family, fast forward 20 years later when a young woman returns to Texas to claim her inheritance. From this point, it actually almost feels like like a regular film, as opposed to being one of the slasher genre. Bring your sympathy for the devil, because this time around, we find that Leatherface has a heart. And not just the one on his plate.

"Family is a messy business. Ain't nothing thicker than blood!"

I'll confess that the first 10 minutes made the whole movie worthwhile for me. But watch the whole thing; you'll want to get every last drop.  This movie aspires to be the first in a new franchise of Texas Chainsaw sequels, so expect to see more of stars Alexandra Daddario, and Scott Eastwood. Disregard any previous franchise timelines. Ignore any discrepencies in the details. Enjoy it as a rousing sequel to the original classic. And remember, it's only a movie.
 

Reviewed by Jim Dandy. Tiffany Howard and Jim Dandy co-own Opera House Video, an independent video rental store in downtown Belfast featuring an extensive collection of new releases, foreign films, documentaries, classics and television series. Each takes turns writing the movie review. Find them on Facebook at Opera House Video.