With the recent success of the Halloween reboot it was only a matter of time before another popular franchise retconned their sequels and brought back an original character to get some much-needed revenge. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time the studio attempted this, as 2013’s Texas Chainsaw was also a direct sequel to the first and featured an elderly Leatherface, but let us never speak of that travesty again.

This contemporary sequel is set decades after the first movie and focuses on a group of friends from the city, who make their way to a nearly-deserted Texas town for a business deal involving buying property with several other Gen Z entrepreneurs. As it turns out, one of the last remaining townspeople is an old lady (Alice Krige) in charge of the local orphanage and while she no longer has children under her care, she is caring for our simple-minded chainsaw-wielding friend.

On that note, she was apparently the only thing stopping Leatherface from killing, because her sudden death causes him to get some crazy old man strength and start slaughtering people again. Luckily, Laurie Stro—I mean, Sally Hardesty (survivor from the original, now played by Olwen Fouéré) isn’t too far from town and has been plotting her revenge for decades, because of course she has. Although her detective skills come into question, because how can she miss a big ol' dude like Leatherface hiding out in a small town where everyone knows everyone is beyond me. Though, I suppose the same can be said about the police, but I digress.

I was expecting very little going into this, but the movie honestly turned out to be quite entertaining. Sure, it has a shitty script with barely any character development except for the two lead sisters (Elsie Fisher and Sarah Yarkin) and Sally Hardesty returning was pretty tacked on and didn't amount to much, but it more than makes up for things in the gore department. In fact, all I wanted were some nice gory deaths and a menacing Leatherface and that’s exactly what I got here and then some, especially in that bus scene that was teased in the trailer, which turned out to be highly satisfying.

Sure, I could point out its many flaws, like why these people don’t use their phones enough to call for help (unlike most movies, they actually had cell service here) or why certain characters rather creep around than run away or how there’s silly messages about gun culture or how Leatherface’s age in the movie doesn’t make much sense; I could go on and on, but the fact is I suspended disbelief early on and just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It’s not the best of the sequels, but it’s sure as hell better than the last few entries.