CHAIN REACTIONS (2024)

4 stars

Lightbulb Film Distribution. Digital and Blu ray. Out Now

THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) is rightly seen as a seminal, influential, classic horror film – plenty has been written about it and I am sure there are numerous making of featurettes and behind the scenes documentaries about it and it’s various sequels, on different releases of the film. I suspect I first encountered it on VHS back in the day, possibly a pirate tape, as it was hard to get hold of in the UK at one time.

CHAIN REACTIONS is a different slant on the film. It is resolutely not a making of but rather takes five quite disparate people and has them talk about how they first saw the famous horror and how it affected them. Throughout are peppered clips from various movies to back up what is being said plus different versions of releases of CHAIN SAW itself, from the pristine to scratched and battered.

First up is American comedian/actor Patton Oswalt – not the most obvious person that you would think “let’s talk to him about Tobe Hooper’s movie”. Having said that he has written about his love for cinema in his book ‘Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life From and Addiction to Film’ and he clearly knows TEXAS CHAIN SAW well and talks eloquently about seeing stills in Fangoria magazine, watching it on VHS and even working it into his stand-up routine!

Next up is prolific Japanese film director Takashi Miike, who seems to infer that if he hadn’t seen the film, almost by accident, his career may well have taken a different direction. He tells of going to the cinema to see Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS at a local screening – it was full so he ended up going to a revival of TCM and this instantly changed him. He talks about how it influenced his work like ICHI THE KILLER. So, if he had seen the Chaplin instead would he have made comedies?

Film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who was born in Melbourne, brings an interesting view which was coloured (literally) by her seeing it on a faded Australian tape release which made everything look yellow – so she equates it with experiencing some of the Aussie films like PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and WAKE IN FRIGHT.

Probably the biggest name here is writer Stephen King, who talks about how viewing Disney’s BAMBI at a young age affected him and then catching up with TCM in 1980 and how he loved it. He compares it with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Last up with their thoughts is director Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER’S BODY) who talks articulately about the film. All in all there is nothing particularly revelatory with anything that is explored by this quintet, however it makes for an interesting look at an important work in the horror canon.

Writer/director Alexandre O. Philippe has made previous documentaries like MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN (2019) and LYNCH/OZ (2022) among others.

My only question would be, however, is this the kind of release that can stand on its own, rather than being an extra on a disc?

Steve Kirkham