Curry Barker is having quite a year. His debut feature, the buzzy horror movie Obsession, hasn’t even come out yet, and he’s already lined up his next project: a highly anticipated Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot from A24. The genre-defying slasher series has had its ups and downs since the 1974 film from writer-director Tobe Hooper, but Barker hopes to steer the franchise back in the right direction by taking inspiration from the highly underrated sequel.
In an interview focused on Obsession (more on that in another article soon), Barker tells Polygon that not only is he a fan of 1986’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, but he’s aiming to incorporate one specific aspect of that film into his adaptation.
“I don’t want to give up too much — I haven’t even started writing it yet — but I like Texas Chainsaw 2 a lot and I think I have a pretty good idea of what people like about that movie,” Barker says.
Released over a decade after the original, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 took Leatherface and his cannibal family on the road. In the sequel, the Sawyer family decides to enroll in a chili cook-off and win thanks in part to their ability to spot “prime meat.” It’s a huge narrative and tonal leap from Texas Chainsaw Massacre that miraculously works, mixing absurdist comedy and genuine horror in ways that audiences had never seen at the time — and have rarely seen since.
“I liked that there was a different tone,” Barker says of the sequel. “It was like they were onto something in the ’80s with Texas Chainsaw 2 that we’re finally exploring now, which is this eerie comedy, but that turns really dark. So that’s something that I want to tap into.”
Barker couldn’t say much more about his spin on the franchise, but he did hint that his script may lean on some of the characters that are emphasized in Texas Chainsaw 2. That may include the other members of the Sawyer clan, including family patriarch Drayton Sawyer, along with their brother/conspirator Robert Sawyer, aka “Chop Top”. The sequel also notably cast Dennis Hopper as Lieutenant Boude “Lefty” Enright, who attempts to stop the Sawyers’ murder spree. Any of those characters could be ripe for interpretation.
“I really loved certain characters in that movie,” Barker says. “I’m very excited to incorporate characters that we haven’t seen a lot of.”