The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic horror franchise, influencing films like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. With a new asymmetrical horror game announced at The Game Awards 2021, it appears that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is following in the footsteps of its fellows. Classic slasher actor Kane Hodder will be reprising his role as Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game.
Although Kane Hodder is best known for playing Jason Vorhees in four of the Friday the 13th movies and Friday the 13th: The Game, he also served as the stunt double for Leatherface in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. Fans may be pleased to see this veteran of the horror genre back in the saddle and helping to bring another towering slasher icon to life.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game will be produced by Gun Interactive, the same developer that worked on Friday the 13th: The Game. It will be a multiplayer experience based on the 1974 film, which brought terror into the light of day when a group of teenagers on a road trip accidentally fell into the clutches of a family of murderous cannibals. The original film is notorious for its surprisingly grounded portrayal of a slasher movie set-up, right down to including some very real skeletons and dead animals in its set design.
Like the movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game claims to be based on true events, though the full story is a little more complicated. Director Tobe Hooper was inspired by a real serial killer--namely, Ed Gein, who also inspired Norman Bates from Psycho and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs--but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is very much its own story. Leatherface, like Ed Gein, has a deeply abusive relationship with his family members, a taste for human flesh, and a hobby of making furniture, clothing, and other items out of his victims' body parts. This seems to be where the resemblance stops.
This isn't the first time a horror franchise has been adapted to asymmetrical multiplayer, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be an ideal series to adapt. The trailer released at The Game Awards 2021 appears to reveal an atmosphere-heavy game with an emphasis on exploration and helplessness. Both these themes are key in the original film, which deliberately challenges the idea that horror requires build-up or anything special to be going on. As far as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is concerned, sometimes bad things just happen, and that sense of unpredictable fear could help this game stand out from the crowd.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Fangoria
