Netflix’s #1 Movie Right Now Is Getting Torn Apart by Critics

The movies that are the most popular on Netflix aren’t always the most accomplished or lauded by audiences, with this year’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel being the latest evidence of that. The film, which just debuted this past Friday, quickly rose to the top of Netflix’s most-streamed charts, and while it might be the service’s #1 movie, its reviews are pretty brutal. The sequel currently sits at 31% positive reviews according to aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, and while audiences sometimes disagree with critics, the numbers line up on this one, with the film only having a 35% approval rating with audiences.

In ComicBook.com’s review of the film, we detailed, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was about the deconstruction of the American nuclear family, it was about the falling apart of the homeland that had become entrenched in the Vietnam War, it was about the slaughter of animals. Edwin Neal’s Hitchhiker laments that his family ‘has always been in meat,’ and it’s part of the thesis of the movie that Tobe himself said was about meat. This Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not about anything; at least, nothing beyond a cheap cash grab, which is, well, pretty much in keeping with the rest of the series. I will give it this, though: it does actually feature a massacre, delivering a sequence so soaked in blood you might forget how boring the rest of the movie can be.”

This Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the latest horror film to attempt to revive a dormant franchise with a sequel that ignores the events of all of its predecessors, which was notably effective in the approach to 2018’s Halloween. A.A. Dowd at AV Club, however, pointed out that “this new Massacre wants to be the new Halloween so badly it might as well be wearing a mask made from Jamie Lee Curtis’ face.” Funnily enough, 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D also took the direct sequel approach, with that film also being a financial and critical disappointment.

Over at Deadline, Valerie Complex details that attempting to bring this specific narrative into a modern context essentially fails on all levels, expressing, “The real horror here is the modernizing of the content by merging social media, social issues, and Twitter buzz words in a careless fashion that makes it hard to latch onto anything substantial. Thus, it weights the story down instead of adding to its legacy. The film doesn’t contain that sense of dread like the 1974 film, and while not as bleak, the 2003 movie is fun. This film is everything wrong with the current state of cinema where Hollywood creates content fans didn’t ask for and then expects them to welcome it with open arms.”

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is now streaming on Netflix.

Do you agree with the critic reviews? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!