By Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Wes Craig (WildStorm)
ISBN13: 978-1-0-84576-638-2
I’ve already mentioned that I have aesthetic reasons for disliking a lot of generic “Teen-Slasher†fiction, so I’ll only briefly recapitulate here. If an evil is unstoppable, and the humans/victims have no chance of escape or survival then all narrative tension is lost and all you have is a body-count and an exercise in grotesque imagination, not a story. That said I have to admit that this sequel to the remake of the legendary cannibal gore-fest wherein a slaughterhouse worker uses his chainsaw to gut hapless kids is… unfortunately just another one of those.
A follow-up FBI team arrives in the town of Fuller, Texas in 1974 to gather evidence on the greatest mass-murderer in American history – and who is still at large – just ahead of a mobile TV news crew, only to discover that not only have the killings not stopped, but the killer had a large family with the same tastes. Moreover the entire town was complicit in the deaths. This daft plot rapidly degenerates into the ever-escalating bloodbath the target audience is waiting for and it all ends as you’d expect – with nothing resolved and another sequel on the cards.
Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and artist Wes Craig work at the best of their capabilities and I’m sure dedicated fans will be happy enough but I fear there’s nothing here for the casual or more discerning reader.
© MMVII New Line Productions, Inc. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) © 1974 Vortex, Inc. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) © MMIII New Line Productions, Inc. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning © MMVI New Line Productions, Inc. Leatherface and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are ™ Kuhn/Henkel. All Rights Reserved. © 2006, 2007 New Line Productions, Inc.