The most notorious cannibal family in horror just moved to a very fancy new neighborhood. A24, the studio synonymous with elevated, critically adored horror, has acquired the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise — chainsaw, mask, cannibals and all — and is developing multiple projects around it. For a property that has spent five decades bouncing between grindhouse grime and forgettable reboots, landing at the industry’s premier prestige-horror label is a genuinely startling turn. Leatherface has gone from the drive-in to the art house, and the possibilities are fascinating.
Let us establish the weight of what A24 just picked up. Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is not just a horror film. It is one of the most influential and genuinely disturbing movies ever made, a grimy, sun-baked nightmare that helped invent the modern slasher and still unsettles audiences half a century later. Leatherface, the chainsaw-wielding, skin-mask-wearing brute at its center — a role originated by Gunnar Hansen — became an icon of the genre. But the franchise that followed has been famously inconsistent, a long string of sequels, prequels, and reboots that rarely recaptured the raw power of the original. Warning: beyond this point there are spoilers for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise and Leatherface’s family.
The most notorious cannibal family in horror just moved to a very fancy new neighborhood.
That inconsistency is exactly why A24’s involvement is so intriguing. The studio has built its reputation on horror that is thoughtful, artful, and unsettling in ways that linger – films that treat the genre as a vehicle for real dread and real ideas rather than just body counts. Applying that sensibility to the most primal, brutal slasher property of them all is a genuinely exciting mismatch. Can the studio behind horror’s most acclaimed recent output find something new and disturbing in a chainsaw and a family of cannibals? If anyone can, it is this one.
The plans are ambitious, spanning both film and television. A24 is developing a new feature, with director Curry Barker reportedly focusing on Leatherface’s messed-up farm life and the cannibalistic family at the heart of the horror – a smart angle, since that grotesque family dynamic was always the beating, deranged heart of the original. Separately, a television series is in the works with Glen Powell, one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, attached in a creative capacity alongside filmmaker JT Mollner, who has spoken about finding a fresh way in that honors the existing folklore rather than simply remaking the 1974 classic.
Glen Powell’s involvement is a particularly interesting wrinkle. A bona fide movie star lending his creative weight to a “Texas Chainsaw” project signals that this is being treated as a serious, prestige-level endeavor rather than a disposable cash-in. It is the kind of talent attachment that turns heads and raises expectations, and it reinforces the sense that A24 intends to do something genuinely elevated with a franchise that has too often been treated as a low-effort horror brand to be strip-mined.
The BR team is cautiously thrilled, with the emphasis on both words. There is enormous potential in pairing A24’s craft with Leatherface’s raw, primal terror, and the focus on the twisted family dynamic suggests the creative teams understand what made the original work. But there is also a real risk: part of what made the 1974 film so disturbing was precisely its ugly, low-budget, almost documentary-like grime. Make it too polished, too elevated, and you could sand away the very thing that made it a nightmare. The trick will be marrying prestige craft with genuine grindhouse menace.
For those of us tracking “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” across its long, uneven, blood-spattered history, A24’s acquisition is the most promising thing to happen to the franchise in ages. New ownership with a real horror pedigree, multiple projects exploring Leatherface and his monstrous family, and serious talent circling — it all points to a Leatherface revival with actual ambition behind it. The chainsaw is being handed to careful new hands. Whether they can make it roar the way it did in 1974 is the question. We will be watching from behind our fingers.
What Do You Think? Can A24’s elevated, artful approach to horror do justice to a franchise built on raw, grimy, grindhouse terror — or will polish ruin what made Leatherface scary? Is focusing on Leatherface’s twisted cannibal family the right way into a new “Texas Chainsaw” story? And does Glen Powell’s involvement make you more confident in the franchise’s prestige makeover, or is star power beside the point for horror this primal?
See you on the next binge!
