Chain Reactions (2025) | Film Review

Fifty years after Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world, this feature-length documentary charts the film's profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists – Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama.

Split into five (5) chapters, Chain Reactions (2024, Philippe) dedicated its 103 minute runtime to five individuals of the industry, to discuss their personal experience and influence garnered from, Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, Hooper).

Patton Oswald (Chapter 1), Takashi Miike (2), Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (3), Stephen King (4) and Karyn Kusama (5), are gifted approximately 20 minutes each to discuss their introduction to Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as well as their theories and inspirations. It's correctly emphasised early on, that mediums can be subjectively interpreted and that one person's perspective can drastically differ to another, whilst also considering the influence of historical and societal norms.

Although I won't be describing everything mentioned, there were a few moments I'd found most intriguing;

Oswald highlighted an interesting anecdote, mentioning his mother-in-law's candid take on The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Demme) and her fixation with the character of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) having their nipple pierced. This being in stark contrast to Oswald's own astonishment with Bill's creation of a skin-suit... Priorities, I guess.

Of course, the release Texas Chain Saw Massacre pushed the genre into further plains of depravity and undeniably, certain imagery has become a staple part of pop-culture - discussing this in a review is rehashing old ground. However, and interestingly, Miike is seen to discuss the influence of watching Texas Chain Saw Massacre, in place of a sold-out screening of Chaplin's City Lights (1931) - a deter that greatly influenced Miike's own venture into danger orientated films.

As mentioned, the film gave time to each interviewee and enabled them to discuss, at length, their own interesting concepts, such as the perception of the character of Leatherface as a victim of home invasion, or the theory that the sun's radioactivity has gradually turned humanity into sadistic, crazed animals.

It was fascinating to listen to Heller-Nicholas, discuss a similarity between the locations, to those found in Australian outback films. Or, Stephen King compare framing and camera positioning to the work of Robert Wise, with The Haunting (1963).

Chain Reactions (2025) | Film Review

These moments, as well as much of the documentary, are intercut with moments from the original film, as well as other films mentioned and / or share similarities with, by the interviewees. Some of the films include, Nosferatu (1922, Murnau), Gone with the Wind (1939, Fleming) and No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel & Ethan Coen).

The only criticism worth mentioning, is that a few subjects / talking points are reintroduced through the five chapters - as each is its own confined segment - that could have been grouped in the edit and improved the flow of the film. In addition, despite the original film being full of dramatic and startling moments, Chain Reactions, feels more mellow and plods along at a rather quiet and slow pace.

However, this type of documentary, whereby we see a focus on film analysis and dissection as opposed to a re-edit / re-telling of the same behind-the-scenes information heard for decades, breathes new life into the original film in many interesting ways. Whilst trying to avoid describing everything discussed - so that viewers can hear the shared information firsthand - I can truthfully say, Chain Reactions, is certainly an interesting watch for fans of the original film, as well as film analysts / historians.

Chain Reactions is now available on both digital and Blu-ray. Trailer below.

As an aside, Texas Chain Saw Massacre has had a huge impact of many different mediums - one such immersive medium, is interactive scare events. You can see how we faired at a recent - now defunct / in voluntary insolvency - event, Halloween Haunt Fest (2025), where the team were licensed and created a dedicated scare maze, based on Tobe Hooper's original film below: