The Rise of Requels: Rewriting "Scream" and "Texas Chainsaw" in 2022

Always a self-reflection of the horror scene of the year it enters into, Scream (2022) defines requel pretty early on – the blurry area between reboot and sequel, a requel puts new characters and plots into the story while still continuing the original storylines and revisiting original characters. It allows a movie to be “new” while still retaining ties to what made people love the original – for all of the recent horror requels, this really just means bringing back the original Final Girl for one last stab.

I very selfishly consider myself the closest thing to an amateur horror historian there can be (which really just means I’ve seen a lot of them and watch a lot of video essays). Requels are a delicate line to toe, because ultimately they’re trying to appease two very different audiences – the old and the new – and write a story that has two different functions – to both establish a story and continue one.

Since the 2018 Halloween was a success (personally my 2nd favorite of the entire series, second only to the original), horror series requels have been on the rise. In the first two months of 2022, two of the biggest horror franchises of all time received the requel treatment to VERY different responses. So what makes a requel successful, and why did Scream (2022) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) hit completely different marks?

Horror movies are almost always a shocking success – they push the boundaries of what society sees as acceptable, and the “trends” of the horror genre change basically every few years. The most successful horror movies of each decade usually started a trend, and not followed it – the original Halloween was one of the earliest slashers that found this lightning-in-a-bottle success (sorry, Black Christmas), and the original Scream shook the horror industry with self-referential awareness and a blend of horror and comedy that hadn’t really been explored before.

In trying to reboot a horror franchise, there is an inherent attempt to reproduce an irreproducible seismic shock. With the constant shifting of the horror genre, it is also an attempt to take a plot representative of one snapshot in time and shoehorn it into the modern expectation of horror – unfortunately, this is why people keep calling the new Texas Chainsaw “Woke Leatherface.” (Although I would argue Leatherface, a gender nonconforming icon who is open about his familial trauma and just wants a hug, has always been woke)

This is what I think Scream (2022) does better than Texas Chainsaw (2022) – and yes, it is hard to write this when both movies just used the same title as the original as Halloween did. Scream as a franchise has always functioned as a mirror for the current horror landscape. It started as self-referential towards the genre, then continued to reflect the world of sequels, trilogies, and reboots. This very, very blatant self-awareness can get taxing – but you can’t say it isn’t in line with how the entire franchise has been built. The newest Scream, at least, respects Sidney Prescott in the way she deserves. Sidney Prescott is a fucking icon and every reboot understands that she can never been mistreated.

Texas Chainsaw, on the other hand…does not do this. Not only is Sally Hardesty brought back with little to no explanation – not even the original actress, as Marilyn Burns has passed, so the nostalgic tie is much, much looser – but (SPOILER) she’s almost immediately gutted with a chainsaw. What made the original Texas Chain Saw (yes, in the original title chainsaw was too words) memorable and, to me, distinguishable from all other slashers, is twofold: 1. The family aspect, and 2. The visual excellence and ability to be a horror movie with little to no gore.

In little words, the 2022 Texas Chainsaw achieves neither. While not as horrendously gory as Halloween Kills (2021) – which deserves its own 10-page essay – Texas Chainsaw delivers some honestly pretty impressive kills. The issue, however, is Leatherface, once a scared animal defending his house and family from trespassers, is now just kind of…the same as Jason Voorhees. Or Michael Meyers. He just walks and attacks like a shark for seemingly little reason. As against the original movie as it is, though, it is pretty cool to see a man get stabbed with his own wrist bone.

Even in the most absurd of its sequels, Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been about the core family. Their names changed nearly every movie, but there was always a cannibalistic family at the center of the plot – and the kills. Leatherface was simply one of many – the voiceless tall boy who did most of the killing – but as we know, grandpa was the best at killing. To erase this family dynamic from the newest Texas Chainsaw feels disingenuous to what set the original apart from slashers like Friday the 13th or Halloween.

Texas Chainsaw 2022 was clearly trying to hop on a trend – and I get it! It’s not the worst idea in the world. But in a genre where original ideas are genuinely welcomed, it feels unnecessary to reboot Texas Chainsaw in this way. It neither continues what audiences loved about the original nor puts it in a new perspective; it just takes the name of Leatherface and simplifies him to the trope created by Jason or Michael. Except this time, he’s killing Gen-Z.

This is not to say that the issues with these requels come from them being too “woke” or engaging too much with 2022 issues – that’s literally the point. They’re trying to take franchises from before social issues were expected from horror movies and dropping them into a post -heightened-horror world. Once again, Scream acknowledges this – with a few eye rolls, to be sure – but minimizing the issues with these films by simply saying they’re engaging too much with social issues is…shitty. Horror has always engaged with social issues – the genre itself came from societal fears and taboos, and horror trends almost always reflect what the general culture is most afraid of at any given time.

This issue is not Woke Leatherface. The issue is that there was no Grandpa Sawyer. He’s the BEST AT KILLING.

I honestly didn’t love either requel of 2022, but I did think Scream did the best with the overall requel expectations. Like Halloween (2018), it will continue into a new series - but if they even think about killing Sidney Prescott, like they did Sally Hardesty or will likely to do Laurie Strode in Halloween Ends, I’m filing a formal complaint.

(Bonus: if you want a new horror movie that feels both classic and fresh without the risk of ruining a favorite character or franchise, watch James Wan’s Malignant.)

Scream (2022) – 3.5/5

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) – 2/5