Reporting from the 47th Denver Film Festival.

Director Alexandre O. Philippe reexamines the classic low-budget horror movie, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, through five individuals and their relationship to the movie: Patton Oswalt, whose theory revolves around the sun sending the world into chaos; Takashi Miike, who saw this movie when he couldn’t get into a screening of City Lights; Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, a director who has drawn personal inspiration from Tobe Hooper’s storytelling; Stephen King; and Karyn Kusama. Of the five, Kusama’s interpretation of the film sings the strongest.

The rest add the usual appreciation and interpretations—the Miike section is really an anecdote, King is allowed to go on for too long, though Oswald is always good for a theory—and the doc, which is 20 minutes longer than Massacre, feels it.

Chain Reactions (2024)
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe
Produced by Kerry Deignan Roy
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, Karyn Kusama
Exhibit A Pictures, Not rated, Running time 103 minutes, Premiered Aug. 29, 2024 at the Venice Film Festival