Review: Guts on the Chainsaw

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Guts on the Chainsaw
Directed by Ryan Cavalline
Legend Hunters Films
80 minutes, 2023
https://legendhuntersfilms.com/

“The hills are alive, with the sounds of shotguns…” as it once said in a Mad Magazine spoof, I believe. This is a case of genres-in-a-blender, but I will get more into that later.

Nova (Nikki Carlson) is a woman who is cleaning out from substance abuse after an earlier trauma, looking for a purpose to her life, and trying to escape from recurring nightmares that reflect the ending of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), with a chainsaw wielding man in a flesh mask (I do believe the mask was also used in Cavalline’s 2021 film Myths & Mutants), chasing her down a country road, swinging the ‘saw around wildly. This is an icon moment that’s repeated as much as vampires rising stiffly from a coffin, a la Nosferatu (1922).

So, what does Nova do, to help refocus her life? Take a multiple days-long solo walk around Beaver Run Dam’s forest area in the Delaware State Forest in Eastern Pennsylvania, a place she is not even familiar, and cannot read a map, naturally. And why is she roving around the woods sometimes without following trails, just randomly roaming? Oy. Even in reality, I would never, ever do that. Stick to the trails only (and stay off the moors…sorry, I was distracted…). Please note, I don’t mean this in a sexist way, I don’t think anyone should be traipsing around the deep woods by themselves, especially off trail. It is good for there to be at least two people in case something happens, such as an accident.

Nikki Carlson

As she walks, one can feel the backwoods inbred cannibals being just around the corner, even though there is no indication of it other than the dream. I do not think I am revealing anything, honestly, given the name of the film, the location, and the dream. Anyone with even a low level experience with these types of films can almost smell it. Now, to be clear, I am not in any way complaining. I honestly like these kinds of films.

Getting off my soapbox now, even pretty early on there are some nice murders by, yes, silent masked killers, such as a farm couple (the woman has amazing hair), though I wonder why their german shepherd did not come to their rescue. He just sort of vanishes (i.e., s/he’s not killed, for those who hate that sort of thing).

Intercut (no pun intended) into the story every so often is “news” clips about hikers that have gone either missing or murdered along the Appalachian Trail, for example. These are b-roll dramatizations narrated by Robert Slone (a director of documentaries whose topics include JFK’s assassination, Patty Hearst’s kidnapping and Vietnam). The film is, allegedly, based on “Pennsylvania folklore,” a pet topic of the director (does he know about the Small Town Monsters brand? May be right up his alley, though they deal more with cryptids than chainsaws).

Nova runs into some kooks along the way, such as a guy really into possum jerky (called The Hermit by someone), as well as an expositionary hiker who warns her about the people living in the woods, and how they were effected by radioactivity waste buried in the ground that had an effect on them. Radioactivity causing cannibal mutants? Sound familiar? He even says, “These mountains, they have eyes.” As that wise philosopher once said, “A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat” (say no more!).

The first half, at least, is mostly her walking and walking, with occasion action shots in-between. The action finally starts to really pick up when Nova is chased by those in the woods, and she cannot get reception on her flip-phone (when was this filmed?). While the appetizer killings are appealing, of course the main course will be in the third act when the action is revved up to 11 (sorry about the This is Spinal Tap reference…).

Like the Marilyn Burns character of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Nova naturally winds up in the home of The Family, full of misfits, cross-dressers (glad this is not Tennessee), and other murderous types; however, the house is immaculate, unlike the Sawyers’. Time for revenge…and guns and masks and chainsaws. Plus, Nova gets to dress like Lara Croft at one point. That was an enjoyable visual.

The acting is pretty low-key, but not wooden (with one exception), not overly filled with dialogue, and just about everyone does their jobs nicely. The effects are a mixture of practical and digital, which mostly look okay, but the digital is pretty obvious, and the occasional practical at times (such as the guts in the first killing) looks questionable, though at others looks really good. For its budget, though, it is effective.

My main quibble about the film is sort of meta, in that there is little information on who played which role, which is true both in the end credits and on IMDB. That is why I had to be so vague in the descriptions above.

The film is obviously low budget, and there are some continuity errors, but overall, it was a good watch, especially the last third, despite the reliance on some well-worn tropes. It also sets itself up for a possible sequel, which I would gladly watch.

IMDB listing HERE