By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe
Dark Sky Films
Documentaries can carry a wide breadth of expectations. Audiences can hope to learn, to feel or to reflect based on whatever is happening on screen. Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe has carved out a niche within the world of cinema documentaries that leans deeply into nostalgia and personal stories, rather than information and factual delivery, and CHAIN REACTIONS keeps up this thread with a slightly different structure.
Philippe has been making a name for himself by delivering hyper-focused documentaries on film from very specific perspectives. 78/52 looked at not just Psycho, but specifically the shower scene. Memory: The Origins of Alien is a look at the creation of fear within that film, but with a keen eye on the potential sources of inspiration from art history. His films are smart and often go beyond straight reporting into interpretation and theories.
Documentarian and CHAIN REACTIONS Director Alexandre O. Philippe
CHAIN REACTIONS is all about Tobe Hooper’s 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. You might be hard-pressed to find a horror fan today who does not have a story, with great affection, of when they first watched the seminal, genre-establishing early slasher. Philippe chose to approach CHAIN REACTIONS by getting personal reflections and relationships with the film from five well-known cinephiles.
First up is writer/actor/comedian Patton Oswalt, followed by filmmaker Takashi Miike, cinema historian and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, living horror legend Stephen King and finally, filmmaker Karyn Kusama. Each of these interviews brings reverence and respect to the classic film, and each is given the space and time to say what the film means to them and what they think it means to the history and future of cinema in general. There is no denying that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre made a massive, violent impact on the trajectory of horror in the 1970s and beyond, and these five interviewees go through the details of what that means to them.
Collectively, the experience of CHAIN REACTIONS is a bit repetitive. The documentary is edited so that each interview is shown one at a time, one after the other. First, we see no one but Oswalt talk about his experience with the film, then we see Miike and so on. Each speaker brings their own anecdotes and comparisons to their section of the film. Oswalt talks about his theory of the Texas slasher relating to the 1922 Nosferatu, and similarly, Heller-Nicholas brings her Australian take on the film through the lens of someone who experienced horror culturally through 1975’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. There are plenty of similarities and potential through-lines from one interview to the other, but none are drawn together by the documentary itself. The discrete, quarantined stories are kept in isolation from one another, and the film does not offer any commentary on them as a collection.
What should be the best-selling point of CHAIN REACTIONS is the footage from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. While these five fans are telling their stories and cinematic theories, the documentary shows footage from the film and keeps all those visuals interesting. We see behind-the-scenes footage, various restorations and aspect ratios, which are fascinating to watch repeatedly roll across the screen. In the 50 years since the original film’s release, the various visual versions do significantly alter the experience of the film, and this perceptible mixtape adds to the multiple reflections on consuming that media.
Overall, CHAIN REACTIONS does not try to be anything it is not. It lets its interview subjects take their time and speak their mind. It is not trying to break any news or create new conspiracy theories. It is just five smart people talking about a great film.
