TCM Reboot Director Wants to Make It a Family Affair

Leatherface is getting a new lease on life — and the director A24 has chosen to swing the chainsaw this time around has a clear, genuinely intriguing vision for where the franchise can go next.

Curry Barker, the rising horror filmmaker behind Obsession, has been tapped to write and direct a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre for A24. And in a recent interview with Total Film, he laid out exactly what’s driving his approach: he wants to go deeper into the family at the heart of the story — not just Leatherface, but the whole terrifying household behind him.

“I think of it as respecting the source material,” Barker said. “I absolutely love the original film, but I want to do something that’s different. I’m not going to stray away too far from what we know, but just making it stronger. Really, I want to lean into the uncomfortability of the family. I want to lean into the rawness of what’s going on there. There’s some really messed-up stuff happening at that farm. I genuinely feel there’s so much potential for that concept that has not been realized.”

It’s a smart angle. Leatherface has been the face of this franchise for over 50 years, but the character’s motives have always been rooted in family — he’s less a lone predator and more a product of the deeply disturbed people around him. The Hewitt family has popped up in a handful of installments, most notably in the second and third entries, but no film has ever truly put them front and center as the main event. Barker clearly sees that gap, and he wants to fill it.

“There’s so much that concept hasn’t really leaned into or hasn’t dived into,” he added. “So I actually feel like there’s a lot to explore, and I’m really excited about it.”

Why His Favorite TCM Entry Says a Lot

Here’s a detail that adds useful color to Barker’s thinking: when asked about his history with the franchise, he didn’t name the 1974 Tobe Hooper original as his favorite. He named the 2003 Marcus Nispel remake — the one starring Jessica Biel — as the entry closest to his heart.

“The 2003 reboot was my favorite,” Barker said. “It was like my first horror movie I’d ever seen when I was a kid, and I actually think it’s a decent remake.”

That film — produced by Michael Bay and co-written from the original screenplay by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel — was a significant financial success that helped trigger a wave of horror franchise reboots in the mid-2000s. Critical reaction was mixed at the time, but it’s held up for a certain generation of horror fans as a genuinely effective, visceral piece of work. Knowing that’s where Barker’s love of the franchise was born makes his instinct to dig deeper into the family dynamic feel even more grounded — the 2003 film did spend real time with the Hewitts, and it clearly left a mark on him.

Who Is Curry Barker?

If you haven’t heard the name yet, you will soon. Barker broke through with Milk & Serial, an acclaimed found-footage horror film that’s available to watch for free on YouTube and has earned serious praise from genre fans. His follow-up, Obsession, hits theaters on May 15 — and it’s already sitting at a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes based on early reviews. That kind of momentum is exactly why A24 came calling.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has had a rough stretch. The 2022 Netflix sequel was widely dismissed, and before that, the series had been lurching through reboots and sequels with diminishing returns for years. Handing it to a filmmaker with genuine horror credibility and a specific, considered vision feels like the right move — and Barker sounds like someone who’s thought hard about what this story still has to offer rather than just what it can recycle.

No release date has been set yet, but Obsession opens May 15 — and if Barker delivers there, the anticipation for what he does with Leatherface’s family is only going to grow.