The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Documentary (1996)
*** (out of 4)
Brian Huberman directs this documentary that had him on the set of THE RETURN OF THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE. The documentary clocks in at just under a hour and for the most part it's an entertaining look at the making of the picture. Sadly the documentary ends as the filming wraps up so we don't get into the now notorious issues the film had trying to get a release.
With that said, what's on display here is still highly entertaining even if you 're not a fan of the actual film in question. There's all sorts of wonderful footage taken during the making of the picture and this includes countless bits of information with the cast. Strangely, there's really not too much footage taken of Renee Zellweger or Matthew McConaughey. I'm not sure if there was a reason for this like their reps not wanting them to be featured in it (like the actual marketing of the film) or if the director just didn't capture much not knowing who they'd become.
Some of the best moments in the documentary deal with the various stunts including one with Leatherface breaking through a glass wall. We get to see the low-budget side of filmmaking in how they try to get that one perfect shot and then something goes wrong but it was a "lucky mistake" so to speak. The main interest here is that director Ken Henkel gets a lot of talk time and he shares his thoughts on filmmaking and even a few words about the original film. This is certainly an interesting documentary since you get to hear from the director while the movie was in production.
One hopes that this could be expanded at some point to cover the years worth of legal issues the film faced as it tried to find a way into theaters.