Chain Reactions (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2024, USA)

Churning out one documentary per year, Alexandre O. Philippe is a go-to director for films celebrating classic genre films and, in particular, horror films. Chain Reactions follows the template of Philippe’s earlier film Lynch/Oz, taking six or so talking heads and dividing the film into chapters, with each talking head monologuing. In this case, we have one comedian (Patton Oswalt), one author (Stephen King), two directors (Takashi Miike and Karyn Kusama), and one academic (Alexandra Heller-Nicholas) discussing the impact and legacy of Tobe Hooper’s seminal 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

One of the film’s strengths is that each person comes from a radically different background - in some cases, a radically different geographic background (as is the case with Miike, who is coming from Japan, and Heller-Nicholas, who finds parallels with the film and the cinema of Australia). Philippe also seems to succeed here in a way that Lynch/Oz did not, by keeping the talking heads largely on the topic at hand. The result is a mix of personal anecdotes of the film, appreciation of Hooper’s craft, but also the larger meaning at hand in the film.

Is Chain Reactions likely to appeal beyond fans of the film? Possibly yes. There is enough to discuss about Hooper’s original film that the documentary remains engaging throughout. This is also helped by Karyn Kusama’s insight toward the latter half of the documentary - she brings a quite strong analysis in terms of the broader implications of the film and its cultural relevance in America today. We here at Cinephilic Musings would like to see Philippe take on all the major horror franchises - clearly, he has a skill at getting people of different backgrounds to open up about these films and their broad influence. We recommend the film.

8/10