We’re still not fully on board with a new take on one of the greatest horror films ever made—Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—but we’re a little less on edge about the franchise’s A24 era with this latest update. A director has come aboard the planned feature film, and it’s someone we’re quite excited about: writer-director Curry Barker.
If you haven’t heard of him, it’s because his breakout film, Obsession, hasn’t hit theaters yet. It’s arriving May 15, though, which means horror fans can finally see the film that io9’s own Germain Lussier has been hyping since he was lucky enough to catch an early screening at the 2025 Fantastic Fest. The trailers have only increased our excitement about watching this tale of a lovelorn guy who makes a magic-enhanced wish to land his dream girl… then feels swift, terrifying regret about it.
Barker is not from Texas, but otherwise he seems like a good fit. Variety got the scoop on his hiring, reporting that the film is “billed by insiders as a ‘reimagining’ of the 1974 horror classic created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel” and that “Barker’s vision for the famed killer Leatherface and the gaggle of young things he terrorizes are under wraps.”
The trade also reminds us that, as previously reported, a Texas Chainsaw TV series is still in the works “from Barnstorm’s Glen Powell and Dan Cohen and director JT Mollner.” There’s no word yet on how the two projects might intertwine, if at all.
Barker is currently busy with another horror film, Anything But Ghosts, which is under the Blumhouse banner and will see him direct, co-write, and star. It sounds like more of a horror comedy; Variety describes it as centering “on two fraudulent paranormal investigators who are forced to face real ghosts—and the lies underpinning their business.”
What do you think about A24 tapping Barker to lead The Texas Chainsaw Massacre into its (inevitably blood-spattered) next chapter?
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