Movies
‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ Carries Footage From Hooper’s Classic, Originally Rated NC-17!
Some extremely revealing news has surfaced from an unlikely source. Website 3D Focus caught up with Markus Lanxinger, the Lead Stereoscopic Engineer on Lionsgate’s forthcoming Texas Chainsaw 3D, directed by John Luessenhop for release on January 4.
Texas Chainsaw 3D continues the legendary story of the homicidal Sawyer family, picking up where Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic left off in Newt, Texas, where for decades people went missing without a trace.
Within the following interview bits, Lanxinger reveals some shooting issues, talks about post converting archival footage, and how the slasher originally received an R-rating. Read on for the skinny!
Laxinger first told the site that the filmmakers were extremely worried about the fans calling out the studio for cashing in on the franchise to make a quick buck. He says they couldn’t be more wrong as this “sequel” was made for the fans: “We felt quite a bit of responsibility on set. The producer and the director were very concerned about it. For that reason they had some of the original cast enrolled in the movie. Everybody on the crew was required to watch the original [Texas Chainsaw Massacre]. I think that inspired us to do something that lives up to it. I could tell that the producer and director wanted to make something that appealed to the fans of the franchise.”
The site doesn’t provide any quotes, but states that, according to Markus, the schedule was tough. The entire filming process was completed in a 28 day 2D schedule. The Cinematographer allegedly had to be replaced towards the end and Markus unexpectedly had to take over the second unit as Stereographer. In order to complete the filming in time, the cast and crew switched to a 24 hour schedule.
The biggest reveal comes when Lanxinger speaks on post-converting footage to 3-D where he drops the bomb: “There were very few shots that we ended up converting on that film and the ones we did tended to be the archive footage and stills from the original movie.” Yes, there are scenes from Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the 2013 sequel!
Speaking in regards to the film’s rating: “It initially had an NC-17 rating so we recut the movie and it got an R rating. There are certainly some gory elements but I also think there is quite some suspense in the movie. I think in America it’s very easy to get an R rating for violence and blood scenes. There are plenty of those but there are also moments where it is just scary with a suspense build up so I hope some of those scenes are going to stand out, not just the gory scenes.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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