The story for Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Badlands is pretty simple-there's a well known Youtuber/content creator named Jonah that became lost somewhere in the general area of the Texas killing fields, and no one can find him. We do get to meet Leatherface at the beginning doing his thang while participating in a version of his own signature "chainsaw dance", which I mean, at this point if there's no "chainsaw dance" in a Texas Chainsaw movie than what are you doing? Is it even part of this universe without it? But at the opening of this twenty two minute romp we have a bartender talking to the local sheriff about just that-the missing Jonah guy that's out there somewhere working on videos or live streaming with the possibility of gettin' snuffed. The sheriff tells the bartender that he has some days off coming up and he's going to take some time to go look for him. He's going to be off duty and he really doesn't have to do that, but he has a heart and wants to help find Jonah, so we do see this dude again later on. But I also have to point out here that Jonah is played by Robert Irwin who also played the insanely annoying Adam in another Ian Messenger film that I made a Youtube review for titled Wendigo Falls. If you're into found footage or first person films, go check that one out because you'll probably get into it. But we do see Jonah himself here for a couple of minutes while he is in fact making content for his Youtube channel. He becomes about as lost as we all thought he would, and Leather snags him as he's pissing himself in some random dilapidated house where he is promptly kidnapped, hung up in a barn of sorts and has-you guessed it-his face fileted with a hunting knife by Thomas Hewitt himself so that he can wear his face as a mask for the rest of the show. Or Bubba Sawyer-or which ever real name you want to slap on his ass. But the cinematography in this scene in particular I thought was great because it really did remind me of how the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed in that you get to see everything while seeing nothing at the same time. The camera is behind Jonah the whole time so all you see is the back of his head and his hands tied up to a ceiling beam while good ol' Leather is right there torturing him and slicing his face off slowly and meticulously so that the skin can stay intact for the purpose of wearing it. That scene really is the fulcrum that keeps Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Badlands together as you go on this journey with Adrienne, Jade, Blake and Dusty as they traverse this area in hopes of finding him before what happens-happens. There honestly isn't to much more that I can really say about this fan made addition to the Sawyer/Hewitt world here because when it comes down to it, this is a little side tidbit in the hands of a really solid cast and crew who you can tell have a passion for horror and for the Texas Chainsaw franchise in particular. I liked it even more than that shitty Netflix Texas Chainsaw movie that they released back in 2022 because this entry is short, gritty and gets to the point. The 2022 one has us milling around with a bunch of annoying Gen Z losers that want to "cancel" Leatherface and all they do is whine about how hot and dry Texas is and how everyone there has guns and whatever else. That version of this story fucking sucked. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Badlands did not. If you really want an indie/short Texas Chainsaw flick that will only soak up about twenty plus minutes of your time, this is the one. It's just a travesty that Jonah is gone now. There's a lot Youtuber's that stop making content or just quit altogether for various reasons, and his story is probably the most interesting and the darkest out of all of them. Yeah-Badlands is great and needs to be pushed more. Time to gas up my own chainsaw and cut on through. The saw is family.