Brute 1976: a slasher's patriarchal punch

Director Marcel Walz's latest, Brute 1976, promises a throwback slasher with a 1976 setting and progressive political commentary. But the result is a messy, subversive misfire.

Outdated carnage, undercooked critique

Opening with a chainsaw-wielding maniac, Brute 1976 quickly signals its allegiance to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But instead of a straightforward, gory homage, Walz tries to bake in political commentary from the start.

Model Roxy, clad in a stars'n'stripes bikini, declares,