Adriane McLean, Sarah French & Gigi Gustin Among Stars Of Horror Homage To ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ & ‘The Hills Have Eyes’

EXCLUSIVE: Neon Noir’s latest feature, Brute 1976, will pay homage to horror classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.

Adriane McLean (Miracles of Christmas), Sarah French (Blind), Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Dazelle Yvette (Garden of Eden) and Adam Bucci (NCIS Los Angeles) are starring in the film, which is the third from horror-focused indie Neon Noir.

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Production has wrapped on the feature, which plays up to the slasher shocks of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Producers call it a “homage” to the films, with Neon Noir’s Joe Knetter writing and Marcel Walz directing. Dirk Schürmann and Tobias Schürmann are executive producing and Marcus Friedlander is DoP.

Brute 1976 will begin with the story of Raquel and her girlfriend, whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere as they travel to a photoshoot in the desert to celebrate Bicentennial unity . They stumble across an abandoned mine and explore it, while the photoshoot group replace her with make-up artist Sunshine and then find abandoned town Savage, which has a violent history but is the perfect place to take some photos. However, a family of masked psychopaths has claimed the town for themselves and are hell bent on it living up to its name.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, both the originals and remakes,” said Walz. “Brute 1976 was an amazing experience to shoot: It was hot, it was dirty and it was bloody. I’m sure the audience will feel that on screen.”

Knetter, who launched Neon Noir with Walz and French in 2022, is also penning Twilight of the Dead, the “final” instalment of the late George A. Romero’s Living Dead franchise. In August, we revealed horror icon Romero’s estate was teaming up with LA-based financier-producer Roundtable Entertainment on the “seventh and final installment” of the seminal zombie films.

Brute is our love letter to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which I consider to be the greatest horror film of all time,” said Knetter. “Shooting in the desert provided many challenges but our cast and crew really delivered something special.”

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