Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s asymmetric board game casts all but one player as horror film victims
Don’t try the local barbecue.
Revisit one of horror cinema’s seminal works of familial cannibalism and hitchhiking gone wrong, reimagined as an asymmetrical upcoming board game. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Slaughterhouse adapts the events of the original film with one player tormenting and sequentially murdering all the rest.
Designed and developed by Prospero Hall, Texas Chainsaw Massacre Slaughterhouse is the latest in a long history of films and television from the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s that the Funko-owned studio has brought to the tabletop. Disney: Villainous’ continued success might pay the bills, but Prospero’s treatment of titles such as Jaws and Rear Window prove these translations are more than just opportunistic cash grabs.
Horror board game Slaughterhouse positions one player as the Sawyer family, controlling the iconic chainsaw-wielding Leatherface as well as older brother Nubbins and patriarch Drayton Sawyer within the family’s decrepit home. Everyone else is stuck as potential victims stranded miles from civilisation who can only rely on each other to escape and survive.
How that actually works in the rules of the game isn’t exactly clear. The Sawyer player moves the three members around the house, setting traps, cornering other players and systematically capturing, killing and butchering them for meat. The players sneak through rooms and hallways, evading the Sawyer family as they hunt for spare car parts (of course the one vehicle is broken), collect evidence of the family’s murderous nature and scrounge for anything that might keep them alive for one more round.
Most of the mechanics seem to revolve around balancing actions and managing resource cards drawn from multiple decks. Achievements earned during sessions - which run between 45 minutes and an hour - can unlock new cards that are added to the next game, changing the stakes and putting new pieces on the board for both sides to use against the other.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Slaughterhouse is currently slated for mid 2023 release, but Prospero Hall didn’t provide a more concrete date. The box will be available in retail online and at local hobby shops for $30 in the US - no information is currently available for international availability.
