The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

10/8/06 - Review

Three years after the 2003 remake hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre scared the crap out of the audience, the prequel comes along and takes us back the beginning, where it all started for this sick Hewitt family.

As we see from a series of flashbacks, a small Texas town is dying as its residents have moved on and the businesses have closed down, save for one, the meat packing plant. This is where Thomas Hewitt was born back in 1939, and the chaos started thirty years later, on the day the plant closed.

Now, two brothers and their girlfriends are driving through on their way to enlist for the Army and being shipped off to Vietnam. However, a biker runs them down and causes them to wreck, just in time for Sherriff Hoyt (R, Lee Ermey) to take them home to his beloved nephew, Leatherface.

Chrissie, (Jordana Brewster) manages to not get caught, but soon she will come to the Hewitt household to help save her friends. Helping though, may be even harder then once thought.

Back in 2003, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a surprise hit, especially being that it was a remake. It was frightening, had a decent story and characters, and had some gruesome chainsaw action. Much like the movies back in the 70’s and 80’s, it was only a matter of time until another sequel remake came out.  This time, however, it was a prequel.

Upon hearing that this movie was going to be made, I was excited since the first kicked some serious ass. We get to finally see what led us to where we are today. It sounds good on paper, but besides the Hewitt family, this movie absolutely adds nothing new to the franchise.

The opening was very intriguing where we learned about Leatherface such as how he was born in the meat packing plant as his mother lay dead on the floor, while her boss took the baby and threw it into the dumpster. From there we follow this sadistic family led by R. Lee Ermey, a Korean war POW who got a taste of human flesh just to survive. Besides the family, this movie was exactly like the 2003 hit.

At 84 minutes, the movie certainly left a lot to be desired. The plot was very predictable, and I was even able to pick the order of the killings. The movie even climaxed in the meat packing plant.  Hmm, where have we seen that before?  Since it was predictable, the prequel wasn’t even scary at the least. I can remember a ton of times when the audience was jumping back in 2003, but I didn’t see it once during this movie.

The chainsaw action was very minimal which is surprising since chainsaw is in its title. But I guess Leatherface was just learning the tool so he must have gradually got into it. There was a lot of killing but the movie seemed to censor itself with the fear factor/bloodletting aspect though there was one or two shock moments.  The movie seem very commercialized and I guess we now know why the movie was like this. The Hewitt family, while being a sadistic bunch of cannibals, was actually thrilling to watch because they are so messed up. I especially loved seeing Sheriff Hoyt. The entire back-story on Thomas was pretty well done, but I would have liked to see about another five minutes or so. It was interesting to see him just smash living things and cut them apart and eventually wear their skins.

The main characters of this movie had to be the Hewitts. R. Lee Ermey again kicked ass as the man of the house. He was hilarious with his one offs and constant criticism of everyone else. The rest of the Hewitts were very creepy and definitely fit the role of the cannibals. Thomas, though having no lines, was awesome again as the fearless Leatherface.

The four kids traveling across state were sadly forgettable. Besides Jordana Brewster, I didn’t know one of them. It didn’t really matter anyway because I didn’t have a feeling for them at all. They tried to make Brewster look like Jessica Biel but I don’t think that is humanly possible. It was actually less believable seeing Brewster as the young heroine. Maybe if the movie was longer, I could have cared about these characters a little more, or maybe a less predictable script would have helped considerably.

Michael Bay was a producer of this movie and I am a bit disappointed because I was expecting a little more from this, and him. I guess he had the script from 2003 with him when he was working with the director. Give me a full movie next time, none of this 84 minute bullshit.

All in all, this latest Massacre leaves a lot to be desired. Besides the Hewitt family, this movie is all too predictable filled with characters you don’t care about. Stay at home, watch the ’74 or ’03 version, and wait for this one at the local Blockbuster.

Grade

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