The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Movie Review
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: D
Rating: R
Released: Friday, October 6, 2006
Directed by:
Cast:
A flag-waving, war-loving Texas family full of religious zealots who praise God while overseeing the slaughter of innocents. A documentary about the Bushes? No, silly! It's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning," a graphically unlikable prequel to 2003's remake of the 1974 horror classic.
Having seen either the original or the remake, you probably wondered where Leatherface came from, what drove him to chase people through forests while wielding a chainsaw, why his face is all effed up like that. And guess what: The prequel doesn't tell you much. Turns out he was born deformed and vaguely retarded, was raised by a normal-seeming family, and then started killing people when the slaughterhouse he worked in got closed down by the health department. End of backstory.
But whoops, we learn all that in the first 10 minutes. To pass the remaining 80, the film tells us about Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) instead, the loathsome and foul-mouthed sadist who aided and abetted ol' Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski) in the remake. Turns out he's not really the sheriff; he just murdered the guy who was and took his uniform. Then he helped Leatherface kill people and occasionally eat them. Why? JUST BECAUSE.
Yes, turns out Sheriff Hoyt is pure evil, but the boring kind. He has no dimension, no motivation. The best villains in moviedom, even the cruelest ones, have SOME reason to do what they do. Hoyt? Not so much. He was a P.O.W. during the Korean War. That's as much explanation as we get.
Hoyt and Leatherface (and their family of down-home crackers and torturers, about whom the less said, the better) shouldn't be the film's main characters, but here they are, front and center. Ostensibly, though, our heroes are four pretty young people (one of them is Jordana Brewster; you haven't heard of the others), two brothers and their girlfriends, driving through Texas as the boys prepare to head off to Vietnam. A car accident puts them into Hoyt's clutches -- again, no explanation whatsoever as to what he has against them -- and the rest is torture, mayhem, screaming, almost escaping, escaping, coming back, being tortured, some more screaming, a little revenge, and finally some death.
Since we know all the bad guys will still be alive at the end (it's a prequel, remember?), there's not much suspense over the outcome. I get tired of saying this about splattery horror films, but I get even more tired of it being true: The film has no wit, imagination, creativity or ingenuity. It's wearisome and dull, offering plenty of gore but no brains to back it up.
Grade: D
Rated R, lots of harsh profanity, brief mild sexuality, abundant graphic violence, torture, gore and other unpleasantness
1 hr., 24 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 7 comments
October 27, 2006 at 5:22 pm
A “D†rating is too flattering for this movie. A few friends dragged me into a theatre to watch this (majority rules) and I hated every second of it. “The Beginning†is tedious, stupid, and depressing. It’s bad enough that Hollywood is repackaging the same crap they sold in the previous film, but the filmmakers didn’t even have enough respect for their audience to do this creatively. The majority of the film has us watching more kids get chased, tortured, mutilated, and killed by rednecks. It’s not entertaining, its not scary, its not provoking, its just cynical marketing.
November 27, 2006 at 2:08 am
I thought that the film captured the feel of the original film. It acheived a better job then the reamke did, and the suspense I thought was created through how the characters would die and how.
I liked the idea of the background story, even though light, I was interested. This film is not for everyone, only fans and gore junies I'd say. But it acheived and what it set out to do, entertain, but still sustain a depressing feeling towards how it presented and played itself out.
One problem though with critics, is that they are always attending horror films and always finding faults. True, horror films are not for everyone, but I do not understand why some people are looking for a horror film with A grade actors, a awarding winning script and over all orginality. They are horror movies, not Oscar Material. You know exactly what will happen in a film called "The texas chainsaw masscare" kids will be chased, people will be killed ? ? I really do not understand ? ? Of course people are going to make stupid decesiosn, if not either the story could not move forward or it would make the film worthless.
Critics need to be a bit optimistic about horror films, appreciate them for what they are, look at it as a stand alone film, dont search for a reason why it is bad or why it seems a bit deja vu.
Enjoy it, sure it might be lacking in a few places. But overall, TCM: TB is a solid film, and is a horror film, respect it and accept what it is a horror film.
December 28, 2006 at 1:16 pm
I loved this movie. It had great cinematography and it was very intense.
February 7, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I enjoyed this movie, i liked how it showed why Leatherface became who he is.
And I enjoyed the gore : ]
March 15, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I thought this movie was horrible,the action in the movie felt like it was on a 12 minute loop. One of the protagonist would be so close to getting revenge on either leatherface or the sheriff and you knew that it wouldnt happen.Its an insult to the origionals (and no i dont count the one with mathew mccaugnehey).Texas Chainsaw cand never be duplicated with new age filming techniques.Absolutely terrible movie.
May 28, 2007 at 6:58 pm
if that was me i would so kill him but i would kill him for a reson 1.)not to kill him becaue he is cute.....(WRONG) buti would kill him for all the crime that he has cost me
October 9, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with the notion that the critics are out to get horror films. TCM: The Beginning had implausible moments, and that really cuts into the notion of the film. If the good guy finds a bad guy who tried to kill him, he would at least shoot/stab/strangle him to severe injury.
Also the girlie who snuck into the house should have found a butcher knife and attacked the killers.
If that girlie really wanted revenge, she would have stayed in the house and launched a suicidal attack against the occupants.