Review: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Posted by Traci on October 6, 2006 in Cinema, Reviews | ∞

Texas Chainsaw Massacre : The Beginning delivers on violence and not much else. So much so, it makes my previous all time stomach churning gorefest, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects look mild Still, doesn’t break out of the typical mold the way they did. In my opinion it doesn’t even come close to the creep factor of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and has “Come see me because I’m a sequel” written all over it.

The movie starts out with what I considered to be a light background on Thomas Hewitt/Leatherface (played by Andrew Byrniarski) who was born in the 1930′s to a slaughter house worker. From there it cuts to 1969 and the fact the main source of employment, the slaughter house, has been condemned and shut down making the the little country town in which the Hewitts live a ghost town. Two brothers, Eric (Matthew Bomer), and Dean (Taylor Handley) are accompanied by their girlfriends, Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) and Bailey (Diora Baird) on a trek across country before going off to the Vietnam war. They soon have to make a pit stop in Texas at the only store for miles while running across some bikers that think they are going to raise hell. Unbeknownst to them, the newly self appointed Sherriff Hoyt, (R. Lee Ermy) and his nephew Thomas are more capable than the bikers at creating nightmares worse than any they ever dreamed.

All the prerequisites are there for your average slasher film. Blood, screaming, running, blood, chainsaws, guns, blood, mostly naked scene, more screaming, and well, blood. Was it good? Average at best as slasher films go because it was quite predictable. I would say it was shocking and stomach churning more than good. I had heard from watching several snippets on TV and reading several articles that this would give a background on how Leatherface came to be. Did that occur? Sort of. In fact, the background on Leatherface himself was quite light. It showed him being born, picked up out of a dumpster by Luda Mae Hewitt, his natural appearance at birth and his age progression to about age 12 within the first 5 minutes of the film and before the opening credits had finished. After that, all of the historic detail was in conversation coming from Sherriff Hoyt. Really the movie was about how brutally sadistic Korean veteran Sherriff Hoyt could be using Leatherface as his accomplice and the way the family stored up sustenance for a rainy day.

I give this movie a C because of it’s predictability and typical formulaic process. Acting? B-. Let’s face it, there’s only so much skill you have to have to run around a set and scream. Jordana Brewster, whom I haven’t had so much of a problem with in her past films, really didn’t put much effort into this one to the point I would never call her a scream queen. I suppose the stand out in this film would have been R. Lee Ermy since he was the central character and was the most impressive actor in the film with the most lines. He’s the reason I give it a B- instead of a C. The rest of the actors were just props. Script? Like I said all the prerequisites are there for a slasher film. Would I like to have seen a tad more depth? Yes. I wanted more childhood from Leatherface’s point of view. I wanted more Leatherface screen time period. He is supposed to be the central character after all. Leatherface is who we think of when we think of Texas Chainsaw Massacre but he wasn’t on screen nearly enough. The script gets a C- from me. Gorefest? If gorefest is what you’re looking for then look no further. This movie gets an A+ on blood, guts, screaming and all the typical violence. On the plus side as well is the fact that they didn’t hire Ewe Boll to direct. But then I can’t remember who did and I was too shocked at all the gore to notice any directorial details.

Now, I think I’ll go pop in Silent Hill or House of 1000 Corpses. They are more to my liking.