Harefooted Halloween: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

What I liked: R. Lee Ermey (Toy Story 2) is the main villain for most of the film and it’s great to see him in the spotlight like that.  He definitely plays it sadistic enough to fit in with the Chainsaw family.  His wild eyed performance is by far the best in the movie where he acts totally crazy but also has complete control of every scene he’s in.

Like the 2003 remake Leatherface is once again played by Andrew Bryniarski (Street Fighter (1994)) and he’s better this time but I can’t put my finger on why exactly.  He just has more presence and a sense of vulnerability like the character should have.  Nice job.

The production design (Marco Rubeo (The Hateful Eight (set designer))) is more restrained than in the remake.  With less clutter and gross deteriorating shit lying around it grounds the family house and gives everything they do more weight.

We get to see Leatherface use his chainsaw to actually kill a bunch of people and not just wave it around recklessly like he usually does.  He even tears one guy completely in half.  Ouch.

The new skin mask Leatherface gets later on in the movie looks fucking fantastic.  The eye and mouth holes are the right width and there’s the right amount of stitching and everything.

What I Didn’t Like: The protagonists are bland as hell.  Yea this is typical for a lot of horror pictures (especially slashers) but it still doesn’t make it right.

The biker character played by Lee Tergesen (Oz) is completely superfluous.  He’s only in here to raise the body count and he does such a lazy bad acting job.

Boy do they really force some jump scares.  They throw that music sting on things that normally wouldn’t have it and it’s pretty damn annoying.

Overall Impressions: Initially this seemed like nothing special.  Everything is setup and paid off in the formulaic way you’ve seen a million times before.  I also thought it was unnecessary that we learn the backstory of the family in the remake.  Why would that be interesting?  Who cares?

But as the movie went and the more I thought about it afterward all of the ideas they throw at you kinda grew on me.  R. Lee Ermey murdering the real sheriff and falsely taking over his position, the family turning to cannibalism because the local slaughterhouse closed, we find out the guy in the wheelchair got his legs cut off by Leatherface to fix a gunshot wound (?!), and etc.  They all surprisingly work enough to keep you engaged.

I mean this isn’t great or anything but I prefer it to the 2003 installment.  It’s gorier but it has a little more heart like the filmmakers put some more care into their film.  We spend a lot of time with the family here which is a big plus and like I said, R. Lee Ermey is a blast to watch.

Do we really need to know the origins of this insane family and Leatherface?  No, not at all.  But I gotta admit I kinda had some fun with this one.