TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
A New Line Cinema Release

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: On August 20th, 1973, police were dispatched to the remote farmhouse of Thomas Hewitt, the former head-skinner at a local slaughterhouse in Travis County, Texas. What they found within the confines of the cryptic residence was the butchered remains of 33 human victims. The most notorious mass murder case of all time, he wore a grotesque flesh masks of his victims and brandished a chainsaw. He became known as ³Leatherface.² Local authorities would eventually gun down a man wearing a leathery mask and declare they had their killer, bringing the case to a close. However, in the years that followed, many close to the grisly murder case would come forward to level accusations that police had botched the investigation and knowingly killed the wrong man. This is the story of the only known survivor. The story follows the horrific events when a group of five young kids inadvertently found themselves besieged by a chainsaw-wielding madman, one who would leave a trail of blood and terror that would forever become known as ³The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.²

REVIEW: Regardless if you consider this a ³retelling² or a ³remake,² TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (TCM) is one of the better takes on a horror classic. While it has enough merit to stand on its own, the comparisons are unavoidable. Behind the camera, making his directorial debut is commercial and music video director Marcus Nispel. While you might be tempted to herald his work on the film, you can¹t overlook the contributions of producer Michael Bay. Just as Tobe Hopper¹s classic was an astonishingly stylized film, especially for a horror film, Nispel and Bay¹s take on the story give the film a new look and take the terror to new levels.

The filmmakers do a credible job of distilling key elements from the original work and weaving them together with many fresh ideas.  In looking at the two films, one of the main differences is that the newer film contains almost all of the blood and gore that you thought you saw in the first. They¹ve added a few more locations, and in doing so, I think, they created a flaw in terms of the consistency of the film. The kids travel out to a mill, that appears off that main road, and you never see them with, or hear them get, directions how to get there. There is also a meat processing plant, that appears to be up and running because there is ³fresh² meat inside, but yet there is no one around when the heroine is in jeopardy. Finally, there are a few other locations in the film that almost give in this haunted house feel. Having visited the Universal Halloween attractions created by Rob Zombie, Clive Barker, and Stephen King, there are times where the film feels like on of those seasonal attractions.

In terms of the narrative, the key change is in the interpersonal relationships of these two sets of characters. None of the folks in the van share are members of the same family, but consist of a couple with history, a horny friend who has fallen for a hitchhiker they¹ve recently picked up, and the single party guy. It creates a different dynamic, and while I don¹t feel it is as strong, it absolutely resonates with a contemporary audience. The characters are ³fleshed² out and you do care about them more than the ones that are set up in ³Freddy Vs. Jason² as just victims. In fact, they do an amazing job of crafting the character evolution of Erin, played by Jessica Biel. She doesn¹t spend nearly as much time running has her counterpart in the initial film, and, while the camera obviously loves her, she has the strength of an Angelina Jolie or Sigourney Weaver.  On the other side of the chainsaw, the filmmakers do a mind-blowing job of rendering the abnormal personalities of this new family of ghouls. Leatherface is present in all his ³gory,² but the rest of the family is much more sinister than Hooper¹s original bunch of raving lunatics. There is more method to their madness, and that makes them even more frightening. However, R. Lee Ermey as Sheriff Hoyt almost completely steals the show from Leatherface as he creates yet another over the top character.

Like all of Michael Bay¹s films, TCM features some amazing cinematography and camera work that thoroughly captures the production design. As a result, the filmmakers have created a new character for their film, the house. I know Hopper had an interesting set in the original, but in the new TCM it feels like the living, breathing, evil thing. Do the people living there make it evil, or was it evil before they took up residence. A brilliant location, and even more frightening when you learn that all of the locations in the film were actual places in that house and not a set.

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.texaschainsawmovie.com/

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