Share
?The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? is unlike its 1970s contemporaries (?Halloween,? ?Friday the 13th?) because it has yet to be beaten to death by dozens of increasingly awful sequels. However, in 2003 the franchise was revived with the enormously popular low-budget remake of the 1972 original. In the wake of the remake?s success another installment was inevitable, and this time writer/producer Tobe Hooper decided to film a prequel that explores the origins of one of horror?s most recognizable figures ? Leatherface. And thus we get ?The Beginning,? a 90 min. gore-fest that is light on plot but heavy on fright.
The bad news is that this film lacks convincing characters or an engaging storyline. The good news is that it needs neither to be sufficiently scary.
Though not as well filmed as the original or the remake, ?The Beginning? does have its share of terrifying moments.
The story is a familiar one: four of the dumbest teenagers in America are trekking across rural Texas on a drug- and sex-filled road trip. Two brothers, one headed to Vietnam and the other going to Mexico to avoid the draft, bring their girlfriends along on a tour of rustic Southern America. After wrecking their car on a barren patch of highway, they find themselves stranded within a mile of the Hewitt residence ? home of the mass-murdering and cannibalistic family that raises young Leatherface.
The teens are systematically chased down by various psychotic family members that are proficient at killing with a variety of iconic farming tools including, but not limited to: meat hooks, pickup trucks, cleavers, animal traps and chainsaws.
This is not a film for the squeamish. Most of the movie?s terror relies on pushing the envelope of how much gore can be thrown on screen without earning a NC-17 rating. As the American film audience has become gradually desensitized to violence on screen over the years, directors have been forced to go further and further in their attempts to generate disturbing images on screen.
In the original ?Texas Chainsaw Massacre,? a short glimpse of Leatherface wearing a mask of human flesh was considered revolting. In this film, an entire scene is dedicated to the process by which Leatherface acquires, removes and sews on his skin accessory.
R. Lee Ermy reprises his role as Sheriff Hoyt, the patriarch of the Hewitt family and the guardian of young Leatherface. Traumatized by his experience as a prisoner of war in Korea, Hoyt serves as the amoral cornerstone of the twisted family.
Leave a comment 0 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.