Released: 10/06/06

Viewed: 12:40 pm 10/06/06

Starring: Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird, Matthew Bomer, R. Lee Ermey

Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman

New Line Cinema Official Site of the Movie

First off, let me admit to having seen none of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies all the way through except for the 2003 remake. I know that the original is the godfather of all slasher pictures, and that it’s three remakes, are pathetic comical pretenders, but entertaining enough to watch as part of the TCM history. But I don’t want anything to do with that. It’s too real. Part of the reason I can handle the remake over the original is that it’s easier to separate the gore and fear from reality when you see a recognizable star on screen. The original featured a long list of no one, and if I can’t watch someone get sawed in two and say, “She was so good on 7th Heaven� then it might as well be real. And it might as well be me. And that’s too freaky.

It doesn’t help that the character of Leatherface is based on an actual man named Ed Gein who stalked skinned, wore, and decorated his basement with his victims. This Wisconsin native grew up in an overly repressed, overly religious, dangerously Oedipal situation. So dangerous in fact that not only did his story inspire the Texas Chainsaw franchise but also the Norman Bates character in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. Not the kind of legacy worth praising, but it’s nice that we can get a few of our best movie psychotics from one real life account instead of three. Gein was found innocent of the murder on grounds of insanity. He died in a mental institution in 1984.

Real life inspiration definitely up’s the fright level, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is constantly battling the fact that the audience is one step ahead of it. We know that all these characters are going to live so when the ballsiest kidnap victim in the bunch says, "I'm gonna kill you, asshole" it has no weight whatsoever. It's a prequel. Dude is going to be fine. It's like Obi Wan in Episode 1 saying to Anakin, "I'm gonna kill you, asshole." No you're not, do you know why? Because I know how he dies. The kid you stalk for 16 years in the desert ends up killing him you dirty old pervert.

In most movies you wonder how the good guy is going to win. When you know they can’t possibly win it becomes a game of how they're going to die. Or who might actually survive. It takes all the fun out of it. It's a movie where you want to root for the kids but half way through you realize you're just rooting for them to live longer. Then the thing is going on forever and they might as well just die so you can go home and blog about how frustrating the whole thing is.

Part of me thinks that this origin story would have been better told via flashback in a sequel, because there are some things to this that add to the overall story. It’s just surrounded by an hour and 15 minutes of skin-peeling padding.

Even though we know how things will end up, the movie is very effective in scaring the balls out of you. The deaths are loud, and quick enough to surprise a ninja. When they weren’t sending me into flinching fits with unexpected shotgun blasts peek-a-boo games with the giant head case, I was constantly tense from what could happen at any second.

The showman of the group is R. Lee Ermey who plays Sheriff Hoyt. He spends a lot of time chewing up the scenery and overdoing it a little, but I found his twisted perspective and unpredictable killing method to be plenty disturbing.

But Ermey’s inbreed, misguided, self-riotousness is merely the opening act for the main attraction. We’re all here for Leatherface, and for a guy well over 6 feet and even further past 250 pounds, he moves quickly and quietly. Like a cat. It fits in with the mystique of the character in that – if he doesn’t want you to know he’s there, you won’t know… until he hits you. Then everyone in the room knows. Everyone in the theater knows. Hell, it’s so loud when he brings a sledgehammer down on this one guy that I’m sure there we people two blocks over that were aware of his presence.

It’s a great treatment of the character because you want him to be this unstoppable monster, and keeping him hidden, keeping him covered is a lot more terrifying then getting a good look at him or actually seeing what’s beneath the mask. As it is he’s in and out of darkly lit shots so much that it’s hard to get a sense for him. Instead he’s just this unknown force that could strike at any moment. They nailed that aspect of the film.

But if you take into consideration that they had one of the best horror movie histories to work with then it just feels like a let down. They added so little. The previews promise answers to Leatherfaces birth. (Get this – he was born… from a lady!) They promise to reveal why he chose the chainsaw. (Because it was there.) They promise to tell us what turned him into a killer. Well you better make nice with the boss everybody because according to this movie, Leatherface’s flop from upstanding citizen to skin wearing maniac is based on unemployment.

Obviously there’s more to it than that, but they gloss over it so quickly that it might as well be that black and white. Before you know it this family turn from productive members of society to capable, merciless killers. All in all Leatherface is terrifying in the movie, but his history is treated as an afterthought and takes a backseat to hot young girls getting cut up.

Rating: 3 out of 10

I’m not even a huge fan of the franchise, and have nothing personally invested, but even I was disappointed by how underdeveloped it was. It’s not enough to just take the character and have him kill people. If you promise people a back-story, you better deliver something. The only thing this movie delivers is more of the same, and a footnote.

DVD Worthy?:

No way. For the die-hard fan’s maybe, but in my opinion, it adds so little to the larger story of Leatherface when the whole concept of a “beginning� promises so much more. It’s plenty scary, but that’s not enough for my DVD dollars.

Recommendation: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

The remake of the classic has all the blood, guts, and gore that this prequel offers and it has a similar Hollywood style to it. It’s polished and pretty and looks fantastic, but as shiny as it is, most fans say it could never match the original in terms of fear. I was plenty freaked out, but I can see what they’re saying.

Beginning follows the same story structure as the remake almost hitting the same major plot points at there same moments. But the real reason it wins between the two is because you don’t know how it’s going to end. You’re afraid for the kids but can always hang on to the shred of hope that they’ll be able to win out in the end. A little hope can make or break a movie.

Outside the Theater.

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Beginning may have been a let down but this weekend isn’t a total bust. Martin Scorsese’s new movie The Departed came out this weekend. I was lucky to catch a sneak peek of this movie last month, and it’s easily Scorsese’s strongest work in years and the best drama of 2006 so far. If you love crime films or are just looking for a great example of a complicated story told amazingly well, The Departed is not to be missed.