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| Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (2003) |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 110 |
| Public Rating: 6.61 (283 votes) |
Director: Marcus Nispel |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Horror |
Year: 2003 |
| Writer(s): Tobe Hooper & Him Henkel |
| Distributor: New Line Cinema |
| Reviewed by: Scott S. |
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When Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel sat down to write the screenplay for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" roughly 30 years ago, neither of them ever expected their story to become one of the most beloved cult-classics of all time. Leatherface, the mass-murderer who terrorized his victims with a roaring chainsaw, was a character loosely based on Ed Gein, a real-life serial killer who inspired numerous movie killers including Norman Bates (Psycho) and Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs).
After three dreadfully unsuccessful sequels, the last one being attempted in 1994, it was time to revamp the original. Considered for the directing position was Michael Bay, the high-octane action director who instead got to be one of the producers. The job was finally given to Marcus Nispel, whose resume includes just two gigs; both of them being music videos. I was woeful upon learning this awhile back because music-video directors don't necessarily make good film directors. One example is McG, a guy who directed a Korn video before getting both "Charlie's Angels" projects which were essentially music videos with lots of action and special effects. So I had my doubts. Given the green light, Nispel completed the remake, and I now present one of the first reviews available of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
A group of five in their Scooby Doo van is traveling through Travis County, a rural part of Texas uninhabited by most and generally devoid of tourists. The year--like the original film--is 1973. So thankfully, we don't have to worry about the cell phones, laptops and PDAs that have become factors in modern horror movies.
The young twenty-something year olds have just scored some marijuana from Mexico and are on the way to a Lynard Skynard concert enjoying their recently acquired pot. Anyone who knows my "marijuana usage in horror films" law knows where this is going.
The group includes Erin (Jessica Biel), her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour), Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), her boyfriend Andy (Mike Vogel), and Morgan (Jonathan Tucker); the jokester of the group. The opening scene (which follows a narrated intro) shows the group traveling together; happy and enjoying the road trip.
But the festivities come to an end when they spot a staggering girl (Lauren German) in the road shaking from hysteria. They pick her up and try to calm her down and understand her situation. They soon realize that she's covered in blood and gets more frightened as they enter the mysteriously desolate town. At about this time we witness an extremely gruesome action take place, and it successfully gets the audience in the mood for more terror to come.
The group desperately needs a police officer, but a town local tells them that they can't get to him by vehicle. Three of them stay with the parked van and "investigate" the surroundings while the other two search for help in the direction of a large plantation in the distance that sits in a wide open field surrounded by forest and shadows. This will be the last time that the group finds themselves together. The real horror begins when Erin and Kemper make their way into the front-yard of that large country plantation. The house belongs to a cannibalistic family, inbred and extremely malicious. In that family is of course our pal Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), whom dispatches his victims with his rusty chainsaw. Leatherface makes a quick entrance and begins slicing away at his victims.
Each victim at one point or another finds him/herself alone and pitted against the backdrop of what we have come to expect from films about crazy cannibalistic families. Tortured dolls are on display around Leatherface's property, and the basement is decorated with ears, eyes and other assorted body parts nailed to the walls. Most victims are chased down by Leatherface and his chainsaw, while others are sabotaged from out of nowhere that will surely get a scream or many out of most moviegoers.
The action is fluid and the chase scenes are done well, although there are a few times when Leatherface misses when he definitely should have nailed his target. I understand that his accuracy can't be perfect, otherwise they'd all be dead by the second act. And we can tell who the more important characters are by how long it takes for Leatherface to strike down from his chainsaw-in-the-air pose, and that could have been avoided.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," as a modern horror movie, is above-par brutality-wise. It's extremely graphic and complete with dismemberments, impaling by metal hooks, and a surprisingly gory bullet-through-the-head sequence that the camera doesn't shy from.
I was impressed with the acting and overall performances by our five-some. Unlike in the majority of horror movies, the characters here are likable and have more than one side to them. While we quickly label them handsome, romantic, goofy, conservative and quiet, they each display different characteristics when the plot calls for it. Abominable films like "House of 1000 Corpses" make their characters thin and unlikable. The audience at the screening I attended of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" actually cheered when a character got away or struck back at Leatherface. That's the way it should be.
Marcus Nispel also impresses through smart directing as he keeps the shots close and the pace at a good rate. But it's not just the gore and detail he focuses on; his camera often gets distracted by Jessica Biel's body as she approaches the house in her tight jeans or crawls out of a labyrinth soaking wet. Whether that's a good thing or not I will leave up to your personal interpretation. Nispel and cinematographer Daniel Pearl do an excellent job framing the shots to keep us close near the action but distant when appropriate, such as the sterile captures of the hellish plantation in the distance and the use of the ever popular ominous horizon backlit effect.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)" is a worthy film and has rightfully earned its title. There are quite a few genuinely shocking moments that had the entire screening audience I was at doing the wave. And even better, it's minimal on the false-alarm scares with only one or two instances where a character would stick his hand in a hole and pretends to be caught on something. Never did the film try to lose its original concept, as only one additional screenplay writer (Scott Kosar) was used in addition to the two original writers.
So now the answer to the question that you've been waiting for: Is the 2003 version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" as good or better than the 1974 original? This does not have a concrete answer simply because the first film is a classic and deserves the acclaim it received. But shoulder to shoulder, the remake is an improvement. It's gorier, but more importantly it's more intense. It's hard to say better, but in today's time it's a scarier movie. In today's time I wouldn't call Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," scary, and neither would I the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." They're the same film, only one is newer.
The original will always be a classic; a cult-favorite that delighted audiences before the following decade gave us the never-ending supply of derivative slasher flicks. For that, you can never say the remake is better, but in some ways it is.
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