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All Movie Info
Starring:
Jordana Brewster, Andrew Bryniarski, R. Lee Ermey, Heather Kafka, Marietta Marich, Terrence Evans, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird, Matthew Bomer, Diora Baird
Directed By:
Jonathan Liebesman
Written By:
David J. Schow, Sheldon Turner
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
April 30th, 2008
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'Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning' is saved almost entirely by R Lee Ermey, whose performance is so delightfully twisted that it sort of makes everything else watchable. He gets all of the funniest and most memorable lines, and all he has to do is play the same character he did in Full Metal Jacket, only making him more homicidal and not screaming as much. I think the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror masterpiece, and have never really gotten into all those inferior sequels and senseless remakes, and here is a sequel to a remake, actually a prequel, that attempts to explain the origins of Leatherface, though there is not much to be learned about him, and he is relegated to the backburner anyway, as a secondary villain. Sheriff Hoyt (Ermey) is the scariest of the bunch, and he drains Leatherface of his monster status. Hoyt is not really a cop; he kills one and takes the car, uniform, badge, and shotgun. He is Leatherface's uncle. In the original, Leatherface lived with his two brothers and corpse-like grandpa (the old man who owned the gas station might have been his brother, or his uncle, but not likely his father). Here, Leatherface has an uncle, Hoyt, and maybe another uncle, Monty, whom Hoyt calls uncle, too. Then, there is the matriarch (I believe her name is Luda Mae), whom Hoyt calls mama, so I have no idea how she is related to Leatherface. Leatherface's name is Thomas Hewitt (played by the hulking Andrew Bryniarski), so at least we know that little tidbit of information now. At the start, we see his birth, to a woman on the floor of a slaughterhouse, the baby found later in a garbage bin.
So, Leatherface might have simply been found by the Hewitt clan and is thus not related to them by blood. He works in that slaughterhouse until it closes down, and the manager forces him to leave. Thomas is deformed and probably even mentally retarded. He makes himself masks from human skin to hide his appearance, has some sewing skills, lots of physical strength, and is also very good at cutting people up with sharp objects. Hoyt does most of the work, though, capturing anyone he can find on the deserted Texas highways and bringing them home for Thomas to prepare as a meal. His victims this time around are brothers Eric and Dean (Matthew Bomer and Taylor Handley), and their girlfriends Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) and Bailey (Diora Baird). Eric is traveling to California to head back to Vietnam; he expects Dean to go with him, but Dean has other plans. They end up getting captured by Hoyt, except for Chrissie, who is left alone to find and rescue the other three. Eric and Dean are strung up in the barn; Bailey is tied under the kitchen table. Hoyt derives great pleasure from beating and torturing helpless people, psychopath is probably an understatement. He even has Leatherface hack off Monty's legs after he is shot, so his depravity spares no one. The movie is extraordinarily unpleasant and gruesome, but then I suppose that may part of its overall success. Ermey steals the show. But I also liked Kathy Lamkin as the Tea Lady, a grotesquely obese neighbor who waddles over to the Hewitt house for a bit of afternoon conversation with Luda Mae.
Chrissie breaks into the house, tries to rescue Eric, fails, locates Dean outside caught in a bear trap, and almost leaves before she decides to try and save Bailey. Brewster's lungs get a workout, but she is not quite as sexy or as effective as Jessica Biel in the Marcus Nispel remake from 2003. I thought Handley was the best among the young cast, convincingly revealing Dean's conflicted emotions about the war. Cinematographer Lukas Ettlin captures the grime and grit of the Hewitt abode, keeping the atmosphere suitably hopeless and bleak, one can imagine what kinds of smells may emanate from the revolting stew served at the Hewitt dinner table. And certainly the movie cuts right to the chase, narrative-wise much leaner than any previous TCM flick. It delivers precisely the type of experience most horror fans would expect.
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 | Zombie Boy
May 1, 2008 5:31 AM
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| This movie failed for me, simply because being a prequel, I know that anyone I saw in the previous film cannot die. Ergo, it never built tension. Here are kids, here is the family, kids die, credits roll. It was a well done movie, and I agree Ermey was a treat, but no tension equals a forgettable movie. |
 | Suzanne
May 8, 2008 3:37 PM
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| I love Brewster, but I just couldnt watch this film. If something is going to make me squeamish, theres got to be more to entice me. I agree with Zombie, from what I saw it was rather bland. Nothing new. |
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