Volume 3, No. 41 October 24, 2003
Teens perish in ‘chain’ reaction A Review By Elizabeth H. Raley I went to see “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” with a friend of mine. We went in expecting to be thrilled and horrified, but we just felt tense and disturbed. A movie hasn’t honestly scared me since I saw “Poltergeist” (directed by Tobe Hooper, who also directed the 1974 version of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) at the tender age of four, so I wasn’t expecting much (but there is always hope). The last movie that left me feeling disturbed was “The Cell,” but now I can add this one to the list. The disturbing atmosphere begins soon after the start of the movie when a van-full of five “youths” headed to a Skynyrd concert in Dallas pick up a very deranged girl on the side of the road. The girl then proceeds to shoot herself in the head. That begins the downward spiral into a living hell for the five friends. The unhappy luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time only gets worse as the teens stop at a gas station/barbecue restaurant for help. From there they are directed to an old mill to wait for the sheriff (R. Lee Ermey) who, when he finally gets there, takes great pleasure in torturing them to the brink of insanity. Because this is a horror movie of course, a couple of the teens (Jessica Biel and Eric Balfour) break off from the waiting group to wander around looking for more help. Instead they happen upon a house that contains the insane, cannibalistic Hewitt family, including Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), a chainsaw-wielding maniac who wears a mask made of the skin of his victims. From that point on, it can be expected that a lot of people are going to suffer twisted, grotesque deaths. Compared to the original version (which I also viewed recently), the new movie has a lot more substance, a lot more gore and more graphic, detailed art direction. The original does not have a suicidal girl, and Leatherface looks almost comical in the original version of his costume. It does include an extraordinarily deranged scene at the dinner table that the newer version does not. It is also clearer in the original that the Hewitts are actually cannibals, giving this as one of the reasons for the massacre and the barbecue restaurant. The original does not have the same paralyzing, muscle-clenching tension that the new release does. This remake does the original justice, I think, because I actually felt disturbed after seeing it while I didn’t after viewing the original. I think that at the time, the original was probably more shocking, but in today’s world, the newer one fits better. Anyway, go see it if you want to see gratuitous violence, graphic gore and a twisted psychological plot. Think twice about taking your kids with you.
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