Yeah, yeah how many Chainsaw Massacre remakes can we have? None of them can be as good as the original. Just about every comment can be made and will be made, but you have got to admit that this one holds its own.
The latest installment in the Massacre family manages to add a bit or originality to the used and abused storyline made famous in 1974.
Based loosely (and I do mean loosely) on the exploits of serial killer Ed Gein, the same wack-job that also inspired Silence of the Lambs and Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the same tale told in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a few new twists of its own as a group of friends on their way to a Lynard Skynard concert find themselves picking up one hitchhiker too many.
As they barely avoid hitting a disturbed young lady walking down the middle of the road they decide to pick her up and try to find her help. That idea fails as she recognizes the area they are heading back to and decides to blow her brains all over the back window with a gun she had concealed in her dress, hidden only God knows where, making for one of the best exit wound scenes caught on film.
Now stranded on a desolate Texas road and caught in the sweltering heat the group decides to find help which ultimately gets them caught up in a web of madness they never expected.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is told as a retrospect of events as the opening scene brings back memories of the Blair Witch Project with a viewing of some old police footage rummaging through the madman’s house.
The one thing that really helps Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that they steer clear of extreme gore. Yes, there are fingers, ears, bodies, heads, etc. strewn about the damp basement, but they don’t go into extreme detail and focus more on the fright factor and try to get you to jump out of your seat as opposed to vomiting at your feet.
The agitated sheriff, played by R. Lee Ermy, doesn’t hurt as he yells and spouts off orders as if he were having flashbacks to his performance in Full Metal Jacket. You also cannot discount the fact that Jessica Biel is running around in tight jeans and a sweaty tank top, knotted at the waist, the entire movie drawing in all eyes from the male half of the audience, and maybe even a few of those wandering female eyes.
As a huge horror fan, I went in expecting a laugh out loud horror flick comparable to Jeepers Creepers 2, but I came out satisfied with the scare I had just witnessed. With a Halloween season short on “Halloween” movies it is nice to see there will be something at the theaters to add a little fright into the holidays.
