Review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) by Al M — 06 Aug 2010

For starters, I loved the Chainsaw remake--it was not brilliant, but it took the original, tweaked it, and created something that was brutal and entertaining. Also, Jessica Bielmade an awesomely hot and bad-ass heroine.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is still a pretty entertaining film, but it lacks something fundamental. I think part of its problem is that it removes the mystique from the Hewitt clan. In both Tobe Hooper's original and the remake, the Hewitt clan are glimpsed in snippets and their motives are never made clear.

This film is brutal and features an unflinching, gritty aesthetic, but it simply explains too much. We see the birth of Leatherface as a deformed child, the closing of the slaughterhouse, the Hewitt clan's turn towards cannibalism, and all these details are depicted in a gruesome fashion, but they actually detract from the story instead of adding to it.

The explanations make the family objects of pity instead of fear. The original film injected moments of pity, but they were far outweighed by brutality and perversion. Not too bad as far as horror sequels (or prequels) go, but nothing overly special.