By Geno McGahee
One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1974 TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. It resembled a demented home movie. It was a horror masterpiece that influenced horror for years to come and brought true terror to the screen.
As usual, Hollywood wouldn’t leave well enough alone and in 1986, came out with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and claimed that the “buzz is back,” but it was a lame attempt at taking a serious horror movie and turning it into a comedy. It was a terrible film that turned off a lot of TCM fans.
In 1990, LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3 was released and it was another sad attempt to recreate the magic in the first. Heavily influenced by the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies, the third entry felt nothing like a TCM movie and the storyline was pretty bad. Although far superior to the second, this one can be considered a mediocrity at best.
There was some excitement for TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 4: THE NEXT GENERATION. In 1994, this film was a sequel to the first, dismissing the other two as not legitimate follow ups. The trailer for this film looked great and it wasn’t bad. It did capture some of the feel of the first, but it didn’t make a great deal of sense and a lot of the story sucked. It was OK for a straight to video follow up, but it is not a quality horror film.
Things got really shitty in 2003 when THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE was released. It traded scares for gross out scenes and didn’t understand anything about the characters or even how people really act. It was unbelievable, horribly written and Leatherface became some huge, stupid beast. This makes 2 and 3 look like masterpieces. Amazingly, this was popular and allowed a 2006 follow up: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. Wow, these are two movies that show what’s wrong with Hollywood horror. Calling them crap is an insult to crap. After watching these, I lost all hope…but it’s 2013 and TEXAS CHAINSAW was released on Blu-ray and DVD…
The film starts where the last 1974 film left off…thank God! They ignored the other six movies and started anew, which was a great idea. I immediately liked the look and atmosphere and when the family was approached the cops to give up, they are reluctantly going to, but the rednecks show up and open fire on the house and kill grandpa! What?! I found it incredibly amusing that he was still holding the hammer. He really wanted to hit somebody else with it.
The entire family is killed with the exception of two. An infant is spared and Leatherface survives. Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) plans a trip to Texas with her friends after she inherits a house and some money. She is warned not to, but this is free stuff. You can’t turn that away. So, she brings her boyfriend, Ryan (Trey Songz), best friend Nikki (Tania Raymonde), and Nikki’s wannabe man, Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sanchez). There are some secrets in the circle, but that’s not the story. Leatherface is the story and let me say that Dan Yeager played it as well as anyone could have. He understood the character and it felt like the original character had finally returned.
The intrusion into the home that Heather inherits sends Leatherface on a killing spree, which includes crashing a carnival. The town’s dirty secrets are exposed and you have to make a decision who the true villains in this really are. This movie is great fun from the jump and it really gets more fun as it goes on. Being a TCM fan, I can say that they finally brought it back the right way.
I have a few gripes…nothing big. The Leatherface masked still looked too much like latex…sort of like the mask used in the third entry in the original series. In the first, they were able to make it look like real skin and that made the character that much more creepy. Heather is a great character, played incredibly well by Daddario, but her friends were rather forgettable. They gave good performances, but they felt like characters yanked right out of a FRIDAY THE 13th movie. They were there to die…that’s about it. The CGI that was used was pretty bad too…but there wasn’t much of it. I can deal with it…but would have loved to see the gore all old school.
Daddario pulls off the emotional roller coaster well and plays the tough chick with a soft side very well. She was the right actress for the role. I especially enjoyed her interactions with Leatherface later in the film.
TEXAS CHAINSAW has brought back the movie that I loved so much in the right way. It was such a pleasant surprise. If you are a TCM fan that has given up, I ask you to check this one out. You may see new hope for the series. We were owed this after the 2003 and 2006 entries. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 8/10 – the Buzz is Back…really, it is!
This movie was so absolutely retarded, and an insult to the series. The fact that you consider “the next generation”, the OTHER totally retarded movie in the franchise to be quality, says volumes about your taste.
Right from the start, the movie drops the ball. Did you actually SEE the original TCM? Okay, there’s Grampa, and a couple other loonies – who are all these other people in the house? Who’s the woman with a damn baby? Really?
I love your positive attitude. You get your point across very well. The ball was dropped well before this movie….it was dropped immediately when they made the sequel. This was a very good entry that captured the feel of the first. If you don’t agree, then my life will go on.