The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) New Line/Horror RT: 96 minutes Unrated Version (language, strong graphic violence and gore, sexual content) Director: Jonathan Liebesman Screenplay: Sheldon Turner Music: Steve Jablonsky Cinematography: Lukas Ettlin Release date: October 6, 2006 (US) Starring: Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird, Matt Bomer, Lee Tergesen, R. Lee Ermey, Andrew Bryniarski, Terrence Evans, Marietta Marich, Kathy Lamkin, Lew Temple, Cyia Batten, Leslie Calkins, Tim De Zarn, Allison Marich. Box Office: $39.5M (US)/$51.7M (World)
Rating: ** ½
The basic problem with prequels is, more often than not, the ending is a foregone conclusion. In the case of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, those who have seen 2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre already know that the killers will live to see another day. They wouldn’t have been in the original movie otherwise, right? The audience can also deduce that none of the heroes are likely to survive since they surely would have notified the authorities about the gruesome goings-on at the Hewitt house thus negating the possibility of another movie. Where is the suspense in that? Seriously, we know where the story is going. The only point of interest in prequels is that they may or may not fill in a few blanks.
In the case of Beginning, it’s somewhat interesting to learn how Thomas Hewitt becomes Leatherface. It might be better to think of Beginning as more of an origin story. The question is do we really want to know the story behind Leatherface? In the original 1974 movie, we know nothing about his history, no psychological explanations are offered to explain his deranged state. He’s a maniac who wears a mask made from human flesh and wields a mean chainsaw, that’s it. In the more recent movies (more of a reimagining than a remake), we learn that Leatherface (aka Thomas Hewitt) was cruelly taunted and teased by his classmates due to some kind of weird skin condition.
Here’s the thing, isn’t it scarier to have a killer whose motives are unknown to both his victims and the audience? I think that most people would answer in the affirmative. All that being said, I feel roughly the same way about Beginning as I do about its predecessor, but with one major difference. Instead of losing steam about halfway into it, I think that the prequel actually gets better as it goes on. It really picks up in its final half hour thanks to some really awesome gory effects.
Leatherface’s story begins in 1939 when his mother dies giving birth to him while working at the local meat-packing plant. The manager (De Zarn, The Cabin in the Woods) disposes of the baby in a dumpster and a local woman, Luda Mae Hewitt (Allison Marich), discovers him while looking for food. She takes him home and raises him as her own. The story jumps ahead to 1969 where we find Tommy Hewitt aka Leatherface (Bryniarski) working at the same plant which has just been closed by the health department. I’m not going to go into detail about what goes down next, but it explains how (1) Leatherface racked up his first kill and acquired his trademark chainsaw and (2) how a psychotic like his brother Charlie (Ermey, Full Metal Jacket) became the local sheriff.
The focus then shifts to four young people traveling across Texas. They are Eric (Bomer, White Collar) and his brother Dean (Handley, Chasing Mavericks) and their girlfriends Chrissie (Brewster, The Fast and the Furious) and Bailey (Baird, Accepted). The brothers plan to enlist (in Eric’s case, re-enlist) to fight in Vietnam, but Dean has second thoughts that ultimately lead to him trying to burn his draft card. At the same time, they’re being followed by a couple of bikers that they encountered earlier at a roadside eatery. A resulting car accident leaves the youngsters in pretty sad shape, but the situation gets much worse once Sheriff Charlie arrives on the scene. When he finds the partially burned draft card, he goes ballistic. Chrissie watches from the weeds on the side of the road as he takes her three friends away. Naturally, he takes them to his house with the intention of handing them over to Leatherface. Chrissie hides in the wrecked car that Uncle Monty (Evans) tows back to the house. It’s now up to her to save her friends from a fate worse than anything imaginable.
Up to this point, Beginning isn’t particularly interesting. It gets kind of tiresome after a while and you just want the movie to be over. Things start to pick up when Leatherface finally starts putting his chainsaw to good use. The final half hour is a nice little bloodbath. I’m almost tempted to call it The Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas. There’s a generous amount of splatter and the effects are quite good, but it only makes the overall movie a little bit more tolerable. I honestly wish that one of these movies would live up to the “massacre” part of the title. When I see that word in the title, I expect copious amounts of gratuitous violence and extreme gore. It’s pretty sad that an underwhelming movie like Beginning comes closest to fulfilling this promise.
As is typical with this type of movie, there’s not much to be said about the acting and dialogue. Aside from a campy scenery-devouring performance from Ermey, it’s business as usual for the genre. The four young people look good and they can scream. That’s it. Not even the normally talented Jordana Brewster stands out among this unmemorable cast. In the end, I’d just assume watch the final 35 minutes or so and forget about the rest of the movie. Who says that I even wanted to know what makes Leatherface tick? Some things are better left to the imagination of the audience.
I don’t even know why somebody thought it necessary to re-imagine a movie that still retains its disturbing qualities after more than 30 years. I guess it’s the same line of thought that gave us unwanted remakes of Psycho and Night of the Living Dead. It’s thought that younger audiences would rather watch a “new” movie than some old movie that came out when their parents (or grandparents) were teens. If this is true, then it’s also tragic. The teens are really missing out on some pretty awesome flicks. Instead of watching something lame like Beginning, why not avoid both new movies and check out the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre? It may not be a bloodbath, but it’s unforgettably disturbing nonetheless because of the genetic freak show on display. Me, I’ll take the bloodbath portion of Beginning and leave the rest for the scrap pile.
