The Texas Chainsaw Masscre: The Beginning

September 27, 2006

Rated: R Runtime: 130 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I guess you can call this the prequel to the remake of the original if you want to get overly picky but in my opinion it’s just as good if not better than the remake, so the franchise is definitely back on track. And on that note lets get to the meat of it: This movie is gory and at times obscenely violent but it does have the words chainsaw massacre in the title so we got exactly what we expected, which is to say one helluva start to the Halloween season.

The Texas Chainsaw Masscre: The Beginning This edition of the storied franchise (we do not speak of next generation… EVER) takes us the viewer to the grass roots beginning of one Thomas Hewitt A.K.A. Leatherface. Born (sort of) in a slaughterhouse in 1939, Tommy starts out very early in the murdering business by killing his bio mom during child birth (sort of). Being a bit freaky looking the slaughterhouse manager tosses the little monster in the dumpster, where the Hewitt family finds him and raises him as their own. Fast forward 30 years and you find a much older Tommy working in the very same slaughterhouse that spawned him and this is when the real story starts.

The town is drying up, there’s no money, water or food and everyone is abandoning the area, including the owner of Tommy’s slaughterhouse. The floor supervisor tells him he has to leave the place is closing… well actually it was more like ‘get out of here you big dumb retard’, and Leatherface (at this point he really does wear a mask made of leather) who apparently may actually be dumb is in fact not deaf, and in his own special way disagrees with his managers decision to downsize. Tommy being the dedicated employee that he is decides to eliminate head count for his boss so he doesn’t have to worry about anything EVER again. So, Mr Hewitt finishes his managers exit interview and just as he’s finishing up for the day he catches something out of the corner of his good eye, a blood drenched chainsaw; and thus a life long love affair begins.

From this point the local Sheriff, who’s also planning to leave like everyone else, goes out to the Hewitt place to arrest Tommy. Tommy’s uncle joins the sheriff and they drive around looking for him, and they find him… let’s just say by the time this part of the movie is over there’s a new Sheriff in town and we’ll leave it at that. The family led by the *new* Sheriff Hoyt, decides from this day forward that they will never go hungry again, and it’s on that day that the monster Leatherface is born.

The rest of the movie is predictable in the sense that you know Leatherface (Bryniarski) kills a lot of people (see remake), and that Sheriff Hoyt (Ermey) is the only law there is, but the origin is only half the adventure and the gore is the definitely the other. I have said on more than one occasion that I do not like torture movies, and for the most part there are scenes in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning that are nothing but torture for the sake of torture and it disturbs me, so gore is no where near in short supply. All I can say is thank goodness for R. Lee Ermey, as he is able to throw in a few moments of levity amongst the otherwise uncomfortable ones.

If you want gore, this movies got it, if you want dark humor that’s there too, but the real reason for seeing this movie is the story. For the first time ever in my opinion a film got it right when it comes to the origin of a beloved movie maniac, and that made this movie rank right up there with some of the best ones I’ve seen.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 4 Stars, Andrew Bryniarski, Diora Baird, Horror, Jordana Brewster, Matthew Bomer, R, R. Lee Ermey, Theatrical