Cast/Notable Credits:
Marcus Nispel (Director): Friday the 13th
Jessica Biel (Erin): Blade 3 (2004), Cellular (2004), Stealth (2005)
(Pictured Right)
Jonathan Tucker(Morgan): The Ruins
Erica Leerhsen (Pepper): Blair Witch 2 (2000), Wrong Turn 2 (2007)
Mike Vogel (Andy): Poseidon (2005)
Eric Balfour (Kemper): Be Cool (2005), Hell Ride (2008), 24 T.V. series
Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface): TCM 2, Pearl Harbor (2001), Rollerball (2002)
R.Lee Ermey (Sheriff Hoyt): TCM 2, Man of the House (2005), Willard (2003), Toy Story 1 (1995) & 2 (1999), Seven (1995)
David Dorfman(Jedidiah): The Ring
Lauren German (Teenage Girl): Hostel 2
Trailer:
Plot:
During the summer of 73, five teenagers (Erin, Kemper, Morgan, Pepper, & Andy) are traveling back from Mexico through Texas on their way to a Lynard Skynard concert in Dallas. They pick up a young, female hitchhiker on an isolate country road in the heartland of Texas. Covered in blood and in a stage of shock, the hitchhiker pulls out a gun and decides to end her life in the back seat of Kemper's hippie van.They freak out and debate what to do. Maybe they can do what the idiots in I Know What You Did Last Summer did...ditch the body and pretend nothing happened...until the dead body came back for revenge. Oh wait...nevermind...this franchise has it's own way to kill young adults.
Eventually they come to their senses and pull off at the nearest gas station to report the suicide to the police against the group's popular vote. The county sheriff asks them to wait for him by a nearby mill, so the teens agree and head out to the abandoned mill for the sheriff's arrival.
After hours of waiting, Erin & Kemper venture off to find a phone while the others
wait patiently for the late sheriff. Erin & Kemper finally come accross a house, but unfortunately it is the Hewitt house. The home to the derranged, cannibalistic family and their mutant, chainsaw wielding son, Leatherface. What they encounter next would change their lives forever.Let's cut to the chase...it's a remake of another classic horror film. When I first heard that Michael Bay and his new production company Platinum Dunes was going to take a stab at remaking this, I thought to myself, "At least there will be big explosions. Plus a chainsaw. So explosions with a chainsaw. Oh great."
So I coughed up my $7.50 to see it in the theatre. I told myself early on, "Give it a
few years, or watchings to figure out whether to love or hate it." Expectations weren't high, because I went in thinking it's gonna suck and ruin the franchise. At least I'm going to see hotter chicks like Jessica Biel and Erica Leerhsen (pictured right).My first initial reaction to the film was "pretty good, but still not as good as the original". Now after watching years and years of terrible remakes of other movies, and sequels to those remakes, including this one, I gotta say that the film is pretty good. It's at least enjoyable to watch to all horror movie audiences.
I believe the media hype and film's promotion to society was excellent. Especially the trailer, it was kick-ass. I know I said going in that it was gonna suck, but at least the marketing was good. The producers and directors built the hype as "based on a true story". Technically it's not. But according to the studio execs, 8/10 people believed it is. Don't get me wrong, I don't tend to agree with anything they say, but based on personal run-ins with others, people basically believed it was based on a true story. They went with the idea and ran with it.
The original movie is gruesome, bizzare and totally F'd up, and I believe not a whole lot of people have actually sat down and watched it. Everyone's heard of it, but I don't think everyone's watched it. So we have the historical belief that there was a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and a remake reinforcing the idea of it being a true story, which leads up to a lot of people drinking the Kool-aid. Just like the Blair Witch Project. Also made up.
The idea of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is basically a collection of real life stories fabricated into one tale. The main real life event is the story of Ed Gein. (Old dude on the left) Ed Gein was a serial killer in the 50's in Wisconsin. Not Texas. Gein pretty much killed people and turned their body parts into furniture, clothing, masks, and he even ate the flesh. Popular themes through out the TCM franchise. Ed Gein is also the inspiration behind other horror films such as Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and numerous low budget movies based on his life story.Bottom line: people bought the idea of the true story.
Another aspect of the movie I liked was the visualization. The setting, scenery, look, atmosphere, and pace to the film was awesome. These are the reasons why some films should be remade. There's nothing wrong using modern technology to enhanced those parts of the film which early film making could not achieve. But that alone does NOT justify remaking everything. It helps, but does not merit a remake alone. Visually, this film was excellent. Especially the Jessica Biel butt and tummy shots. They could make a movie on those alone.
The film hit it on the head with the death sequences. Most of the deaths were good. Morgan's was a little over the top, but I didn't like him anyway. Favorite Death: *** Highlight to read *** The teenage hitchhiker girl. She blows her brains out with a gun. The camera pans out through the wound in her head out through the back window and out of the van. It was awesome looking. Started the film off on the right foot. Kemper's death was second. Leatherface came out being brutal. The thud Kemper makes after being whacked put me in the right mood.
Now for some negatives...the "It" factor. I just didn't think that the "It" was there. Everything looked nice and top notch, but nothing stuck me as memorable. I've seen everything before. The film wasn't a copy-paste of the original by all means, but I didn't think it brought anything new or memorable to the franchise outside of having hotter women. Just because you crank the sound up a notch during a scare scene, doesn't make it awesome.
Also one plot line/sequence struck me as kind of odd. Biel's character gets drugged and then wakes up in the family's living room being to
rmented. In all other TCM movies, it seems that the profile is to bound the victim then torment them. Even in the sequel, they established that. In this one, she wakes up and is not bound and free to take swings. When I initially saw the film, I was expecting the famous tied to the bone chair, or tied to the chair at the dinner table scene. I guess it just struck me as odd or out of character. Basically there was NO family dinner table scene!Another negative part of the film was that it seemed like a couple of scenes didn't fit into the film. Like the scenes where Morgan and Erin take refuge in the abandoned house. It made a awesome and gruesome ending to the Morgan character, but the whole sequence felt like a re-shoot to fill up movie time. I didn't think it really fit, or could have been done differently.
It was a well done scene, but it just some how didn't fit. I mean, an abandoned house in the middle of the film after being chased in the dark. Which the killer magically finds them hiding in. I don't know, it just seemed kind of wrong. The meat factory sequence seemed a little drawn out also.
Overall, I liked the film. Not as much as the original, but it's a close second. If nudity some how appeared in the film, I might be ranking it ahead of the original. But that's an "if" it showed up. It didn't. Sheriff Hoyt steals the show as the top villain, but Leatherface was still cool. Jessica Biel's character was a good choice for a strong, sexy female lead...pictured below.
It was director Marcus Nispel's debut movie, and for his first, it was pretty good. Next on his table...Friday the 13th. Let's cross our fingers and hope that it's going to be better than this. Not that this one was bad, but it'll make Friday incredible. Early word is that there is going to be enough nudity to make up for all the Platinum Dunes movies. Hell ya!
Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Filmed opened October 17, 2003 and made $80.1 million at the box office ($28 million opening weekend)
-Gunnar Hansen (original Leatherface) was asked to play the trucker at the end
-Katie Holmes considered for the role of Erin
-Dolph Lundgren considered for the role of Leatherface
-Only 2 are killed by the chainsaw
-Banned in the Ukraine
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