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Dean and
Eric are being sent back to serve in Vietnam
again so they decide to take one last road trip together
with their girlfriends before they have to leave. As
one might have all ready figured out, they don't get
very far until they run into trouble and after ending
up in a car accident, three of the friends get kidnapped
by Sheriff Hoyt and his demented family. It's now up
to Chrissie to save her friends before it's too late.
But what do you do when there's no help to be found?
Let me just start off by saying that if I could give
x.5 in ratings, this would have been a clear 3.5'er,
but since I don't do that, I have to give this a weak
four instead. I'm probably going to have a really hard
time reviewing this movie since I have such mixed
feelings towards it, but I'll do my best.
Two young couples are on a road trip when they collide
with a cow (to prevent these kind of accidents, please
eat meat). It doesn't take long before Sheriff Hoyt
shows up at the scene and takes three of the friends
with him. Meanwhile, Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), who
was apparently thrown out of the car in the collision,
hides in the long grass since she realizes that
something's not right here. And is she ever so right.
The four friends soon find themselves captivated by a
demented, cannibalistic family. Will anyone survive
this reign of terror?
If you haven't seen the trailer for this movie yet,
you probably understand from my plot description that
this is more or less a rehash of the remake. Sure, it
was indeed a winning concept, but I kind of wish that
they had done more with it. What makes this different
from the remake however, is the fact that this is much
more brutal and gory (obviously due to the popular
torture-porn trend), and it was really nice to see
that they've brought back the large amount of hysteria
and panic that we got in the original movie (I actually
missed this in the remake). All of this made the movie
feel more realistic than the remake - or any of the
sequels for that matter.
What this movie didn't have that made the remake so
brilliant though, was the scares and the jump scenes.
Sure, there's plenty of suspenseful and intense scenes
to be found in here, but there wasn't a single jump
scene in sight. This really disappointed me as that
was one of the things that I loved about the remake.
The gore almost made up for this, but not quite (but
how many prequels are better than the first movie
anyway? - I say first movie since I pretty much
consider this to be a new franchise now).
Another thing that was disappointing to see was how
underdeveloped the female characters were. The talented
and beautiful Jordana Brewster gives it 110% but it
still doesn't make up for the fact that her character
is completely flat. Such a shame since I think that
with a more complex character, she could have been
even better than Jessica Biel. And also, the girl in
the van of the remake, why wasn't she anywhere to be
found in this?
However, that was just about the only thing about the
remake that wasn't explained in this prequel and I
loved how every explanation that they gave us felt
believable and plausible. In the end, TCM: The Beginning
is extremely entertaining, but it's not quite as good
as the remake was and I really did miss all of the
jump scenes. In other words, it's pretty much what you
expect it to be - gory entertainment which is easy to
digest (at least for some of us).
The blood splatters everywhere when Leatherface starts
his chainsaw. We get severed legs, a slashed throat,
impalements, and a whole lot more.
Well, if you've seen the remake you know what to expect.
Nothing groundbreaking in this department.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a hugely
entertaining horror movie, but it's not quite as good
as the remake was. If you're a gore hound, you will
love it, but if you loved the first movie for its
scares, you will be disappointed. Still, this is one
of the best slasher franchises that we have going at
the moment so you should definitely check it out.
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