From Jason Voorhees’
signature hockey mask to Mike Myers’ William Shatner mask, masks are essential
in American horror movies, and the scariest is undeniably Leatherface’s, which
he skinned from one of his victim’s face and sewed it together as a façade to
how deformed he is. Despite that this prequel gives little psychological looks
at Leatherface’s behavior, it does give horror fans a look at how the
horrifying mask was made.
Debruge notes, “Hewitt’s
sorry life dawns in a seedy slaughterhouse that, circa 1939, has seen none of
the reform Upton Sinclair advocated in “The Jungle.”” Sitting on a fly-covered
conveyor belt, a pregnant employee, played by Leslie Calkins, and gives birth
to a malformed baby, unassisted. After this lady dies and the infant is
stranded, he is rescued by Luda Mae Hewitt (Allison Marich) and is brought home
to Charlie Hewitt Jr./Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey).
Thirty years later, the
same slaughterhouse fails a health inspection test, but Thomas Hewitt refuses
to stop cutting meat. In response to the boss, played by Tim De Zarn, demanding
him to leave, Thomas beats him over the head, and then sees if there is a
better weapon. Soon, he finds the famous chainsaw that made him famous.
The sheriff, played by
Lew Temple, finds Thomas, who still has the chainsaw. Because this is a stupid
cop who leaves his shotgun in the car and Charlie in the passenger seat, the
sheriff gets out of the car to interrogate Thomas. Looks like Charlie thirsts more
for murder than Thomas does, and he shoots the sheriff from behind. Later, as
they are eating the man’s boyd for dinner, he says, “We ain’t never gonna go
hungry again.”
Debruge mentioned, “As
scripted, these scenes might have played for camp or comic effect, but
Liebesman hews close to the 2003 pic’s bile-tinged snuff-film aesthetic. His
approach falls somewhere between the overwrought sadism of the “Saw” series and
the giddy gore-for-gore’s-sake energy of “The Devil’s Rejects,” sharing those
films’ twisted notion that today’s auds are willing to embrace such homicidal
maniacs as heroes.”
To start his murdering
job, what Leatherface really needs are victims, and this movie rightfully gives
him a fresh group of teenagers (Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird
and Matt Bomer) to meet his match – two brothers enlisted for Vietnam and their
girlfriends tagging with them. Debruge noted, “Of the four, Jordana Brewster
escapes much of the movie’s brutality, outliving her less fortunate co-stars
long enough to find a “Wolf Creek”-worthy surprise waiting in the backseat of
her getaway vehicle.”
Conservatives asking
what happened at the family dinner scene (deleted from the 2003 remake) will be
happy to find a more disturbing scene recreated here. Audiences should be noted
not to try watching this movie while or after eating.
Debruge ended his
review by saying, “Technical aspects mimic the 2003 pic, which traded
original’s low-budget verite style for a more contemporary musicvideo look.”
In my opinion, I
thought that this movie was actually better than the remake, if you can believe
that. Maybe it was because this movie scared me while the 2003 remake didn’t
really but had me questioning the kids’ motives. However, I do give this a
recommendation, but if you don’t like, I can understand why. I think that this
is probably second best in the franchise.
Well, tomorrow I will
be looking at an interesting one in the final installment of my “Texas Chainsaw
Massacre marathon.” What I mean is that they actually attempted another sequel
taking place directly after the original movie. How is it? Does it turn out
good or another bad installment? Find out tomorrow in the finale to my review
on this franchise for “Halloween Month.”
No comments:
Post a Comment