DVD Reviews

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

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Two brothers head on one last road trip with their girlfriends, before being shipped to Vietnam to fight the commies. With one brother seemingly excited about a return to action (Bomer) the other is terrified and plans to draft-dodge to Mexico. If this wasn't dramatic enough, there is also a bunch of cannibalistic hillbillies with a fondness for chainsaws to contend with. A prequel to the remake of three years ago, Beginning has more likeable characters, with Bomer's soldier on his way to his second tour, standing out as both noble and brave with context for both; and Brewster's scream-queen matching Biel's ballsy broad at every turn. But the problem isn't with the characters or the gritty execution; it's with the actuality that this is a prequel. It loses out on substantial amounts of tension because we inevitably know the outcome to every (admittedly horrific) set piece, so we're thrown excessive amounts of gore to make up for it. This may deeply disappoint fans of the original, who will remember that as terrifying as it was, there was very little gore - it was what director Hooper implied that shocked you. Fundamentally, it's a rethread of the remake disguised as an origin story for Leatherface, with a paper-cut-out montage and about 15 minutes of exposition ("like them kids that bullied you in school"), theoretically meant to give you sub-text to his actions. Sound pointless? That's because it kind of is. We don't really need to know why Leatherface likes chopping up people - you can work out for yourself that a deformed fat kid would be bullied at school (hell, he didn't even have to be deformed).There is fun to be had in Emry's performance though, wisely playing for comedy when the bloodletting becomes almost ridiculous. Elsewhere, director Liebesman does well with what he has, replicating Marcus Nispel's tone - but his camera is intrusive when Nispel's was fluid, making for a faintly different feel. Ultimately pointless, but more than sporadically entertaining.

Review by Mike Sheridan