Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning: The Flop

In response to an article titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/71226/te-
xas_chainsaw_massacre_the_beginning.html, My husband and I went to see the new series of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on October 13th. I walked out of the theater very disappointed.

The movie previews led me to believe that the movie would be about the BEGINNING, how and why this all started. Contrary to belief, the movie spent a total of about 30 minutes in it's explanation of why Thomas Hewitt became the chainsaw slayer. The rest of the movie simply turned out to be a repeat of the previous movie.

There was a lot more blood and guts shown in The Beginning, and a few points of suspense that left me wanting to close my eyes. Like Heidi said, your typical person would have acted and responded a lot differently that how the characters in the movie acted. Several times I was yelling at the screen "Why would you do that!" It wasn't real or believable at all.

The movie begins with Dean and his brother Eric enjoying a trip across-country with their girlfriends before Dean has to serve in Vietnam. Then the movie flashbacks to the dirty slaughterhouse where an obese redneck lady is giving birth, but you don't see anything, you just hear something unusual. Then you see a little baby with a messed-up head (Leatherface!). He gets dumped into a dumpster, only to be discovered and taken home by Luda Mae and Monty. Those poor Texans bring the baby up to be just like them - his face hidden behind a partial mask.

Tommy Hewitt is then shown a few years later (tall, dirty, and on the heavy side) working in the slaughterhouse with his adoptive dad. When the place is forced to shut down, Tommy gets his pink slip. However, he doesn't want to leave so he murders his boss with…you guessed it - a chainsaw.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tommy's uncle (the notorious R. Lee Ermey) is killing the one and only local Sheriff. He steals his uniform and assumes his identity. He makes everyone call him Sheriff Hoyt from then on.

The movie then skips back to 1969 when the four friends are cruising through Hewitt territory. They stop at Luda Mae's country market and diner for a few things. There, they are stared at and gawked by a gang of bikers. After they leave in a hurry, one of the bikers follows them and gives them a hard time. Well, needless to say, their truck ends up flipping and a cow gets dismembered. Then, the sheriff shows up and things get started up.

From there on out, the movie is full of the typical screaming, blood, and brutality. The only one that got away from the wreck was Dean's girlfriend. Throughout the movie, she sneaks around trying to free her friends. With no luck, she gets caught sneaking around the Hewitt home towards the end. You can guess what happened next. Just like previously, she runs from Leatherface straight into the dark slaughterhouse.

So, we knew to begin with that everyone was going to get killed. Otherwise, the girlfriend would have lived to rat out the Hewitts. Therefore, there was no suspense about the outcome like other horror movies.

I do give the movie kudos for the quality and scenery props. The colors of the film really set the mood greatly. Everything was appropriately gray and dull. The house was gloomy and desolate. Dried blood was all over. It did make me feel like I was in a haunted house and running around scared in the dark. With the gore, this movie held true to being a Horror film with a R rating.

I would have loved to see the majority of the movie focus more on the life and beginnings of Leatherface. Instead, this movie quickly became a close similarity to the original. I am feeling disappointed.