Wow, I haven't been this torn between liking and hating a movie in a while. I remember seeing the box for this movie at my nearby Family Video (my main source for horror movies), but for some reason it was ALWAYS in the new release section and I was too cheap to rent those movies, I was more a fan of the 2 for $1 VHS rentals. So today was the first time I've watched the flick which stars Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey.
There is a lot wrong with this movie. First off, the kids all end up in one car driving for a few minutes away from prom and yet, later in the movie when Zellweger is running away NOTHING IS AROUND. It doesn't make much sense. Another huge negative for me is this version of Leatherface. Instead of behing this huge, imposing, terifying mostly silent force of nature he's a yowling little wuss and as far as I can tell he's not actually wearing a mask of a human face but a wooden one in the beginning.
But it's not all bad. McConaughey is pretty scary and completely gives himself over to the character of a complete psychopath, though I'm not sure why he has a robot leg brace. Many of his scenes are even pretty scary as the camera doesn't cut away from his lunatic behavior. I also like the performances by the actors who play Barry and Heather. Barry's a total asshole who I loved hating. His lines are hilarious as many of them star with "Everybody knows you're..." "It's not my fault you..." or "My father is a..." He actually sounds like a character that Danny McBride would play today. And Heather is the dumb blonde girl who actually knows the score saying "There's people in the woods who are going to chase us down and kill us and lock us in cabinets." It's actually funny later when she tells Barry that she doesn't really believe any of the things she says, she just does it because she's bored and then all those things happen. Funny stuff.
Another character I really like is Darla who seems normal at first but (surprise surprise) turns out to be related to the Sawyer family. She's McConaughey's girlfriend or wife or something and she really does a great job of it. It's hard to explain her role, she's kind of frank and logical, seems like Renee but also loves the insane McConaughey, but hates his brothers (Leatherface and the quote-spewing and attributing W.E.. She's the funniest part of the movie.
And I think that's why I couldn't get a good grip on the movie, I had trouble figuring out if it was taking itself seriously or not because there are some seriously crazy parts. The best scene that Leatherface is in is his first where he grabs Heather and it's very physical and real-looking. But he's screaming the whole freaking time like a woman and wearing a jerry curl wig/pelt of some kind that just looks stupid.
As you'd expect the whole end of the movie involves a dinner scene with Renee trying to escape from the house over and over again. There's a bunch of scary-ish scenes, but it could border on torture-porn for some folks. At one point Darla confides in Renee that Matthew works for the Illuminati (the people who make the world go round). I kind of expected it to just go nowhere, but later on a dude shows up and says he's disapointed in Matthew for not spreading enough horror (or something). I have no idea what this means. The dude disapears, some more craziness happens and then Renee gets away and into an RV as Leatherface runs behind her dressed in a woman's suit with what looks like a large woman's chest skin under his jacket. It looks RIDICULOUS. Anyway, you think she's okay until they show up in a truck with Leatherface swinging his chainsaw at the RV until it goes off the road and flips over. Then, Matthew's chasing Renee and is just about to get her when a plane you saw a few minutes before and just assumed was a crop duster shoots him in the head. Then she turns around and there's a car right behind her with the weird dude from before in it. Leatherface seems freaked out and does a stupid chainsaw dance when the car pulls away. Ridonculous.
I've read that this is some peoples' favorite TCM follow up. I can't say if I even have one. I've got to watch 2 again and Leatherface (aka TCM 3) for the first time. I've also got the TCM remake's sequel ready to watch from Blockbuster so look out for that.
Finally, I have to put a call out to all of you folks who are so good at re-cutting movies into trailers like Must Love Jaws or 10 Commandments I Hate About You NEED to recut TCM: TNG into a romantic comedy trailer. PLEASE! I'll give you a dollar and link the crap out of it.
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