Two Texas Chainsaw Massacre flicks in one day? Maybe something's wrong with me. But, I'll be honest, I didn't find much wrong with this flick. Consider this movie the Year One of TCM movies as we get to see the birth of Leatherface, how his uncle played by R. Lee Ermey "became" a cop, Leatherface's first kill, chainsaw, chainsaw kill and his first human flesh mask. And it's all done very well by director Jonathan Liebesman who stays as far away from cheesy as possible, even when rehashing the same old TCM tropes you expect: the dinner scene, the girl jumping through a window and getting chased by Leatherface.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story starts in 1939 where we see Leatherface born, abandoned and found by the Hewitt family. I thought this was an interesting plot point because maybe Leatherface (aka Tommy) could have had a fairly normal life although his apparent facial disfigurment might have prevented that. It's kind of nature/nurture thing that isn't really touched on again, but it put an idea in my head and I like that. The main part of the story takes place in 1969 as two girls drive with their brother boyfriends as one plans to re-enlist for Vietnam and the other says he's going to join up, but really plans on heading to Mexico with his girlfriend. Meanwhile we see the meat packing plant that Leatherface works at getting shut down and R. Lee Ermey kills the last sheriff in town and puts the uniform on. Basically the Hewitts, lead by R. Lee, decide they're going to take over the abandoned town. Oh, they're also going to eat human flesh, starting with the the previous sheriff.
In a pretty great scene, the kids are getting hassled by this biker chick, the driver (the marine) is struggling to get his gun out the glove box when they smash into a car, wrecking it in the process. That's when they get caught up with R. Lee. The effects of the cow-explosion and all the later death scenes look gruesomely real. Just wait until Leatherface starts hacking people up.
From there it's a lot of what you'd expect and some things you wouldn't. Like I said above, the directing is fantastic as is R. Lee's performance. Unlike Matty M in TCM TNG, R. Lee plays the role with the same amount of brutality, but a lot more subtlety. And this Leaterface puts the TNG one to shame. He's a huge, beast of man mountain. And the filthy chainsaw really looks creepy.
My one complaint about the flick is how utterly stupid Chrissie (Jordana Brewster). First she tries looking around the destroyed truck she was in instead of getting on the biker chick's motorcycle and rolling away. Now, she does get points for going for her boyfriend's gun, but come on. It's just foolish. So, she ends up at the house with the rest of her friends and instead of making a break for it she spends the rest of the day and night trying to find a way to save her friends. I respect her sticktoitivness, but for cripes sake take the hint. There's one point where she finds the biker girl's boyfriend on the road, he wants his girl, so he ditches Chrissie. Again, she doesn't take HIS motorcycle and get away, she ends up in Leatherface's basement butcher shop. THEN she's making her escape when she hears the other girl screaming upstairs, so she goes back upstairs to try and help her. She was at the freaking door when she turned around. Ugh. By this point I was rooting for her to get iced. If any of my friends are reading this post, take note: don't come back for me if I'm being held captive by a family of psychopaths, cause I'm gonna steal the first motorcycle I can find and get out of there.
One thing I noticed about the movie is that I really really wanted the kids, especially the marine, to kill the entire family, I knew it wasn't going to happen due to its prequelness, which added a kind of hopelessness to the whole thing. Sure some of them could have gotten away SPOILER (no one does), but they weren't going to kill the bad guys. I do love the scene when dean smashes R. Lee's face into the porch a few times. It felt cathartic. It was also cathartic in a weird way when Leatherface popped up in the back seat of the car that Chrissie stole and chainsawed through her seat, killing her. Man she was dumb.
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