A group of friends passing through are stalked and hunted down by a deformed killer with a chainsaw in order to sustain his poor family who can only afford to eat what they kill.
Two words: Michael Bay! For those of you who have read my past reviews you will know I’m not a fan of him and never have been, so If you’re expecting to read a great review of this film then you’re going to be truly disappointed.
Michael Bay’s films are paper thin plots with lots of sub plots that lead nowhere and to stop you realising this he pumps his films full of gore and women. Well there’s no change here. Jesicca Beil is used as eye candy so much through out the film in her skimpy clothes that instead of feeling for her character and what she goes through she gets viewed more as a piece of meat (no pun intended). This is what we are used to seeing in all his films, I don’t know how he does it, his films are all the same just different actors.
Then there’s Leatherface. He’s now a tall guy with huge muscles, although that isn’t surprising (Remember the “F13” Reboot?!) before Andrew Bryniarski was cast as Leatherface they originally wanted Dolph Lundgren, so that gives you a clue as to the direction they were going in. We also see Leatherface get unmasked in this instalment, if we’ve learnt anything from the past Horror franchises it’s dont unmask the killer, it takes away the mystery and usually leaves you very disappointed.
With this being a re-boot it was obvious there were going to be changes to the story but you must never tamper with the original template. For instance it never mentions that the family is cannibalist….REALLY?! That was one of the big scare points of the original films, it was seen as a reason to explain to explain why the family is so messed up. Oh yeah, IT WAS ALSO THE REASON LEATHERFACE HAD A CHAINSAW!!!! He cut the bodies up for meat but made faces and costumes out of the skin, big mistake there. What else? Oh there are 7 members of the family but infamous “grandpa” from the first four movies is not included. There are so many other changes that the list goes on and on and on.
The one thing I will give credit for is the casting of R. Lee Ermey, he was perfect as Sheriff Hoyt but he unfortunately can’t do enough to save this film. I never recommend this to anyone, just see the original, or if you want a modern version there is Rob Zombies “House of a 1000 Corpses” which is highly influenced by “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
High budget does not guarantee high creativity and this film is a great example of that. I know I’ll have rattled a few cages with this review as there are MANY people out there who love this film, some even prefer it to the original. Well you can keep this and leave the original for the rest of us.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
Gunnar Hansen was asked to play the role of the trucker in the end of the film. He rejected the offer.
The severed head of Harry Jay Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News can be seen in the basement of Leatherface’s house.
Erin’s last name was supposed to be Hardesty, the same last name as lead character Sally (‘Marilyn Burns’) from the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
A deleted subplot detailed Erin being pregnant, which was why, when they went to Mexico, she didn’t “drink the water” or “smoke the weed”, as they talked about in the final cut.
Daniel Pearl, cinematographer The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, reprized the position for this movie.
There’s a homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre regarding each film’s leading ladies Erin (2003) and Sally (original). In the remake, Erin pulls out a knife to unpick a lock. When asked where she got it from, she replies “from my brother”. In the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sally’s brother Franklin is obsessed with his knife, and at one point in the film gives it to Sally. She never returns it.
After learning about the remake, Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface) went up to producer Michael Bay at a Christmas party and personally asked him for the role.
On his final day of shooting, Eric Balfour stripped down, threw his wardrobe back to the crew, and walked off the set only wearing a baseball cap.
The remake saw is a Husqvarna 359 with a 28″ guide bar. These saws are made today and were not available in 1973 Texas.
In the original script, the character Jedidiah was going to wear a Felix the Cat T-shirt throughout the movie. This was later scraped because the copyright holders of Felix the Cat wouldn’t allow it. However, the novelization of the movie features the character wearing the shirt. Also, Jedidiah was going to be killed by Leatherface by slicing his chainsaw through his back because he let Erin and Morgan go. This was later scrapped because the filmmakers thought it was too intense.
Lauren German, who plays the Hitchhiker, originally auditioned for the role of Erin.
In the original script, the Hitchhiker was 15-16 years old. The filmmakers later decided to changed her age to make her about the same age as the principal cast.
In 2002 Marilyn Manson was announced as the composer for this project. He rejected the offer.
Banned in Ukraine by the Ministry of Culture.
Erica Leerhsen screamed so loudly during her screen test that people in other parts of the building called the police to report that a woman was being attacked.
During the scene in the van with R. Lee Ermey (The Sheriff) and Jonathan Tucker (Morgan), Tucker forced the gun down his throat in order to make himself vomit every take. If you watch carefully you can see him spit the vomit out of his mouth in the scene.
Dolph Lundgren was first considered to play Leatherface, He rejected the offer.
The bumper sticker on Kemper’s van reads: “Nothing is true / Believing is permitted”, an obvious reference to the movie’s “Based on actual events” claims.
‘Evan Rachel Wood’ was considered for the role of the hitch hiker.
Kirsten Dunst, Katie Holmes and Jessica Alba were considered to play Erin.
The film was made into a haunted house at Universal’s “Halloween Horror Nights” in both Florida and Hollywood Universal parks.
