Did we need to know how Leatherface acquired his trusty power tool? No. Did I mind having the tale told anyway? Eh, not really, although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning so closely follows the machinations of its 2003 big brother (itself a remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 splatter classic), it’s nearly as much as a remake as it is the prequel it proclaims.
The 1939 prologue depicts the birth of Leatherface in, appropriately enough, a slaughterhouse. Abandoned in a Dumpster, the baby is rescued by the Hewitt family, whose Uncle Charlie (R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket) understandably opines, “That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Fast-forward to July 1969, the era of Vietnam, where four friends (more or less headed by Jordana Brewster of The Fast and the Furious franchise) in a van find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere, then at the mercy of a crazed clan of rednecks who live in a spooky house. The big guy carries a chain saw. Sound familiar? It should, right down to the climactic family dinner, with the only key difference being Leatherface not possessing his grisly mask of flesh until he carves it away from one of his victims. Oh, so that’s how he got that … whew! Mystery solved!
Director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans) shoots things so handheld, the film itself risks suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. The proceeding are too shaky, too dimly lit and too routine, yet there’s a lot to be said for watching Diora Baird (Wedding Crashers) bouncing around as she flees. —Rod Lott