The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning 1/2*

I have come to realize that there is no such thing as horror anymore. The genre is slowly being replaced with torture. And not torture in the way that it is torture to sit through anymore of this stuff, simply torture in the way that every "horror" film out there is about somebody tying someone else up and doing things to them. It started with "Saw," but it's progressed and brought along carbon copies like "Hostel," and now "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning." This is my first delve into the world of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and after it was over I had no interest in renting either the original or the remake. It is simply brutal, to the point where it isn't even entertaining, and bloody to the point where it isn't even fun to watch. Instead it's an hour and a half of people being treated like meat, being hung up, having their legs cut off, seeing bone, until the final bloody moment where it doesn't even matter what is going on anymore. And it's not even clever, like the "Saw" movies tend to be. Instead it's people getting hurt, over and over again, until they are all dead. Sounds like fun, huh? It really isn't, and if I didn't see this one for free, I would regret ever watching it.

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" begins with a old meat factory where one of the employees gives birth. The birth kills the mother right away, but the child is adopted by a woman and her husband, who declares him as one of the ugliest things he's ever seen. Years later, in 1969, the baby is now named Tommy, and he works at the meat factory. The factory is closing due to a disease in the town, but Tommy refuses to leave. Instead, after being insulted by the boss, he kills him, and takes with him the chainsaw in the office. We then focus on the "heros" of the story, where two brothers, Dean and Eric, are on their way to enlist in the military. Eric has been to Vietnam already, but is enlisting because Dean was drafted, and he wants to be there for his brother. Before enlisting, they decide to take a trip with their girlfriends, Chrissie and Bailey, but little does Eric know that Dean plans to stay in Mexico to avoid the draft. The peace is interrupted by a trip to a gas station(of course), in the middle of nowhere(obviously), where upon leaving, the gang is intercepted by a biker woman with a shotgun. They get into an accident where the biker demands all their money. On the scene comes Officier Hoyt, who shoots the biker dead and then puts the kids into his car. There's more to the officier that meets the eye. For example, he isn't a cop, but the man who killed the cop to prevent his son from going to jail. And he donned the uniform and became this other person, bent on keeping his family safe. And from that moment, the lives in these kids spiral downward to hell, as Hoyt is bent on making them suffer like they have never suffered before. And he beats them, cuts them with knives, all while they are persued by the deranged Tommy, who becomes Leatherface after cutting off the face of one of the kids, and plastering it on his own. Hell, maybe they were better of going to fight in Vietnam. . .

I just cannot see any entertainment value in this movie at all. Horror movies nowadays don't try to be scary anymore. Instead, they try to outblood the other movie. Each one tries to be more gory than the last. However, some gore movies, and I do mean "Saw" here, actually have some kind of story to get the viewer involved. This one just captures the main characters, and lets up watch them suffer for an hour without any kind of remorse or real point. It is gore and blood for the sake of gore and blood. I understand that Hoyt is supposed to be crazy, but why? Is there a reason at all? This is supposed to be "The Beginning," and yet I still feel like I walked in halfway. These are characters that could have some kind of a backstory, but instead we just get him cutting off his brother in laws legs for us to see bone. There is no logical way to explain how someone would find something like this entertaining. This defines the terms snuff film.

And if you want to call it a horror movie, it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, except maybe the types of organs that you see on screen. It has the classic cliches. I mentioned the spooky gas station in the middle of nowhere, of course, but there is also the person we believe is passed out waking up, people suddenly being in the shot when another character turns around, etc. Even the cinematography is nothing special. We're given a grainy perspective, which is fitting for the darker than life subject matter, but it doesn't save this movie in any way at all. The only thing that could have saved this movie was a plot, and that was destroyed during the writing process. I must question you're sanity if you find any minute of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" scary or even entertaining. This crosses the line to the point where the line can't even be seen anymore. It's pointless, ridiculous, and disgusting, but not even in a fun way.