Post by StevePulaski on Jan 12, 2013 23:00:19 GMT -5
Rating: ★½
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has no problem clobbering and assaulting its optimistic viewers with stifling meanness and a begrudging sense of miserableness to the point of making the entire thing unenjoyable and tiresome. Director Marcus Nispel concocts the most unfaithful, truly melancholic remake to Tobe Hooper's iconic masterwork from 1974, which paved the way for the newborn genre of horror. The only thing this remake paves is the road to more impenetrable cynicism and gore in modern horror films.
The film was released by Platinum Dunes, the company owned by noted director/producer Michael Bay, who consistent readers know I do not think too highly of. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre plays exactly like the horror film he'd make if he got a hold of the camera. Make no character worth rooting for, and oversimplify every aspect of filmmaking to the bare basics, ushering in nothing but simplicity and bargain basement fare. That's what this film specializes in.
Our story begins by showing us marginally effective black and white newsreel footage that tells us that a group of fine young souls were murdered in a sadistic fashion in the dead of August of 1973. We then cut to that exact time, where the teenagers in question, Erin (Jessica Biel), her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are heading out to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after smuggling out more marijuana than there was at Woodstock during their vacation in Mexico. They see a young woman (Lauren German) walking aimlessly on the road, and foolishly decide to pick her up and ask her what she is doing walking on a deserted road alone. The woman rambles incoherently about someone who will kill them and tried to kill her before pulling a gun from up her skirt and shooting herself in the head.
Now our gang of troublemakers are in a lovely spot. After picking up a hitchhiker for really no reason at all, they now have a nice bullet hole through their trunk window and a corpse of an unknown woman slumped over in their car. The five stop at a store, in the middle of sheer nowhere, only to be "assisted" by the unreliable elderly working there, and continue driving through the desolate, empty countryside with a corpse sittin' pretty in their backseat. The woman working the counter calls the sheriff and tells them he will meet them at the local mill, so they head up there to see what they can find. They finally reach the mill, and this is where the typical thriller formula sets in. A few of the teens go one way, the others remain where they are, and then discover they will be helpless victims very, very quickly by Leatherface, who in over thirty years, hasn't changed a lick. He still wields a chainsaw, still wears a real face for a mask, and still possesses the incredibly complex skill of running while swinging a large and heavy chainsaw.
The first act establishes nothing more than Nispel's fine sense of atmosphere, and how credible suspense is absent and traded in for gore, torture, and mutilation. The second and third tirelessly depict peril and torture in a way that isn't so much entertaining or frightening, but rather boring, predictable, and exhaustively mean-spirited. The blood-curdling screams of the pretty young leads wearies on the mind, and the presence of gore over suspense really grate on any hope this film has to be frightening or even convincing.
Every character is artificially captured here. Not only are the leads just remarkably unremarkable, but even Leatherface is desperately shortchanged here, barely even possessing the title of a villain. He revs his chainsaw quickly and knows how to run with it. And we're afraid of him. That's the extent of Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not to mention, even when we see that many people in this town are behind Leatherface and just hold the attitude that everyone who comes in this town should be butchered and slaughtered, this numbs the whole experience into a gray sea of nihilism that leave us bitter and petrified souls.
I'm greatly reminded of Greg McLean's Wolf Creek, a similar film with similar content, only done much better. While at times the film was excessive in its display of torture and mutilation, there was a terrific style and enigma to that film that this one greatly lacks. Its villain wasn't as faceless, its suspense was present and very, very creepy, and throughout the film, it intensified rather than stew in its own sourness. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is more along the lines of Hostel: Part II, where the whole thing becomes tiresome even if you do crave torturous acts in your films.
Upon watching this film, I left the room cold, bitter, and slightly depressed at what I had just watched. Perhaps that was the goal of Nipsel and Scott Kosar, the film's writer. It's an ugly, mean-spirited little exercise that unsuccessfully duplicated Tobe Hooper's classic that was classic for the reason why this is not; it was a disciplined picture. It was nuanced, gritty, and very, very effective. This film fuels the reason why so many horror films can not resist killing of everyone and not developing anyone. We voice what we want to see with the money we give over at the counter of the multiplex or the electronics store, and if we keep paying for films like these, we will be the only ones to blame for the influx of lesser content that offers nothing more than meets the eye. I guess you could say, I was cold, bitter, and slightly depressed for reasons other than what the film I watched presented me with.
Starring: Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour, Erica Leerhsen, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel, and R. Lee Ermey. Directed by: Marcus Nipsel.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has no problem clobbering and assaulting its optimistic viewers with stifling meanness and a begrudging sense of miserableness to the point of making the entire thing unenjoyable and tiresome. Director Marcus Nispel concocts the most unfaithful, truly melancholic remake to Tobe Hooper's iconic masterwork from 1974, which paved the way for the newborn genre of horror. The only thing this remake paves is the road to more impenetrable cynicism and gore in modern horror films.
The film was released by Platinum Dunes, the company owned by noted director/producer Michael Bay, who consistent readers know I do not think too highly of. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre plays exactly like the horror film he'd make if he got a hold of the camera. Make no character worth rooting for, and oversimplify every aspect of filmmaking to the bare basics, ushering in nothing but simplicity and bargain basement fare. That's what this film specializes in.
Our story begins by showing us marginally effective black and white newsreel footage that tells us that a group of fine young souls were murdered in a sadistic fashion in the dead of August of 1973. We then cut to that exact time, where the teenagers in question, Erin (Jessica Biel), her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are heading out to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after smuggling out more marijuana than there was at Woodstock during their vacation in Mexico. They see a young woman (Lauren German) walking aimlessly on the road, and foolishly decide to pick her up and ask her what she is doing walking on a deserted road alone. The woman rambles incoherently about someone who will kill them and tried to kill her before pulling a gun from up her skirt and shooting herself in the head.
Now our gang of troublemakers are in a lovely spot. After picking up a hitchhiker for really no reason at all, they now have a nice bullet hole through their trunk window and a corpse of an unknown woman slumped over in their car. The five stop at a store, in the middle of sheer nowhere, only to be "assisted" by the unreliable elderly working there, and continue driving through the desolate, empty countryside with a corpse sittin' pretty in their backseat. The woman working the counter calls the sheriff and tells them he will meet them at the local mill, so they head up there to see what they can find. They finally reach the mill, and this is where the typical thriller formula sets in. A few of the teens go one way, the others remain where they are, and then discover they will be helpless victims very, very quickly by Leatherface, who in over thirty years, hasn't changed a lick. He still wields a chainsaw, still wears a real face for a mask, and still possesses the incredibly complex skill of running while swinging a large and heavy chainsaw.
The first act establishes nothing more than Nispel's fine sense of atmosphere, and how credible suspense is absent and traded in for gore, torture, and mutilation. The second and third tirelessly depict peril and torture in a way that isn't so much entertaining or frightening, but rather boring, predictable, and exhaustively mean-spirited. The blood-curdling screams of the pretty young leads wearies on the mind, and the presence of gore over suspense really grate on any hope this film has to be frightening or even convincing.
Every character is artificially captured here. Not only are the leads just remarkably unremarkable, but even Leatherface is desperately shortchanged here, barely even possessing the title of a villain. He revs his chainsaw quickly and knows how to run with it. And we're afraid of him. That's the extent of Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not to mention, even when we see that many people in this town are behind Leatherface and just hold the attitude that everyone who comes in this town should be butchered and slaughtered, this numbs the whole experience into a gray sea of nihilism that leave us bitter and petrified souls.
I'm greatly reminded of Greg McLean's Wolf Creek, a similar film with similar content, only done much better. While at times the film was excessive in its display of torture and mutilation, there was a terrific style and enigma to that film that this one greatly lacks. Its villain wasn't as faceless, its suspense was present and very, very creepy, and throughout the film, it intensified rather than stew in its own sourness. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is more along the lines of Hostel: Part II, where the whole thing becomes tiresome even if you do crave torturous acts in your films.
Upon watching this film, I left the room cold, bitter, and slightly depressed at what I had just watched. Perhaps that was the goal of Nipsel and Scott Kosar, the film's writer. It's an ugly, mean-spirited little exercise that unsuccessfully duplicated Tobe Hooper's classic that was classic for the reason why this is not; it was a disciplined picture. It was nuanced, gritty, and very, very effective. This film fuels the reason why so many horror films can not resist killing of everyone and not developing anyone. We voice what we want to see with the money we give over at the counter of the multiplex or the electronics store, and if we keep paying for films like these, we will be the only ones to blame for the influx of lesser content that offers nothing more than meets the eye. I guess you could say, I was cold, bitter, and slightly depressed for reasons other than what the film I watched presented me with.
Starring: Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour, Erica Leerhsen, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel, and R. Lee Ermey. Directed by: Marcus Nipsel.