Unlike many horror fans I never cared much for the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", so I wasn't exactly excited about it being remade with "Seventh Heaven"-star Jessica Biel. Anyway, a friend called one night and we decided to go and watch a horror flick at the theatrs - and they happened to show the remake of "TCM". Little did we know what we were in for.
This movie is a torture and I mean that in a positive way. This is horror in its purest form. No jokes, no sex and almost no story at all. Just a killing spree. Whereas the deaths in the "Final Destination"-movies were so over the top that they were funny, TCM's only intention is to freak you out. I would never have thought that a straight forward slasher-flick can be so effective. The Friday The 13th and Halloween franchises, as much as I love them, were always more funny than scary. The sound of Leatherface's chainsaw as he hunts his victims down relentlessly (and somewhat clumsily), however, is really nerve-racking. As a reviewer at bloody-disgusting.com said so appropriately, in the final 30 minutes this movie is like someone tickling you to death. You just wish it would stop already, because you don't think you can take any more. (I read something else at bloody-disgusting, which I find pretty hard to believe: Michael Bay, producer of this ultra-violent, flick sits on the Committee of Directors Against Violence... You're doing a good job, Michael!)
Anyway, of course this movie has its bad sides, too. SPOILERS: I reckon, if someone cuts your leg off and puts you on a meat hook you either can't stop screaming or you faint immediately before you DIE! Why wouldn't this guy scream or faint or die? Also, the movie had too much plot at the end. What was the stolen baby good for? And why was this one member of the family, the kid, so helpful? Didn't make sense to me. END OF SPOILERS.
In the end Marcus Nispel managed to make a movie superior to the original, much like Gore Verbinski's "The Ring", but not quite as good. New Line, I salute you for giving us so many kick-ass horror movies, full of violence and gore, lately.
This movie is a torture and I mean that in a positive way. This is horror in its purest form. No jokes, no sex and almost no story at all. Just a killing spree. Whereas the deaths in the "Final Destination"-movies were so over the top that they were funny, TCM's only intention is to freak you out. I would never have thought that a straight forward slasher-flick can be so effective. The Friday The 13th and Halloween franchises, as much as I love them, were always more funny than scary. The sound of Leatherface's chainsaw as he hunts his victims down relentlessly (and somewhat clumsily), however, is really nerve-racking. As a reviewer at bloody-disgusting.com said so appropriately, in the final 30 minutes this movie is like someone tickling you to death. You just wish it would stop already, because you don't think you can take any more. (I read something else at bloody-disgusting, which I find pretty hard to believe: Michael Bay, producer of this ultra-violent, flick sits on the Committee of Directors Against Violence... You're doing a good job, Michael!)
Anyway, of course this movie has its bad sides, too. SPOILERS: I reckon, if someone cuts your leg off and puts you on a meat hook you either can't stop screaming or you faint immediately before you DIE! Why wouldn't this guy scream or faint or die? Also, the movie had too much plot at the end. What was the stolen baby good for? And why was this one member of the family, the kid, so helpful? Didn't make sense to me. END OF SPOILERS.
In the end Marcus Nispel managed to make a movie superior to the original, much like Gore Verbinski's "The Ring", but not quite as good. New Line, I salute you for giving us so many kick-ass horror movies, full of violence and gore, lately.