PaulLondon Review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

First take away the originality....

[4/10 · 25 April 2004]

TCM is an adequate horror film in its own right but will play better if you have not seen the original. The makers of the 2003 remake have stripped the original of its dusty, dirty intensity and its blacker than black humour and replaced them with a few Hollywood conventions so as not to challenge the audience too much. The problem is that 30 years later the remake is just so much more conventional than the visceral original. The directors do copy some of the original shots but see fit not to try to copy the nasty humour that made the original stand up to repeated viewings. Remember the scene in the original where Sally wakes up, tied to a chair, surrounded by the nightmare freakshow of a family and screams her very soul out whilst the camera zooms into extreme close up of her tear filled eyes as her tormentors laugh and taunt her? One of the great moments of 70's shock cinema. Well, here, its a lukewarm rehash where she comes to on the floor with all the horror of waking up with a bit of a hangover. Other pointless changes include trying to normalise some of the originals quirkier moments; originally they wanted to find out if their granparents bodies had been dug up by graverobbers; in the remake, they are on their way to see Lynyrd Skynard. And what happened to wheelchair bound Franklin? Here the nearest thing to a disability is that one of the characters wears glasses. And whats the deal with water? The house in the remake should have floated away the amount of leaky pipes it has. OK its not a BAD film despite using all the old tricks but it seems to me that if you want to see a great film you may as well watch the original and see some really good film-making