The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (DVD, 2007, Unrated)

Horror Fans Arise !! All questions are answered.
Why is Leatherface the way he is? Why is Sheriff Hoyt a sadistic Sheriff? Why is Old Monty missing his legs and in a wheelchair? Everything is answered., as Leatherface,(Andrew Bryniarski), the chainsaw-wielding maniac of the 2003 remake, returns in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" (UNRATED). A movie that adds a creation myth to the usual gorefest that was based upon the TRUE EVENTS of 8/19/1973 in Texas.
Fans of the cult-hit bloody scarefest massacre will find themselves in butcher heaven — as so much intensity and gore is smeared across the screen. More sensitive watchers might need their popcorn bag to double as a barf bag. Loaded with frighteningly intense sequences and blinding violence., draped in simulated torture., nothing is sacred as the Birth and Rise of Leatherface and Family is unleashed and explained.
The movie literally begins with the birth of Leatherface, who arrives in the middle of his mother's shift at a Texas slaughterhouse. Horribly deformed, he is thrown away, but a starving cannibalistic woman, who is picking through the offal to find something to eat, discovers him and brings him home. This family, that has nothing to eat., and resorts to cannibalism, raises this infant.
The film jumps ahead years., and the slaughterhouse has closed, killing the town's business, money-flow and work. Only Leatherface and his family remain. The crazy, cunning family patriarch, Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey), hits on a master plan to keep the clan fat and happy, which mainly involves not letting anyone who crosses their path get out of town alive. "Meat is meat, bone is bone," he tells Leatherface philosophically.
Leatherface certainly does not have a problem with that. He has come to fetishly enjoy playing with dolls., living, breathing dolls that scream as he stabs and flays them before delivering his unmerciful finalizing wrath !! - In this case, the dolls in question are four young people who get in a wreck on the wrong stretch of road. This all happens fairly quickly so that the movie can get straight to the point: to give the audience the face-smearing immediate interludge of viewing the relentless carnage.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"., which has reached absolute cult status amongst horror fans worldwide., deserved a GOOD prequel. It deserved an explanation of "The Beginnings"., (even if it's fictionalized) to lead into the horrific TRUE EVENTS of 1973. And if ever one was to be done., this is it !! Leave nothing to the imagination., buckle-in for this slaughterfest roller-coaster. And learn how the phenomena started., in all it's gut-spewing glory. Definately far from a let-down for horror fans. Sensitive viewers., definately brace yourself !! This film is RELENTLESSLY HORRIFIC !!!! MUST SEE, MUST HAVE for horror buffs !!!! ENJOY !!

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Posted by CK-Auctions

The cause of some controversy upon its theatrical release based on the intensity and severity of the violence that was so prevalent throughout the movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning did prove to be reasonably popular at the box office despite the highly touted cuts required from the MPAA for the film to earn an R rating rather than a dreaded NC-17. New Line has now reinserted that grisly footage and put it back into the movie with this un-rated DVD release (those who want the R-rated cut can rest easy, as that version is available as well - albeit as a seperate release).

While this film succeeds on a few levels, sadly it fails on too many others. What the movie gets right is that it really does contain a mean streak in it a mile wide. This works in its favor in that it portrays the Hewitt family as truly savage and completely deplorable. As such, we should be really scared of them and we should feel for the victims – unfortunately, that's one of the movie's biggest weak spots. The four leads are completely cardboard. There's no real depth to them and although there are a few scenes where we learn a little bit about their lives and ambitions (we know that Eric and Chrissie want to have kids and live in California when he gets back) it's too little too late and it isn't enough to make these four teenagers stand out from those featured in whatever generic slasher film you'd care to name. The performances aren't bad, as we are able to understand how they feel and why they're scared (it's obvious – there's a maniacal family trying to eat them) but without investing any of ourselves into their plight, it's really all for naught.

What the movie does have going for it is the inimitable screen presence of R. Lee Ermey in one of the lead roles (in fact he gets considerably more screen time than Leatherface himself). As the Sheriff, Ermey is fantastic. He chews the scenery like a power mower, spouting off creative profanity left, right and center. He's vicious, he's mean, and more than a few times he's pretty funny as well. On top of that is the gore and violence. For a major studio production, this film, particularly in the un-rated cut provided on this DVD, is astonishingly gruesome even by horror movie standards. While recent hits like Hostel, Wolf Creek and The Hills Have Eyes remake (all of which have had un-rated DVD releases) have definitely upped the ante in terms of on screen violence, this movie tops them by quite a margin. Chainsaws tear through flesh, faces are peeled off of their skulls, teeth and mouths are smashed against the ground, and people are generally just hacked, smashed and shot up throughout the last half of the film. Even for seasoned horror movie fans, the film is quite surprising in how far it goes in this department and it is nice to see the filmmaker's at least trying to make a horror movie that appeals to horror movie fans and not so much to the mainstream audiences who will no doubt feel alienated by the severity of this picture. Obviously there are a lot worse movies out there in terms of what is shown on screen, but there aren't very many major studio pictures that push the envelope like this movie does. The film also features a nice tribute to Hooper's original movie by way of a darkly comic dinner scene and some ending narration from John Larroquette.

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Posted by CK-Auct

This is as lackluster as it gets. Here's a perfect example of how to further muddy the name of a 30+ year old classic horror film and rake it for all the cash you can. The film, pretty much from start to very finish, is a carbon copy of the last 'Chainsaw' remake we saw in 2001, save a brief and laughably predictable opening sequence of how Leatherface became what he is. Its like they rereleased another version of the same script they just rereleased (and even THAT one wasn't all that great). Different actors. Same story. Maybe this was an understudy shoot. And understudies they are! Acting ranges from weak to completely over-the-top, but a poor script doesn't help them out either. Some sequences mirror the other film identically, just with much less ambition. The 'run away from the chainsaw-wielding-lunatic through the woods' stuff? Its in there. The apprehension by a slapstick-quality crazy sheriff? Got it. The 'dinner' scene? Oh yeah, again! The tender 'Go, leave meee!' scene between two victims, one significantly less butchered than the other. Yep. Its all there. Again! Some may call it creative parallels. But 'creative' is one thing this movie certainly is not. And this stuff gets to the big screen???? One of the poorest excuses for a new movie I've seen. To all those responsible: shame on you!

I'll be the first to admit that I've always been more of a Jason and Freddy fan rather than Leatherface so in that respect I'm biased.Not that there's anything wrong with TCM,I'm one of the few out there who actually enjoyed the remake a few years back but there was something lacking in this "prequel".Much of it felt rushed,"ok,let's get as much of the back story crammed into the opening credits as possible".I would have liked to see a little more to the story,not just leatherface but the family itself.For an unrated version there just wasn't enough gore for my liking.Sure it had a few moments here and there but too few and too far between.
The few special effects there were seemed pretty cool-but again,not enough.This movie just wasn't as creepy as the previous.I kept waiting to jump out of my seat but it didn't happen.
Other horror buffs will hate me for this but the best in my opinion is the 2004 remake.The original was just too cheesy for me-not that there's anything wrong with that but the whole story will be eternally trapped in that 70's era and always feel dated to me.
More background history on the family and supporting characters would have helped this one,as well as a little more Leatherface back story.I guess they were trying to retain that element of mystery.Added gore would have improved it too.Just a little too tame for me.Don't buy it-rent it first and judge for yourself.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Let me start off by saying I'm a huge horror/slasher fan so this review is a little biased. If you can't handle blood, guts, and gore this movie isn't for you. It shocked me and I consider myself pretty thick skinned when it comes to movies like this.

If you thought Hostel was bad you ain't seen nothing yet. TCM: The Beginning answers every question you've ever had about this series, and if you're a huge fan of the TCM series you'll pick up on things that the casual fan will miss.

Every character was perfectly cast and this is the only TCM movie where I have really wanted everybody to escape. The entire cast was great, but R. Lee Ermey absolutely blew my mind, he was good in the 2003 remake but he was absolutely spectacular in this. Andrew Bryniarski is even better as Leatherface than he was in the 2003 remake, I think that has more to do with the production than anything else, but he was much more menacing.

Everything about this film screams best slasher movie of the decade, the quality, the effects, the sound, everything is perfect. Perfect for slasher fans that is... this is the goriest movie I have ever seen.

Final Verdict:

5/5

Rent or Buy?: You couldn't ask for anything more from this movie, it's a perfect prequel... if you're a huge fan of slashers this belongs on your shelf, if you can't handle gore you might want to stay away.

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