*Plot Summary*
~Witness The Birth Of Fear.
Prequel to the 2003 version of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is set in 1969, the height of the Vietnam War. Two young men are spending a last weekend with their girlfriends before being shipped overseas to the war. At the same time in a small Texas town, the only major business (a meat-packing plant and slaughterhouse) goes out of business forcing the town's inhabitants to move on to greener pastures. One of the men who works in the plant is Thomas Hewitt, a deformed, demented psychopath (who will become known as Leatherface). When Hewitt finds out what is happening, he savagely murders the foreman of the plant. Meanwhile, the two young men and their girlfriends are headed down a lonely highway towards the town when they are involved in an car accident that cripples their vehicle. Soon they encounter the local sheriff, who is not really the sheriff, but the homicidal Charlie Hewitt, the uncle of Leatherface who has murdered the sheriff and taken his job and police car knowing that with the town deserted, no one will notice. Uncle Charlie/Sheriff Hoyt kidnaps three of the teens and takes them to his home where he, Leatherface Hewitt, the senile Uncle Monty, and Charlie's sister, Luda Mae, reside. Charlie wants the developing monster 'Leatherface' to "refine" his murderous abilities. The one girl, Chrissie, who escaped unnoticed attempts to rescue them with the help of a biker whose girlfriend was killed by 'Sheriff Hoyt'. What follows is a night of sheer terror at the hands of a family of cannibalistic, inbred psychopaths... ~
-----My mindset going into the film, being a prequel to a remake, was very sketchy at best. I thought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was a decent film but nothing to brag about. Now after watching this film I have to say that it goes above and beyond the remake.
This film had a decent story, doing most of the explaining on how the Hewitt family got to where they were in the remake. The "good guy" actors were not too over the top and I cared about them just enough to get into their deaths, which is definately a good thing. The thing that suprised me was all the gore treats that I was given. This movie had some brutal and unique chainsaw deaths that I haven't seen. Also, *spoiler* actually showing Leatherface skin a guy alive was a definite cringe moment, and I rarely have those anymore. Of course throwbacks to the original with the dinner table scene and the classic end of the film chase with the survivor getting destroyed at the end brought a smile to my face.
In conclusion, the 6th venture into the realm of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a great one and is recommended to any horror/slasher fans. If you like tons of gore for your moneys worth then this film is for you...
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