A Disappointing Horror Movie
When the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released, it was considered a very controversial movie. Its brutality changed the way horror movies are made, it could be said that invented true horror movie violence. The remake tries to do the same time, but fails to be overpowering in any way. It uses gore and blood to try and scare the viewer, but it simply doesn't matter. After you get past the first few gruesome scenes, they become ridiculous, and almost cartoony. The director, Marcus Nispel, fails to use elements of the story that would have made for an extremely effective and frightening movie. By the end of the movie, you'll be begging for all the people to just die already.
I'm sure you all know the story, as it has been used about 1,000 times since the original. A group of teenagers in the middle of nowhere find themselves being chases and hunted by a homicidal maniac. The first five minutes consists of sweaty teens making out with each other, and the stereotypical good girl asking the stereotypical good but troubled guy when they're going to get married. These are the two best characters in the movie, and the only two I wanted to live. I wanted the rest to die the most gruesome deaths possible. The movie starts off badly by killing that troubled good guy first. This angered me, because why would you kill off the best character in the movie first. It doesn't make sense. But as the murderer is tearing his body apart, he finds a diamond engagement ring. So that troubled good guy had the ring all along. How sweet, and suddenly a dead character has personality. Unfortunately, his girl never sees the ring, which makes the scene above completely useless. It was a missed oppurtunity, which is something this movie is full of.
I understand the point of the movie is to gross you out or scare you, but this only works once or twice, and the effect is soon lost. The violence becomes cartoonish, but in a way very different from Kill Bill Vol. 1. In Kill Bill, the violence was cartoony because it was an homage, it was supposed to look like that. But in TCM, limbs are hacked off and meat hooks rip through internal organs and the guy does nothing more than grimace in pain and yell at the murderer to stop. Excuse me, but the last time I checked, if the entire lower section of your leg is lopped off with a chainsaw, you aren't going to be awake for very long, especially five minutes later when you're place on a meat hook and left dangling in the air. This is supposed to look realistic and gritty. What kind of a person could survive that. Oh, you'll have to forgive me, that was the strong, athletic guy that happened to. I guess because he's such a jerk and has huge muscles he can take super amounts of pain. Give me a break.
The director missed a huge oppurtunity with this movie. Maybe if thise project had been given to someone with more experience, it could have been done better. I would be very interested to see how M. Night Shyamlayn, an accomplished horror director would have handled this. The movie gives you a background story, but certainly not enough. If Shyamalan, had directed it, there would be heavy psychological themes, dealing with the killer and why he does this. As it is, the murderer is nobody, he has no personality. Shouldn't you be afraid of the murderer? If I had my choice, I'd rather be running from a guy with a chainsaw than meet Hannibal Lecter when he's behind bars and has no chance of hurting me. This is simply put, a failed movie.