Review
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
Starring Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Jonathan Tucker
Directed by Marcus Nispel
Opens Friday, October 17
Check listings
Man, I wanted to hate this movie. It sounded like a project that could not possibly succeed – a remake of the celebrated 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
I was never a fan of the original Chain Saw, but it certainly packs a punch and I remain impressed (if not entertained) by it to this day. Why remake it now, when crap like House of 1,000 Corpses seems to prove that we’ve lost our ability to make this kind of horror film effectively? Stealing a memorable title from the past, filling it with hot TV stars and handing it over to an untried director sounded like the worst idea since casting 49-year-old Roberto Benigni as Pinocchio.
Well, I’m pleased (if baffled) to report that this new film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is actually a really good movie. The filmmakers have provided us with a textbook example of how to properly remake a movie, although they accomplish this with such delicate skill and inspiration that it’s doubtful such success could ever be repeated. This is a film that knows what the audience is here to see, what they expect and what they’ve seen already. It walks a fine line between staying true to the original screenplay and offering the viewers something new. Step too far to one side, and you’ve got a pointless shot-for-shot echo like Psycho (1998) but meander too far the other way, and you leave out all the good bits from the original, like in Planet of the Apes(2001).
The young protagonists in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (led by the scrumptious Jessica Biel) are recognizably human and easy to identify with. The decisions they make are based on human decency and a healthy sense of self-preservation. It’s easy to imagine ourselves making the same decisions if faced with similar circumstances.
Most importantly, the filmmakers understand why genuine horror fans watch these movies in the first place. We do not watch them just to see a bunch of brainless teenagers get messily killed (are you listening, House of 1,000 Corpses?). We watch them to see reasonably intelligent characters fight like hell to keep from being messily killed.
The highlight of any good slasher film is when the last survivor, cornered by the maniac, picks up a knife – or a knitting needle, or a coat hanger or whatever – and fights back for the first time. There’s nothing more irritating than a horror movie victim who just sits there waiting to die. Here, we have resourceful heroes who know they’re in danger, run in the right direction, find good hiding places and fight back when there’s no other option. In one memorable scene, two of the survivors turn a hopeless situation into a fighting chance when they gang up on the chainsaw-toting madman, Leatherface.
Like its predecessor, Chainsaw ’03 works up a dizzying atmosphere of madness and horror without actually showing very much carnage. We think we’re seeing a lot more blood than we actually are, and the mere sound of that chainsaw is enough to send us into a cold sweat.
Hollywood seems to be greenlighting remakes left and right these days, with yet another version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers already in production. Anybody who tries to do another Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the future is going to have a hell of a lot to live up to.
I recommend that horror fans of every stripe, whether they loved, hated or didn’t see the original, check out this remarkably successful remake of an acknowledged classic. |
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