The 80’s, what a wonderful time. Kinda. In Sweden a madman named Christer traveled around the country giving lectures to naive parents who actually believed all the stuff he said about the violent movies he claimed was destroying the innocent minds of school kids everywhere. The worst one, without a doubt, was Tobe Hooper’s seminal The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, of course the at the time, banned in our beautiful northern country, and the stuff Christer told our parents about it… was pure imagination. They came home and told everyone about scenes where people was hanged up in factories and cut to pieces right in front of our eyes.
Nothing like that of course ever happen in the film, it’s all in the imagination of Christer - and maybe in many of the viewers of the years. That’s the strength of this small Texas movie, shot during a awfully hot summer with a bunch of film students and wannabe-actors. And oh boy, what a great movie it became. Gritty as hell, dirty and realistic. You can feel the heat, you can smell the rotten meat and the dirty house. The Sawyer family is batshit crazy, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Much have been said about it being symbolism of good old country folks versus city folks, but I think Hooper and co-creator Kim Henkel just wanted to fuck everyone up. Many titles was considered, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was used because someone said they would never watch a movie with that title. Perfect, because who’s NOT curious with the words Texas, Chainsaw and Massacre in the same meaning?
I saw it quite late. It had gotten a new release in Sweden, cut of course - because at the time we still had a censorship bureau. Me and my friend Mattias watched in broad daylight in his parents living room and our world never became the same again.
In 1986 the sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, was released. Now with the words Chain and Saw as one word. Produced by the legendary Cannon Group as a part of a deal with Tobe Hooper. Initially planned as a much bigger, broad and bizarre continuation, with a whole town of cannibals. Budget was cut down and Dennis Hopper, obviously high as a kite, was brought as in as the sheriff brother of two of the victims from the first movie. He’s out for revenge and he’s gonna use chainsaws to get it!
At first I was disappointed. Probably because the humor is quite unsubtle. It’s downright crazy, wild and colorful - in many ways the opposite to the first movie. But with later viewings I came to appreciate it more and more, and found it to be one of the best black comedies of the 80’s. Hooper goes all the way with the characters and the dialogues are brilliant! It might be one of the most quotable movies ever made! NAM FLASHBACK! NAM FLASHBACK! Jim Siedow, who reprises his part from the first movie - the only actor to do so - makes his best performance ever (not that he did that many, but still!) - and he’s become a twisted sitcom-character with timing like the best comedians out there. Here’s the best dialogue ever written, told by Siedow’s character:
“Is that what this is, Bubba? The old cock-and-cunt swindle, huh? S-C-E-X. Sex. And you had to find out about it, didn't you? You just couldn't leave it alone. If you wanted to know about it so bad, why didn't you ask me? You wanna know about it? You wanna know about it? Ask me. Ask me. It's a swindle, that's all. So don't get mixed up in it.”
Much of the dialogue in part 2 makes the Sawyer family very conservative, except old Leatherface who just wants to be happy. He’s a prisoner among madmen where he’s the maddest of them all.
Four years later the second sequel came, with a few problems during and after production: Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. Sequel-expert Jeff Burr was brought it and shot it outside LA. According to him you can hear the screams from Six Flags Mountain, a big amusement park in some scenes around the farm. In this part you clearly feel the paradigm shift in horror, it still have some parts of the more goofy horrors of the 80’s, but the visual style is colder and harder - more similar to the first movie, but still something new and at least partly fresh. William Butler, the essence of the 90’s douchebag and his girlfriend, played by the cool Kate Hodge, is on a road trip to deliver her father’s car to LA. Unfortunately - for them, not us - they meet Viggo Mortensen and Tom Everett, Eddie and Alfredo - two members of the Sawyer’s, who leads them - with a very complicated set-up - to the wrong road where they’re attacked by the rest of the family. They also meet a dashing Ken Foree, who becomes a trusted warrior against the bloodthirsty rednecks.
The third part is a very competent sequel, which have a couple of problems. It might be the only movie in the franchise who was severely raped by the fascists at MPAA (and also the studio producing it) and therefore the violence is… I’m not saying it’s lame, but it’s restrained and you can feel that every act of violence should have been a bit gorier and more violent. Still, it’s a damn effective horror movie. Much of it is set in the dark forests surrounding the Sawyer farm and even introduces a little girl who’s really out of her mind. It’s a sequel that lives more on good actors than a wild scrip, except Tom Everett - who I honestly think gives the performance of his life.
In 1994 Kim Henkel went back to the saga which he once started and wrote and directed the highly interesting Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, starring no others than future stars Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. It begins like a typical teen horror movie of the time, but soon becomes a twisted family tale - not so gory, but intensive and violent - with a lot of dark humor. And finally Leatherface comes out from the trans-closet, something that the filmmakers toyed with in the first movie, Here he really wants to be a woman and is fully supported by his family. That’s actually very sweet. The family have always been important in the series and here it comes to full fruition.
I seriously don’t understand the hate for this one. It’s clever and funny, gives a few refreshing slaps in the faces of over-enthusiastic entrepreneurs, goofs around with cliches in a way you didn't see again until Wes Craven’s Scream three years later. It also jumps on the X-Files bandwagon with a very strange and cryptic twist which makes - no kidding here - a forerunner of Cabin in the Woods. It’s basically the same thing, but with a more sinister scheme than saving the world. I would have loved to see more of that. Without fear of making people angry, this is a brilliant little movie. Oh, and don’t forget it ends with a cameo from a haunted-looking Marilyn Burns, the original TCM scream queen, with her fellow actors Paul Dugan and Paul A. Partain. It’s a fine ending of a criminally underrated sequel.
Then it went quiet for a number of years. Nothing happen, life went on… and then came the so-called remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in 2003. Directed by German madman Marcus Nispel and with a young and hot cast lead by Jessica Biel and a bunch of other talented young actors. Now, as most of you know who happens to read this blog you know I don’t mind remakes at all. I love seeing a concept I dig getting a new treatment and this remake/reboot/call it what you want is no exception. Daniel Pearl, the cinematographer from the first movie is back with a new but still familiar look. This version is actually so dirty, moisty, gritty and just disgusting when it comes to set design and the visual looks it’s hard to watch, but it’s right on the edge of being the opposite. The dirt is too contrived, if you know what I mean?
While I really dig the movie it still have one major problem, and that’s something that’s one thing that’s pretty important: Leatherface. He looks cool, he’s tall and menacing - but Andrew Bryniarski makes no effort at all to actually make a human being of him, like in the earlier adventures. Here Leatherface is just a killer and nothing else. You can blame it on the script, but Bryniarski should have understood the character better by himself. He’s pretty pale. I’ve seen the guy in real life, and he’s a full-blown, loud-mouthed douchebag, either drunk as fuck or on some other drugs, so that might have tainted my opinion of his performance. R. Lee Ermey on the other hand, fucking wow. What an actor. It’s embarrassing to say this, but his performance is so damn hellish I have problem watching him. His character is not only the biggest asshole EVER, he’s evil down to the bones. Bravo.
You could see it as a direct sequel to the first movie, or a remake/reboot. No matter what it’s still an entertaining piece of modern mainstream exploitation, with gore and action boosted to the max. I dig it, sorry if that upsets someone.
In 2006 Jonathan Liebesman stepped into the directing shoes and unleashed the eagerly awaited sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. What I understand it didn’t work out at the box office, not as expected. I’ve always seen it as the weakest in the series, but now after watching it I see that it has a couple of things that’s actually better than the one before. But sure, I can agree that the story itself is pretty weak. More or less a rehash of the Marcus Nispel’s movie, with the really good ideas tossed into the beginning and then abandoned to let the mayhem begin. I guess we will see more of Leatherface’s childhood in the upcoming Leatherface, directed by Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, and the always interesting view of the Vietnam war is used way too sparse. There’s also a motorcycle gang á la The Wild Angels, a fashion in the movie industry at the time this movie is set, in 1969. But we don’t see so much of them after the first scenes and the connecting last scenes. The rest is by the book.
But because both Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel was aboard as producers the movie have something Nispel’s missed: humor. Here you have a couple of very fun scenes of twisted black comedy, very typical of the series and a welcome thing in what would else be a very dark and nasty story. The gore is plenty and it have a good pace, but it feels flatter and less inspired - outside a few scenes here and there. But still, it was better than I remember it to be.
The failure at the box office of The Beginning ended the reign of the saw-wielding family for some years, until 2013 when 3D was the fad and the powers once again decided it was time for Leatherface to rule the cinemas. This time in a much more inspired production, Texas Chainsaw 3D. I went back to the first thing I wrote about it, and I’m surprised how bad I thought it was. Well, I admitted I liked it and it was fun, but my overall feeling was negativity. I’ve watched it a couple of times since then and realized it’s the best sequel since Tobe Hoopers part 2! I think many have problem with sticking to their own honest opinion. They listen way too much to what others say and deep inside feel ashamed for liking a new movie (a common problem in the geek-business) and even a sequel!
Texas Chainsaw 3D (it’s actually called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D in the post-credits) brings back the humor, the colorful gore and fun of part 2 - but most important, gives us the underdog Leatherface, which he’s always been. Someone who deep in his heart is a nice, big boy who just wanna protect his family. Not the cold heartless psycho Andrew Bryniarski gave us. I know some people who turned off the movie after 30 minutes or so, which is kinda fun - because then they’re the same fools as the young people being slaughtered during the first part, at a first glance just the same stupid teen slasher we’ve seen so many times - but then the movie changes direction, which is very smart - it toys with everything we’ve come to expect - and becomes a revenge movie standing on the side of the Sawyers! Alexandra Daddario in the lead is a brilliant choice. She goes from a normal young woman to almost channelling Karen Black towards the end, with a crazy look and bloodthirsty DNA. Dan Yeager is wonderful as Leatherface, performs him like crazy, big, clumsy (and fucked-up) clown with heart and soul.
I also love Bill Moseley’s spot-on performance as Drayton Sawyer, completely capturing Jim Siedow’s spirit and persona. Marilyn Burns have a pretty important part and Gunnar Hansen and Paul Dugan makes cameos. In the alternate opening, which is not that different from the one used in the movie, we also understands why there’s more family in the house (it’s a flashback to what happens directly after the ending in the original movie) and gives us a glimpse of the destiny of the poor truck driver. Strange they didn’t use it.
This is one of those films that will be judged differently when the modern fanboys have died off and given space to others to actually enjoy this gory (probably the goriest in the whole franchise!), fun and original sequel. Remember you read it here first.
Looking back at the past week, hearing and watching so many chainsaws and human bodies get together in close contact make me realize this is my favorite franchise. It’s constantly fresh and fun, never - so far - doing it just because it has to be done. They all feel fresh in one way or another, which is a rare thing. Gunnar Hansen quotes Freud in one of the featurettes included on the blu-ray of Texas Chainsaw 3D: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. That’s what it is, just pure horror and nothing else in the end, just what Tobe Hooper set out to do in the beginning, a bloody, non-vegetarian slice of Americana.
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