I finally saw the TCM remake

[Leatherhead]

I did it. I finally saw the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. It's been a little while since I
have, but I've needed a few days to get my thoughts straight. First, just to get it out of the
way, I have to again bring up my intense hatred for remakes, and the fact that I was
unapologetically against this movie from the start. That having said, I finally got a VHS copy
of the movie, popped it in, and hoped for the best.
Hate . . . is not a strong enough word. It's not a strong enough word for how I feel about this
movie. I LOATHE it. I ABHOR it. I DESPISE it. Those words come closer.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

This movie was, surprisingly enough, very good. I didn't warm up to the main characters at
first, just too used to bell bottoms and astrology sermons. Jessica Biel was hot, and the way
she had her tank top tied up kept me riveted, but that doesn't help the movie. I loved it when
that chick blows her brains out in the van, and the really neat shot of the camera that followed.
Above all, I loved (and I mean, absolutely LOVED) Andrew Bryniarski's depiction of Leatherface.
In fact, I think it was the best portrayal of Leatherface since Gunnar Hansen, bumping R. A.
Mikhailoff to 3rd. He had a great mask, his eyes were evil and malicious, he howled and gibbered
great, he was great. So to him, I offer a salute and a "LONG LIVE THE SAW!" Andrew, you rocked!
I also have to admit that seeing him run after those kids with a running chainsaw was fantastic;
the scene where he hangs that kid up on a chandelier and then saws him right between the legs hit
every spot that I needed hit. My main qualms with this movie (aside from it being a remake), are
three, and to many here, they may seem rather petty.
One, the background story of Leatherface. They completely re-wrote it, and made, as is
Hollywood's wont, it inferior to the original. Here, he's really just a picked on kid who had a
serious skin disease? That's why he wears other peoples faces as masks? Sorry, but Nyuh-Uh. No
dice. It was stupid, and I didn't buy it. This, of course, led to the infamous unmasking scene.
As I have stated before, what seperated Leatherface from other masked killers was that he
couldn't be unmasked. The masks WERE his identity, because he had no identity of his own. Yeah,
he may be very ugly, but that just didn't sit right with me.
Two, and this is the purist in me, Leatherface's real name here is Thomas Brown Hewitt? What the
fuck? His name is Bubba Sawyer, Damn It! Bubba-Fucking-Sawyer! In fact, it's officially W. E.
Sawyer. Now, this is the smallest of my three grievances, as I could explain it with the intro
to TCM 3, where it hints that Leatherface may have alternate personalities, but still, It's
Bubba! Not Thomas!
And third, my greatest grievance, happened near the ending. Stpuid fucking typical Hollywood
ending. Jessica Biel cuts Leatherface's arm off? This was a monster of a man who just slew four
of her friends, but this shaking little girl attacks him while he holds a running chainsaw, and
is able to cut his arm off with a fucking meat cleaver? That totally negated the supposedly
scary ending for me, because if this movie is to be believed, who the hell cares about a
one-armed chainsaw killer now? A bunch of little boys could come up, piss on him, and walk away
laughing! Goddamn you, Michael Bay, and all your goddamn "re-imaginings!" FUCK YOU!
Now I'm glad that this is a remake, and you know why? Because now I can look at it like I look
at the Psycho remake, which also failed to satisfy me. It's not the real TCM, it'll never be the
real TCM, so Piss on it. The REAL Texas Chainsaw Massacre is immortal and it'll never die. LONG
LIVE THE SAW!

[Bartwald]

SPOILERS!

Leatherhead said:

And third, my greatest grievance, happened near the ending. Stpuid fucking typical Hollywood
ending. Jessica Biel cuts Leatherface's arm off? This was a monster of a man who just slew four
of her friends, but this shaking little girl attacks him while he holds a running chainsaw, and
is able to cut his arm off with a fucking meat cleaver? That totally negated the supposedly
scary ending for me, because if this movie is to be believed, who the hell cares about a
one-armed chainsaw killer now?

I saw the movie yesterday for the first time, and I have to agree with this grievance of yours, Leatherhead (the skin disease or a changed name didn't bother me too much); cutting L's arm didn't look too realistic and couldn't even possibly sound realistic - you're perfectly right about this. On the other hand, I was honestly happy that it happened - however artificial that scene was - 'cause I just didn't want to see Leatherface cutting any more crotches here. Which only proves how powerful a movie it is! I - a horror fan - wanted the gore to finally STOP and the main character to get the fuck out of this vile place!

So, if you ask me, I have to say: TCM is a great movie, with an atmosphere that made it hard to breathe for me. And I'm just happy that the director didn't use the insane asylum bookends for this movie - I think these would really spoil it.

[Gabriel]

Ok film,not a patch on the original...

But the girl was hotter.

Although I did like the last scene, that was pretty good.

[RIP]

I thought that the remake was okay but the original will always be the best in my book.

[Bartwald]

And now: the prequel!

From Andrew Form, one of the executive producers:

“I hate saying this, but we knew we couldn’t do a sequel,” says Form. “We cut [Leatherface’s] arm off. We killed Lee Ermey, who is one of the favorite characters in the movie [as the evil sheriff]. We wanted to bring some people back and we also thought that a lot of people who saw the movie always wondered why [Leatherface] used a chainsaw, and no one really explained it. He just does it. And we kind of tried to explain a little bit in our version why he wears a mask, but we’re going to, I think, really show you how the mask originated and stuff like that [in the next film].”

While the first film’s star, Jessica Biel, almost certainly won’t be back for the prequel, the producers do hope to bring back other castmembers.

“Hopefully, yeah,” says Form about the possibility of Ermey’s return. “We haven’t talked to anybody, but I think the hope is to try to bring a bunch of people back. It would be nice.”

Don’t, however, expect Chainsaw 2 to be some kind of skewed version of a coming of age tale. This will not be Leatherface: The Wonder Years.

“No, no, I don’t think we’re going that far!” laughs Form. “You’re not going to see him at the prom! You’d be surprised at some of the ideas we’ve heard. Everyone’s got a version of what they think it should be. No, we’re not going to have the tomatoes thrown at him in high school. It’s not that type of movie. It’s still a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. It’s not going to be a family drama where you see how this kid grew up and all that. It still has to be what our last movie was, which we felt was fun and exciting and scary and kind of a ride. We still want to do that.”<br>

(Visions Of Terror)

[LivingDeadGirl]

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Bartwald]

Yeah, me too. But I have my doubts, of course.

[LivingDeadGirl]

Yeah, there's always gonna be doubts when it comes to prequels & sequels.

[slayrrr666]

TCM 03 is one of the best of the current remake trend, and ranks behind a couple of the Asian ones as the best, so it's a film I think outdoes the extremely overrated and quite boring original in nearly every area. Unbelievable suspense, fantastic set-pieces, great kills, a hulking killer wielding a powerful weapon and a ton of action, so I don't have too much wrong with this one.