Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Films in this series:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

WARNING: Review briefly describes film’s graphic subject matter.

The life of Thomas Hewitt begins, very aptly, in a slaughterhouse. A woman clutches her stomach as her water breaks and blood, followed by some acidic-looking fluid, exit her body. Although seemingly dead, the woman lets out one last scream as a child crawls out of her in one of the most disgusting sequences in the movie. Oh, and did I mention that this is all before the opening titles?

The deformed newborn has been wrapped up and left to die in the garbage. However, a woman looking for food in the trash bins finds the child. The disfigured boy is taken in by a backward family in this small Texas town and is given the name Thomas Hewitt. Horror fans everywhere know him by another name. Leatherface.

The Hewitt family actually represents some of the individuals that decide to stay in the town after the meatpacking plant closes. Thomas, now grown, enjoys his job of methodically cutting the meat and has to be yelled at in order to leave. He comes back later to take his vengeance on the overbearing supervisor. Before the sheriff can take him in, the officer is slain by one of the Hewitt family who takes the sheriff’s identity to cover their trail. The new Sheriff Hoyt (reprised by R. Lee Ermey) now sees their means of survival: cannibalism.

The rest of the film is fairly cliché. Two brothers with their girlfriends are taking a roadtrip before they ship off to Vietnam. While passing through a certain small town in Texas, the group is accosted by a biker. With his attention not on the road, the driver hits a cow and causes an accident that throws his girlfriend Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) from the car. Hoyt quickly is on the scene. He kills the biker and takes the three occupants of the car crash and the dead body of the biker to his house. What ensues is a grisly game of cat-and-mouse that includes cannibalism, rape, dismemberment, torture, and murder as the brothers and the girls are rescued and recaptured by Leatherface and the Hewitt clan.

So what is good about the movie? Nothing. Interestingly enough though, the film does have topics that can be discussed. But none of them demand anybody but the reviewer to watch the film. The first question I pose is: who is this film meant for? Entering the theater, I notice a fellow moviegoer is dressed as Leatherface complete with blood spattered butcher’s apron. This is not even opening night! And, with the costume fresh in my mind, I am floored to see that the first row is occupied by three girls ages 8 to 14 or so with their parents a few rows behind. It is this kind of occurrence that brings a quote from the film sharply into focus.

“You’ll be amazed at the things you can get used to.”

It seems the director (Jonathan Liebesman) and the writer (Sheldon Turner) are using the quote to refer to the events in Vietnam and the events at the Hewitt house only. I suggest it would be worthwhile to examine that this quote is apropos to the escalation of film today. While Texas Chainsaw is thankfully not as gruesome as “High Tension” or “Hostel,” it marks a recent trend of films to “push the envelope.” The film’s title tells everything you need to know. People will get cut up with chainsaws, and this is the “beginning.” Therefore, none of the bad guys will die, so you are basically subjecting yourself and whoever accompanies you to the killing of innocents. You will also be listening to over 40 swear words which include just about every one you can imagine.

If you need more than that, I have two other reasons for you to avoid this movie like the plague. One has to do with the family unit. One of the creepier things throughout the series is the apathy of the Hewitt family and the townsfolk. Mocking Christianity by saying a prayer before eating someone, having Leatherface cut off the legs of a family member, or the strange obliviousness to the diabolical, the family mirrors nothing of what you would (hopefully) want to see in your own family.

Two, the film on a technical level is horrible. The script has nothing new (I am somewhat thankful), the acting is uninspired, and the directing, which takes pains to develop the atmosphere of horror early on, devolves into making quick jump-cuts every which way and using the “shake” method while following in chases. I was getting sick near the end, and it wasn’t because of what was on screen but rather the way it was displayed. Also, exactly how does a lumbering 7-foot giant with a chainsaw hide in the back of a car?

Finally, I leave you with this quote from the film that I encourage you to remember should you feel that this kind of film doesn’t affect you, and you just want to get “freaked out.”

“Do something long enough and eventually you start to like it.”

Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Moderate

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.