LITERAL REMAINS

Call me wrong, twisted, demented, disturbed, whatever you want, but as a  friend (who shall remain nameless here, but she knows who she is) once commented, I seem to have a fascination with Leatherface.  Of course she threw in the word “unhealthy”, but that is splitting hairs.  At least I think it is.

A lot of people, probably some of you reading this little piece right now, didn’t like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:  The Beginning.  I actually thought it was a decent effort, if a person can say that any film titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre can be decent, but you know what I’m getting at.  I like it better than any of the original sequels to the original film.  Yeah, including TCM Part 2.

Here’s the story:  Brothers Dean and Eric are taking those back roads through Texas with their girlfriends, Chrissie and Bailey, before the bros have to leave for Vietnam.  They hit a cow (yes, a cow; it’s not that an isolated incident, see Rob Zombie’s Halloween IIif you don’t believe me) and their jeep ends up topsy-turvy.  Sheriff Hoyt, crazy Sheriff Hoyt, arrives and kidnaps the roughed up Dean, Eric, and Bailey.  Chrissie is hiding because Hoyt is crazy the split second he gets on the scene.  He takes them back home, which would be the Hewitt house.

Chrissie eventually finds herself at the Hewitt house thanks to Old Monty, with legs in this prequel, the tow truck driver.  While trying to spring her friends from the clutches of Thomas Hewitt, better known as the beloved Leatherface, she sees more than she cares to; namely, her friends being used and abused by the family.

There’s not a lot that differentiates The Beginning from the other films in the Texas franchise, but I think it’s well done for what it is.  It gives us Leatherface fanatics a little something to chew on with his history before he met the saw, although screenwriter Sheldon Turner doesn’t do justice to the backstory that Zombie did with Michael Myers.  That said, I still think it warrants a second viewing, or even a first, by fans and horror lovers in general.  Especially those who like it rough.

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