by Mike Schoonveld:
PLOT:
A young woman inherits a large mansion from a grandmother she never knew she had in Texas. Upon traveling to the estate and claiming her inheritance, she quickly discovers that the house holds a dark family secret, and the truth of her life is revealed.
REVIEW:
Directed by John Lussehop, Texas Chainsaw 3D opens with what is undeniably its greatest moments: the film’s title credits placed over a montage of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original, post-converted into impressive 3D. Nearly 40 years later, the gritty cinematography of Daniel Pearl has never looked better, and seeing Marilyn Burns jump off the big screen as a 3D Gunnar Hansen pursues her is exquisite. The footage packs quite a punch, even in snippet form.
Texas Chainsaw 3D does to the franchise what Halloween: H20 did to its own franchise: aggressively market itself as a direct sequel and completely wipe out anything that has come before it! This could be a good thing, except original Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, created his own “direct sequel” in 1982. Texas Chainsaw picks up minutes after the original masterpiece ends, with Leatherface (Daniel Yeager) returning to the Sawyer homestead. Ignoring that his home is now filled with a dozen new characters who were clearly not in the original film, he’s momentarily scolded by patriarch Drayton Sawyer (a scene-stealing Bill Moseley, taking over for the late Jim Siedow) before Sheriff Hooper and a group of local vigilante rednecks arrive, delivering mob justice and utterly destroying the Sawyer clan forever.
Not long after the destruction of the home, the mob doesn’t realize that a young mother and her infant daughter have managed to escape the carnage. When a childless couple spots the dying woman, he and his wife quietly snatch up the baby and take her away.
Fast forward 38 years and the infant baby is all grown up into a beautiful young woman. Heather Mills (Alexandra Daddario) is a 20-something year old butcher at a supermarket. She soon receives a letter in the mail that she has just inherited a large mansion in Texas from a grandmother she never knew she had. Heather, her boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz) and their friends Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sanchez) road trip it to Texas to claim her prize. It isn’t long until Leatherface, who has survived the events of ’74, rears his head and the real terror starts all over again. Bodies end up on meat hooks, tenderizing hammers crack open skulls, and, in one inspired kill in the film, an incapacitated victim is slowly and deliberately…sorry no spoilers here!
At the one hour-mark, Leatherface chases our blood soaked heroine through a county fair, ignoring everyone else there. But even as the chase reaches its anti-climax, the film takes an unexpected turn and shifts the story and structure, creating a third act that asks us to feel sorry for the cannibalistic Sawyer family, whose demise in ’74 is a miscarriage of justice, presented to our heroine in new information. This works if one can ignore the fact that the Sawyers were psychotic sociopaths. The film is then turned, more or less, into a revenge film before arriving to the end, tying up loose ends and readying the world for another chapter in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.
One issue I had with this film is the characters – or the fodder as they are known. Alexandra Daddario as Heather is likable but of course her friends are just plain selfish, obnoxious idiots. It is hard to really root for anybody here because they are too self-involved and a few other side characters are not very smart. In one scene, a cop has no common sense when he is checking out the mansion and following a trail of blood. This is the type of scene that will illicit a ton of groans and laughs from the audience, which is exactly what happened last night. The notion that the cop is using his cellphone in real time to show the sheriff and the mayor what he is looking at is a bit unbelievable. “That is sooooo unreal,” says the woman in the seat behind me.
Another issue, is the time line. The film starts in 1974, then we flash forward a couple decades, which would put the film in the mid 90’s, but is taking place in 2012, which would put the female characters in their near 40’s and way past their mid-drift baring years. It would also make Leatherface nearly 70 years old!
Alexandra Daddario does do a good job in her role, Daniel Yeager wields the chainsaw with such force you believe he was meant to play Leatherface from the get-go, and the cameos from series alumni Bill Moseley, John Dugan, Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns (in a small, but pivotal role) are wonderful additions to the film.
FINAL WORD:
Is this film worth seeing? Yes it is. While some of it is passable, audiences will find some fun in the mid-section of the film, and a particular scene in the cemetery is claustrophobic. I say, to the younger generation of today watch the original first, then see this film. “Is this a sequel with Jessica Biel?” said one young girl last night. Uhhhh, no sweetheart. And while Texas Chainsaw doesn’t match the terrifying and the macabre of Tobe Hooper’s classic, it is still a Chainsaw film after all, and that is something to behold on the big screen.
Texas Chainsaw 3D opens nationwide today.
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