The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Pas · October 16, 2003, 08:12:03 AM

The song in the trailer, it's in a Lynch film, but which one I can't recall ? Lost Highway I think, am I right ?

ShanghaiOrange · October 16, 2003, 09:57:41 AM

Yeah, it's "Song To the Siren" by This Mortal Coil

Banky · October 16, 2003, 09:50:36 PM

i just watched the origianl for the first time in years. It wasnt as good as i remembered. It was still really good. I didnt understand the Grandfather character. Did he have a mask on or did he just loook really wierd?

btw the new ones previews make it seem like a completley different movie

Dr. Gonzo · October 17, 2003, 12:04:10 AM

I liked the new one. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the original first. I was going to rent it before I went to see the new one but last week there was a free screening at UGA that I didn't know about until that day. But I liked the new one and I wasn't expecting much.

cine · October 17, 2003, 12:37:41 AM

Quote from: Dr. GonzoI liked the new one. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the original first. I was going to rent it before I went to see the new one but last week there was a free screening at UGA that I didn't know about until that day. But I liked the new one and I wasn't expecting much.

So you didn't see the Life of David Gale because of its rotten reviews on Rottentomatoes.com, yet you saw this film and, above all, liked it?

Ghostboy · October 17, 2003, 12:54:21 AM

Keeping in mind that I still haven't seen the original (heresy, I know, but I'm waiting to see it on the big screen next weekend) and went into the remake with a completely open mind and a lot of hope due to the kickass trailer...I found it rather dull. It starts of really well, hits its high point around the middle, and then just goes on and on. There are some nice creepy/uncomfortable/gross moments, Jessica Biel is good, R Lee Ermey is the only source of terror in the film, and the photography is gorgeous. That's about it. I get scared real easily, and it didn't scare me.

Finn · October 17, 2003, 09:23:19 AM

Uhhhh! Ebert gave this no stars! A perfect zero. Ouch:

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE / ZERO STARS

by Roger Ebert

The new version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is a contemptible film: Vile, ugly and brutal. There is not a shred of a reason to see it. Those who defend it will have to dance through mental hoops of their own devising, defining its meanness and despair as "style" or "vision" or "a commentary on our world." It is not a commentary on anything, except the marriage of slick technology with the materials of a geek show.

The movie is a remake of, or was inspired by, the 1974 horror film by Tobe Hooper. That film at least had the raw power of its originality. It proceeded from Hooper's fascination with the story and his need to tell it. This new version, made by a man who has previously directed music videos, proceeds from nothing more than a desire to feed on the corpse of a once-living film. There is no worthy or defensible purpose in sight here: The filmmakers want to cause disgust and hopelessness in the audience. Ugly emotions are easier to evoke and often more commercial than those that contribute to the ongoing lives of the beholders.

The movie begins with grainy "newsreel" footage of a 1974 massacre (the same one as in the original film; there are some changes but this is not a sequel). Then we plunge directly into the formula of a Dead Teenager Movie, which begins with living teenagers and kills them one by one. The formula can produce movies that are good, bad, funny, depressing, whatever. This movie, strewn with blood, bones, rats, fetishes and severed limbs, photographed in murky darkness, scored with screams, wants to be a test: Can you sit through it? There were times when I intensely wanted to walk out of the theater and into the fresh air and look at the sky and buy an apple and sigh for our civilization, but I stuck it out. The ending, which is cynical and truncated, confirmed my suspicion that the movie was made by and for those with no attention span.

The movie doesn't tell a story in any useful sense, but is simply a series of gruesome events which finally are over. It probably helps to have seen the original film in order to understand what's going on, since there's so little exposition. Only from the earlier film do we have a vague idea of who the people are in this godforsaken house, and what their relationship is to one another. The movie is eager to start the gore and unwilling to pause for exposition.

I like good horror movies. They can exorcise our demons. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" doesn't want to exorcise anything. It wants to tramp crap through our imaginations and wipe its feet on our dreams. I think of filmgoers on a date, seeing this movie and then -- what? I guess they'll have to laugh at it, irony being a fashionable response to the experience of being had.

Certainly they will not be frightened by it. It recycles the same old tired thriller tools that have been worn out in countless better movies. There is the scary noise that is only a cat. The device of loud sudden noises to underline the movements of half-seen shadows. The van that won't start. The truck that won't start. The car that won't start. The character who turns around and sees the slasher standing right behind her. One critic writes, "Best of all, there was not a single case of 'She's only doing that (falling, going into a scary space, not picking up the gun) because she's in a thriller.' " Huh? Nobody does anything in this movie for any other reason. There is no reality here. It's all a thriller.

There is a controversy involving Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Volume 1," which some people feel is "too violent." I gave it four stars, found it kind of brilliant, felt it was an exhilarating exercise in nonstop action direction. The material was redeemed, justified, illustrated and explained by the style. It was a meditation on the martial arts genre, done with intelligence and wit. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is a meditation on the geek-show movie. Tarantino's film is made with grace and joy. This movie is made with venom and cynicism. I doubt that anybody involved in it will be surprised or disappointed if audience members vomit or flee.

Do yourself a favor. There are a lot of good movies playing right now that can make you feel a little happier, smarter, sexier, funnier, more excited -- or more scared, if that's what you want. This is not one of them. Don't let it kill 98 minutes of your life.

ShanghaiOrange · October 17, 2003, 09:49:15 AM

I like this line: "It wants to tramp crap through our imaginations and wipe its feet on our dreams."

mutinyco · October 17, 2003, 10:29:58 AM

The original is a masterpiece. Same with Dawn of the Dead which has a remake coming out. When are filmmakers going to understand that slickness and polish don't work for horror? Those 2 films worked because of their low budgets. For horror to work you need a defineable reality that people can relate to -- you don't get that with big budgets.

ShanghaiOrange · October 17, 2003, 10:32:12 AM

Dawn of the Dead is the best thing with zombies in it ever.

Dr. Gonzo · October 17, 2003, 11:51:53 PM

Quote from: Cinephile
So you didn't see the Life of David Gale because of its rotten reviews on Rottentomatoes.com, yet you saw this film and, above all, liked it?

I didn't say anything about the Life of David Gale...or did I a long time ago? I don't remember. But I saw the remake of this for free before it came out. There were no reviews and if it had mostly rotten reviews there, I probably would've avoided it. I didn't have much interest in it to begin with, but it was a free movie.

Dr. Gonzo · October 17, 2003, 11:55:20 PM

And it seems I did say that about The Life of David Gale. I never heard anything good about that movie. I might rent it now that it's on DVD.

MacGuffin · October 18, 2003, 02:56:16 PM

Texas Chainsaw Slaughters the Competition
Source: Box Office Mojo

New Line's horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, starring Jessica Biel, slaughtered the competition on Friday to earn an estimated $11 million in one day from 3,016 theaters. The film looks to be headed for a weekend take of about $28 million.

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 performed well on its second Friday, adding $4.3 million from 3,102 theaters for a total of $35.1 million.

SHAFTR · October 18, 2003, 03:04:25 PM

I didn't think the first one was as good as people will tell you. I enjoyed it and I especially enjoyed it considering the budget and originality of the film.

I have 0 desire to see the remake.

pete · October 19, 2003, 12:02:36 PM

spoilers in white:
the new one was pretty good to sit through but I don't really remember much afterwards. It was kinda obvious who was gonna die and the order of the deaths, I saw EVERYTHING coming--the hot kid is gonna ask the girl to put him outta his misery, the nerd is gonna sacrifice himself for the girl, and the freaky kid is gonna come save everyone but sitting through it was still kinda fun. Art direction was cool, and sound design was cool.