(2013) ***
There have been sequels, prequels
and even a re-boot to the Texas Chainsaw series. Texas Chainsaw 3D is the latest attempt to
re-energize the creaky 40-year old franchise.
Picking up moments after the 1974 original ended we find the police and
townsfolk (i.e. hillbillies) of Newt, Texas
stampeding the Leatherface compound, murdering the cannibal clan and burning
the homestead to the ground. Sifting through
the ruins one of the hillbillies stumbles across a mother and her baby still
very much alive. In a split-second
decision he kicks the mother to death and quietly takes the baby girl to his
barren wife.
Years later the little girl,
Heather, now a grocery store butcher (of course!) receives a letter in the mail
indicating that a grandmother she never knew existed died leaving her a hefty
inheritance. Recruiting her boyfriend and
a few friends Heather makes the trek to her family estate which turns out to be
a mansion. While exploring the vast
dwelling a secret basement is discovered and an old evil is resurrected.
For any aging horror franchise it
becomes increasingly difficult to craft anything new or interesting that the
audience has not seen countless times before.
While adding little to cannon, Texas Chainsaw 3D does have a few
standout sequences including one with Leatherface chasing Heather through a
local carnival. Although there are
numerous deaths, the film is not nearly as gory as its predecessors. The opening was my favorite part of the
film. If you have ever wondered what
happened next as Leatherface stood in the street waving his chainsaw Texas
Chainsaw 3D offers a very satisfying answer.
8 comments:
You bastard, you beat me to this one! TCM may be the laziest horror franchise of them all. Aside from part 2 (which was over-the-top fun) every installment is the same damn thing over and over. I'd argue one only needs to see the original, Texas Chainsaw 2 and Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning. The rest are complete throwaways. Octopunk did a thorough roundup of the others a few years back.
Tony & I watched this recently and did not support their decision to portray leather face as a mentally challenged simpleton with a soft side for family.
JPX, your theme for this year seems to be "movies with 3D in the title that I watching in 2D."
Hilarious, Landshark!
I agree, Catfreeek, it makes no sense to try to humanize Leatherface given his atrocious crimes.
I suppose I'll have to add this one to complete my roundup, but maybe not this year.
Wait, is this meant to take place right after the original and not the 2003 remake? The 3 in 3D would suggest it's meant to be the third in the post-remake run, but it's so confusing. I would still like to know if this was, as I suspect, the first franchise to get both a reboot and a prequel.
so... has anyone seen it in 3d?
What's most confusing is that the opening takes place immediately after the first one and then it goes into (the present?). The main heroine, who was a baby at the beginning of this film is in her 20s s the main story gets moving. This suggests that the film takes place circa 1994? It is never clear. No one has a cell phone.
so the answer to the question of what happened next as Leatherface stood in the street waving his chainsaw isn't, "he did the chainsaw waving thing for a couple more minutes and then stood there looking around awkwardly for a few minutes before turning around and going home"?
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