Texas Chainsaw Massacre-Beginning (2006)

"...a better movie than the 2003 remake...appropriately creepy, right down to aping the look of the 1974 original.  Pete Vonder Haar, Film Threat
"...a genuine attempt to strip the coating from the audience's nerves...nasty and brutish...  Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
"...the measured, Georgia O'Keefe-on-acid sensibility that guided Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's much-cannibalized original.  Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly

Editor's Note Though it's spawned a handful of sequels, it took more than 30 years for Tobe Hooper's ever-potent horror classic to get an "origin" story. Why is Leatherface so angry? Whose face does he wear as a mask? How did his family get their taste for human flesh? A 2003 remake revisited the original film, painted with post-millenial gloss by former music video director Marcus Nispel. For his second feature, director Jonathan Liebesman (DARKNESS FALLS) follows suit, though wisely eliminating the heavy rock soundtrack of the remake. The film opens with the 1949 birth of the child who would become Leatherface--to an obese slaughterhouse worker. She dies during childbirth and the deformed baby is later found in a dumpster by his adoptive mother. Twenty years later, Chrissy (Jordana Brewster), Dean (Taylor Handley), Bailey (Doira Bird), and Eric (Matthew Bomer) are driving cross country before Dean leaves for his second tour of duty in Vietnam. A run-in with some bikers leads to an intervention by crazed cannibal clan leader Hoyt (R.Lee Ermey), who has just killed the sheriff of the dwindling Texas town and taken on the mantle himself. The chainsawing begins soon after.

	Jordana Brewster
	Lee Tergesen
	R. Lee Ermey
	David J. Schow - Story By
	John Frick - Art Director
	John Larroquette - Narrated By
	Jonathan Chibnall, et. al. - Editor
	Jonathan Liebesman - Director
	Lukas Ettlin - Cinematographer
	Michael Bay - Producer
	Sheldon Turner - Story By
	Sheldon Turner - Screenplay
	Steve Jablonsky - Original Music By
	Toby Emmerich - Executive Producer

HorrorWatch 7 of 10
I liked this flick but didn't love it, but it does have it's good points. Number one, and best of all, they finally make Leatherface not only scary, but a walking badass as well. Andrew Bryniarski does a great job as the disfigured Thomas Hewitt. He is imposing, demented, dangerous, and animalistic and his presence is amazing throughout the film. This isn't the retarded whipping boy we have seen in the other TCMs, this is a walking being of rage and chaos and it is what Leatherface has needed to be since the beginning in my opinion...I didn't care for any of the victims and the storyline had a few minor holes in it, but all and all this is a pretty decent flick, with some good gore and torture and two great performances thanks to R. Lee and Bryniarski, it's well worth the price of admission.

Variety 6 of 10
Don't get too attached to any of the nubile young twentysomethings in horror prequel "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning." Expectedly grisly pic provides the origin story for Thomas Hewitt, aka "Leatherface" -- which means these kids are little more than chainsaw fodder for the Ed Gein-inspired cannibalistic killer. Whereas the three "Star Wars" prequels set up key events foreshadowing young Anakin's turn to the dark side, implication here is that Hewitt was always evil...Purists who wondered what had become of the family dinner scene (left out of the remake) should be pleased to find an even creepier version recreated here. Auds would be well advised not to attempt "Beginning" on a full stomach. - Peter Debruge