Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

"Prepare for a big gulp of excrutiating horror  Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
"The Scariest Film in Years!  Jeff Craig, Sixty Second Preview
"It's an instant horror classic! You want scary? THIS is scary!  Marcus Osborne, UPN-TV

Editor's Note Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE appeared like a nightmare in 1974, establishing a whole new genre of horror film. Thirty years later, the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is back. Directed by well-known commercial and video director Marcus Nispel, and produced by Michael Bay (ARMAGEDDON, PEARL HARBOR), this remake begins in the same place as the original. Five friends are driving through Texas on their way to a concert in Dallas. But when they stop to pick up a hitchhiker, their trip takes a turn for the worse. The friends--Erin (Jessica Biel), Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), and Andy (Mike Vogel)--have no idea what they're in for when they ask the local sheriff (R. Lee Ermey) for help. It isn't long before the blood begins to pour and the notorious chainsaw of the maniacal, murderous Leatherface starts to roar. Although considered relatively low budget (9.5 million) by 2003 moviemaking standards, Nispel's remake is worlds away from the no-budget feel of Hooper's original. Where that film left much of the actual gore off camera, Nispel and Bay up the ante by showing every death in all its gruesome detail. They also up the dramatic ante, building to a final act that is relentless and terrifying.

	Andrew Bryniarski
	Eric Balfour
	Erica Leerhsen
	Jessica Biel
	Jonathan Tucker
	Mike Vogel
	R. Lee Ermey
	Daniel Pearl - Cinematographer
	Glen Scantlebury - Editor
	Greg Blair - Production Designer
	Marcus Nispel - Director
	Michael Bay - Producer
	Mike Fleiss - Producer
	Scott Kosar - Screenplay

Total Film
"...CHAINSAW eventually revs up and bites right to the bone..." 12/01/2003 p.96

USA Today
"[A] slicked-up remake of director Tobe Hooper's minimalist classic." 04/02/2004 p.3D

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 7 of 10
The film's splatter content is restrained, at least by slasher/horror film standards, and the intent

Chicago Tribune 8 of 10
Has no pretensions about sneaking up on you -- it simply charges, motor humming and blades flying, c - Robert K. Elder

Washington Post 8 of 10
What a superb job director Marcus Nispel has done re-creating, yet also revising, 1974's grisly, gri - Stephen Hunter