A group of college kids are on their way to a Lynard Skynard concert in Dallas. On their way there, when passing through some small town, they see a strange girl walking on the road, and pick her up with the intention of bringing her home. But soon after the girl has entered the van, she takes up a gun and shoot herself. The kids stop at a diner to phone the sheriff, who says he'll meet them at an old mill, and that they should bring the dead girl's body there. While waiting for the local sheriff at the mill, two of the kids head over to where he's supposed to live. But instead of finding the sheriff, they find a family of inbred psychopaths.
Remakes can of course be both good and bad, but one thing is for sure, and that is that you'll always compare them to the original. When I watched this movie when it first came out, I sure had my share of doubts, but was pleasantly surprised to see just how good this remake actually turned out to be. There are basically two things you can do when remaking a movie in order to make it work. One is to take what the original flick had, do it basically the same way but improve everything. Or secondly, keep the basic story but still make it be able to stand on its own by adding a lot of new things.
This, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, has taken what the old movie had, but brought everything to a new level. It's basically the exact same thing as the original version with a few minor different scenarios. But what was the most noticeable improvement with this remake, was the intensity, the horror and the gore.
Like most horror fans, I'm a big fan of the original flick, and while that movie is a cult classic for sure, it does not have the full amount of gore and terror needed in this day of age. Don't get me wrong, the original TCM movie is a great flick, but watching it these days, it doesn't quite work when it comes to violence and gore. And that's why it was great to see that they really succeeded with remaking the old flick.
It starts off relatively fast, and from then on it stays at a fast tempo the movie throughout. Greatest thing though is that when something brutal happens, you get to see everything. I hate when you don't get to see the actual gore, I mean, why do you watch a flick like this? Of course you watch it for the horror, the suspense and so on, but of course you wanna see (exactly) what happens to the victims, and they've really succeeded in showing the viewer that.
When it comes to acting, I've not one bad thing to say. Everyone involved delivers an overall good performance while Jessica Biel, who plays Erin, really stands out and delivers a great performance. She mananges to show the fear and panic with her character, and so brings more real intensity to the whole experience. The movie is quite brutal, and it features a bunch of pretty nasty scenes. It sticks to everything the original movie had, but still manages to stand on its own and take things up a notch or two. Another thing that is great, is that the viewer is actually treated to a real feeling of horror at times, something that a lot of horror flicks tend to fail at delivering.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 is actually a really good remake that has way more instensity, horror and gore than the original movie had. If you're a fan of the original, you should definitely give this one a go, as it's not just your normal shitty remake, but is actually really good.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2003
DIRECTOR: Marcus Nispel
WRITING CREDITS: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 98 min
RATING: 9/10
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Website/IMDB Click here
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Trailer Click here
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