Texas Chainsaw 3D
In 1974, Tobe Hooper released The Texas Chainsaw Massacre starring Gunner Hanson as the iconic Leatherface based in part on the murders of Ed Gein who also wore a leather mask made of his victims. It spawned three sequels in the 80s and 90s and in 2003 was remade with a prequel in 2006. Now, in this new decade, we break into the 3-D realm with Texas Chainsaw 3D. Taking place an hour after the first film (retconning the time table to the 1990s), the girl who escaped Leatherface’s torture went to the local sheriff and the townsfolk who were already tired of the Sawyer family shenanigans take it upon themselves to round up a pose and hunt them down in their own home.
A lone survivor grows up from infancy not knowing her true back ground when she inherits a house form her long lost grandmother. Her and her friends head to Texas against the better wishes of her foster parents and discover the horrible truth about who she really is; the only living relative left alive of Jed Sawyer, aka Leatherface. The movie is directed by John Luessenhop, who up to this point has only directed indie thrillers (Takers, Lockdown). The movie really tried to make a bigger deal with Leatherface than any of the other films in the franchise ever have by putting him in the forefront of everything that gets killed. The body count in this movie is pretty high. The cheesiness of the special effect knows no bounds in a horror movie like this and they do that dumb point stuff at the camera for the 3-D effect shots.
Leatherface now joins Freddy, Jason, and Jigsaw (who makes a cameo in the movie and comes to blows with Leatherface. Guess it helps if Lionsgate owns both franchises) and the shark from Jaws in the 3-D realm of horror. It’s clever at times but cheesy in a lot of ways as well. The cast is a virtual who’s who from the horror genre, but all in minor roles, like Bill Mosley and John Dugan who both appeared in other Texas Chainsaw movies and Gunner Hanson who played the original Leatherface in 1974. New comer Dan Yeager plays him in this film. The gorgeous and smoking hot, Alexandra Daddario (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) plays Heather Miller, the long lost cousin of the Sawyer family of cannibals.
This movie has all the horror movie clichés: girl falls down, girl runs around with no bra bouncing as she goes; girl loses her shirt and needs a new one, young people have sex where they shouldn’t because they are going to get killed… you know the deal. In the end though, the movies takes this weird out of left field turn and our have a different kind of ending in a slasher movie. I will not reveal what it is here but you have to see it to believe it. The movie had a great opening weekend for a horror movie, something we did not see very much of last year. It opened with $23 million beating out Django and The Hobbit. Its final tally will help bring back other horror icons waiting for a chance at the 3-D slasher genre. There have been talks of doing the next Halloween in 3-D as Michael, Pinhead and Chucky (who has the Curse of Chucky coming out later this year) have not had an entry in that realm yet.
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