The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) [Blu-ray]

While I fully appreciate and respect the tastes of others, let me just say I have no idea why the original is held in such high regard. It was truly one of the worst films I have ever seen. Nothing happened in it. There was ZERO suspense or excitement, the dialogue was barely audible and it felt like another half of it was missing. I hated it and I am so puzzled why so many people love that film.Granted, back in 1973 it may have been easier to scare audiences and the low-budget nature of the original may have contributed to the ugly look of the film but I see no reason to credit the original director (Tobe Hooper) with any of the film's so-called qualities. The man's career fell flat on it's face soon after and I think his most famous movie was something of a fluke. It would not have succeeded today. Obviously, as I just said, audiences today are exposed to a larger number of movies and can choose and discriminate more easily. There are some who will say the only people who can enjoy this will be degenerate teenagers who don't know what real horror is. And some who will call the film to glossy. But none of this I find fair criticism.I am, in no way, a fan of Michael Bay or any of his movies. But he had the right idea in keeping the budget very low for this movie ($8 million) and seems to be more skilled in packaging and producing than directing. The film is not 'glossy' or 'clean'. The equipment use to make the film is more sophisticated than that on the original but this is not 'The Rock' or 'Armageddon' and there are no hundred-shots-in-a-second and flashy camera tricks. They all tried their best to pull of a nervous, raw horror film that stands on it's own and I think they have.This was sooooooo much better than the first. The characters actually HAVE character this time. I got on their side, I got involved in the action (yes, there is action this time, and a LOT of it) and the acting was done well. Plus Jessica Biel is VERY hot.So many new dimensions and situations occur is this remake that elevates to something a zillion times what the original was. Don't automatically think that because Michael Bay is the producer that it's going to be some kind of sanitised and fashion-shoot Hollywood production. It is still a very edgy and intense film. It's rare that a Hollywood film manages to horrify and offend these days, so I'm very glad the new TCM went for a hard R-rating. The tone is so filthy and depraved that you will definitely need to shower soon afterwards. THAT'S how close you get to the action.Even the character of Thomas 'Leatherface' Hewitt has a lot more to do this time. He's not quite Jason Voorhees but he's still an incredibly mean bad guy you'd NEVER want to mess with or come within 10 miles of. And in case you're wondering, he's played by the same dude who played Butterfinger, the big, dumb blonde guy from Hudson Hawk. Only this time he's not so cuddly.Not since 8mm almost 5 years ago have I seen a film where the bad guys (there's more than one) are nothing but the blackest of all evil. R. Lee Ermey was terrific (as usual) as the disgusting Sheriff and any fans of him should only expect the most badass of performances.Second to Dawn of the Dead (and tying with House of 1000 Corpses) this is one of the best horror movies I have seen in a long time.The Platinum Series DVD is just awesome. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture is superb and the Dolby 6.1/DTS ES soundtracks are incredible. You'll really think Leatherface is chainsawing his way into YOUR living room. There are also a massive load of interesting extras including a 75-minute documentary, deleted scenes, a documentary on serial killer Ed Gein (who was 'supposedly the inspiration for the original but Tobe Hooper denied these rumors) and screen test footage. The packaging is awesome with a metal plate stuck on the front cover and 'crime scene' photos in a little envelope tucked into back. It completes a great package of a great DVD of a great movie. Buy it!!!

I can't say enough good things about this film. For me personally, this is my favorite in the TCM franchise and one of my favorite films of all time. I've seen it countless times at this point and am still horrified, entertained and surprised by new details every time. The score is underrated and if anything my main critique is that there are too many amazing shots that the the film should have been a little longer so we had more camera time to take in all of the amazing details.

Jessica Biel,My woman crush at the time, enough said. Otherwise a good watch if you're into horror and gore

Just when you thought the original was disturbing, gross, Scary , and frightening, now comes the updated version, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,"In the beginning of the film, there is archive footage of a police search of the Hewitt house. The two officers survey the house and descend into the basement, noting the fingernail scratch marks, human blood and hair embedded into the walls.We are then brought to August 1973 where five young adults, Erin (Jessica Biel), Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after returning from Mexico. As they drive through Texas, they see a distraught hitchhiker (Lauren German), who eventually gets in their van. After trying to speak to the hitchhiker, who speaks incoherently about "a bad man", she shoots and kills herself with a .357 Magnum. The group tries to contact the police, then go to a store where a woman (Marietta Marich) tells them the sheriff is at the mill. Instead of the sheriff, they find a little boy named Jedediah (David Dorfman) who tells them that the sheriff is at home drinking. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving the other three at the mill with the boy. They come to a plantation house where Erin is allowed inside by the owner, an amputee named Monty, to phone for help. When Erin finishes, the old man asks her for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin and attacked by the vicious-looking Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), who hits him with a sledgehammer. When Leatherface takes Kemper's body to begin to make a new mask out of him, he discovers a small black box from Kemper; opening it, he discovers a ring meant for Erin.Meanwhile, Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) arrives at the mill and disposes of the hitchhiker's body, wrapping her in cellophane and putting her in his trunk in which he drives away and tells the youths to leave. Erin arrives and finds that Kemper is still missing. Andy and Erin go back to the Monty's house, where Erin distracts him while Andy searches for Kemper. Monty realizes Andy is inside and summons Leatherface, who attacks him with his chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods, but Leatherface cuts Andy's leg off. Leatherface carries him to the basement and hangs him on a meat hook with his feet hanging over a piano, where he rubs salt on Andy's stump of a leg before wrapping it in butcher paper and tying it with human hair.Erin makes it to the mill and tries to escape in the van, but the sheriff shows up and, after finding marijuana, orders Erin, Morgan and Pepper to get out of the van. The sheriff gives Morgan the gun he took from the hitchhiker and tells Morgan to reenact how she killed herself. Morgan, scared and disturbed by the sheriff's demeanor, and under pressure by Erin and Pepper, attempts to shoot the sheriff only to find the gun is unloaded. Sheriff Hoyt handcuffs Morgan and drives him to the Hewitt house (a drive which includes a brutal beating), leaving the girls in the van. Erin tries to fix the truck, while Pepper holds a flashlight. Erin gets the truck running, but the one of the wheels rolls out. Erin and Pepper stay still in the truck but Leatherface appears on the top of the truck and tries to attack them. After witnessing Pepper's murder by Leatherface, Erin, who sees that Leatherface is wearing Kemper's face over his own, runs to escape and hides in a nearby trailer with two women inside, who offer her tea and try to soothe her. The two women, an obese middle-aged woman known only as the 'Tea Lady' and a younger woman named Henrietta, whom is presumably her daughter, act strange and after they tell Erin they don't have a phone for her to call for help, a telephone in the trailer rings and Henrietta picks it up and tells someone on the other end that "she's here". Erin discovers they have kidnapped a child when she sees that the baby with them is the same child in a photograph with the woman who committed suicide earlier. However, the tea is drugged and she passes out when she tries to leave.Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house surrounded by the Hewitt family: Leatherface, his mother Luda May, Sheriff Hoyt, Uncle Monty, and the little boy Jedediah. Luda May tells Erin that her excuse for her son Thomas' actions, was that her son was tormented by teenagers and that she felt no one cared for her family besides themselves. Erin is taken to the basement, where she finds Andy. She tries to help him off of the meat hook but when he sees he will land on the piano keys and alert Leatherface, he begs her to kill him, which she does, though suffers severe emotional trauma. She finds Morgan, still handcuffed, and Jedediah leads them out of the house. Jedediah rejects Erin's plea to come with them and distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned house in the woods and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks Leatherface, causing him to drop his chainsaw. Morgan grabs him and wrestles him, but Leatherface is too heavy and easily lifts Morgan upwards onto a chandelier before releasing him and Morgan gets tangled in the chandelier by his handcuffs. Leatherface picks up his chainsaw and slices up into Morgan's crotch, killing him.Erin runs out of the shack and escapes through the woods. Leatherface trips and cuts his leg while pursuing her. Erin finds a slaughterhouse and hides in a locker; Leatherface opens the locker across from hers and she attacks him with a meat cleaver, and chops off his right arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to go away from the Hewitt's house, but he stops to find help at the eatery. Erin sees Luda May and watches as Sheriff Hoyt arrives and talks to the trucker. Erin sees Henrietta watching over the kidnapped baby in a highchair. When Henrietta walks outside to join Luda May and Sheriff Hoyt whom are talking to the truck driver, Erin sneaks the baby out of the eatery and hot-wires the sheriff's car before running him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface appears in the road and tries to stop her, but Erin and the baby escape unharmed.The police archive footage continues to play. The officers inspect the basement noting the hanging meat hooks when suddenly one of the officers is grabbed and severely beaten. A blurred figure viciously shakes the camera and the other police officer is heard screaming. The narrator states that "The crime scene was not properly secured by Travis County Police. Two investigating officers were fatally wounded that day. This is the only known image of Thomas Hewitt, the man they call Leatherface. The case today still remains open".You NEED THIS MOVIE ! it's gore , gore , gore , gore , gore & more gore !