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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: New Line Cinema
Salesrank: 48702
Released: January 16, 2007 |
| Our Price: $0.33 |
| Used Price: $0.34 |
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MPAA Rating: NC-17
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The only thing more shocking than how it ended is how it all began! Born under unspeakable circumstances, a young orphan is taken in by the sick and demented Hewitt family and soon the seeds of a deranged murderer are planted. When two brothers and their girlfriends stumble across the house of horrors. Leatherface reveals his ravenous appetite for chainsaws and torture as the teens fight to survive.
Description of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning (New Line Platinum Series):
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a prequel to the recent remake of Tobe Hooper's classic 1974 splatter film, with an emphasis on the vogue for torture and bottomless depravity that characterize contemporary horror. As one might expect, The Beginning is just that, an origins tale about the Hewitt family of backwoods Texas. Step-by-step, we discover the source of their taste for human flesh, penchant for snaring young people passing through, and, most of all, how young Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski) came to choose his favorite power tool and wear a mask made of someone else’s flesh. R. Lee Ermey is very effective in his perverse authority figure mode as Hoyt, the lawman who earned his badge through unorthodox means and now supplies specialized food to the Lone Star cannibals. Much less interesting than Hooper's two Massacre films, The Beginning (on which Hooper has a production credit) is not so much a tribute to the films he directed but a more sadistic continuation of the franchise. --Tom Keogh
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning (New Line Platinum Series) Reviews:
another swell performance by r. Lee Ermey delivers the bads 
2009-12-12 - if you really enjoyed the brutal remake to Tobe's original film you're probably gonna dig this prequel . i only detracted one star as we do not get a Ms. Bile ending . just the filmakers choice . i respect that . i think both young directors do an excellent job of scaring the hell out of the audience . i can kind of understand the older viewers cleaving to their 1970's baby . i'm that way when it comes to a lot of films as i was born in 63' and resist a lot of the modernizations in filmaking . these films are of the horror genre though . i see their redux's as a good thing precisely because they can show a lot more of the grue and spatter . they're better photographed . i'd have prefered a more up ending . that may well have been untrue to this very hostile vision . yet again r. Lee Ermey absolutely steals the show as the head of household .
Surprisingly Good! 
2009-11-05 - I remember seeing Jonathan Liebesman's first film "Darkness Falls" at the Toronto Film Festival before it hit theatres. It was an awful movie that nonetheless showed great promise on the part of the director. Beginning vindicated that notion. His TCM prequel is easily one of the best of the entire series.
The bloody bits were brutal, and harrowing, and the Vietnam motif - and metaphor - imbued the film with a power Marcus Nispel's re-imagining lacked. Granted, the tension is undercut somewhat by the fact that we anticipate certain family members must survive in order to have appeared in the previous film, which takes place a few years after the events of this movie (remember this is a prequel) , but R. Lee Ermy's leering performance as the depraved Sheriff Hoyt, not to mention the historic explanation he provides for the family's cannibalism and the sadistic "tests" he subjects the kids to, are intriguing enough to sustain audience interest.
Lastly, by not giving Thomas Hewitt his human skin mask until the tail end of the third act - a decision akin to stripping Jason Vorhees of his Goalie mask - the filmmakers demonstrate gumption often missing in horror films.
Tries So Hard, Yet Fails Horribly. 
2009-10-29 - On one last road trip before going off to serve in Vietnam, two brothers and their girlfriends get into an accident on an isolated road. The local sheriff shows up and brings them home to his deranged family, that nurtures a young man, that soon becomes the notorious Leatherface.
In 1974 Tobe Hooper gave audiences a new experience in horror and created a horror icon, that to this day still sends shivers down some spines. Spawing many sequels, that gradually got worse and worse, it was time for a revamp. In 2003 was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, this time with Jessica Biel and Michael Bay as a producer. While it did have some nice moments, it failed to capture any real sense of terror or horror that it intended. Now we have a prequel to that remake that promises gore, terror and the birth of fear. Unfortunately for the horror fans, it's yet another miss for the chainsaw wielding menace and instead of shivers being sent down those spines, it's simply agony.
Seeing the poster for the new TCM film gave me hope, it was actually good, in fact it was better then good, it was one of the best horror posters I've seen in a while. Maybe, just maybe someone could turn this franchise in the right direction. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that the direction has gone off the map. While in some scenes the film is indeed better then the remake, the film just happens to turn a horror icon into a mess. What once was a scary as hell character, leatherface, is now nothing more then just a misunderstood boy.
Right from the beginning of the film, I found myself laughing at it. Seeing the birth of fear, as they say, reminded me too much of the film Bride Of Chucky. Which could have been fine, if the film didn't take itself so seriously. It does indeed follow the horror formula, bad acting, blood and guts, profanity, somewhat disturbing images and even a ****ty script, but those things that are suppose to make a horror film fun, does the exact opposite with The Beginning.
With a short running time of 84 minutes, it seems to go on longer because your not enjoying yourself. Sure it's nice to see how things happen in the prequel that connects to the other films, but this is the case for all prequels and it's expected. Not even the deaths were enjoyable. The chainsaw death scene in "Dead & Breakfast" was gorier and more enjoyable then any chainsaw related death here...and the frickin movie is called the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is some gore, not as much as I would have wanted, and it's not full screen gore either. It's edited in a way that you can see some of it, but not all of it. Right from the beginning with the death of the old man who owned the meat company, the cuts were too quick to see the damage that was being done. You'll see the blood splatter on the faces of the characters, but only a quick glimpse of the actual chainsaw death. I'll give this film props though for having more then one chainsaw death though.
R Lee Ermey plays the over the top sheriff again, he fits the role well, but the film put a little too much emphasis on his character. Sure he is leading the family pack, but the film is about the origin of leatherface, more on him killing the others would have been great. All the victims here are by the numbers, the boyfriend, the best friend and brother, all die. The hot lead, and boy is she hot, dies in this one. I'm actually happy with that, and the fact that the director chose to showcase Jordana Brewster's ass every chance he got.
There were certain scenes that I did enjoy though, they were shot fairly well. Which was a surprise to me. To say this is a step of for Liebesman is an understatement. After the horrible, HORRIBLE, Darkness Falls, I'll gladly welcome this with open arms. He still has much to learn, but given enough time, he can become a prominent horror director. The obligatory chainsaw chase scene was better then the remake. I felt the sense of being there on the chase, which was fun for a bit and the film does pick up from there, but there is only ten minutes left after that chase and then it's over.
The film ends with the voice over of how the murders were real and the film is base don a true story, I think after 30 some odd years we get it, no need to continue to jam that message down our throats. With so many good remakes out there, Dawn of the Dead, Hills Have Eyes and horror films that are actually good, Devil's Rejects and Silent Hill. There is really no need to watch The Beginning.
Love This... 
2009-10-03 - When it came to the remake, i thought it was kind of bland but still scary and enjoyable. This prequel is something else! i watched it-like-45 times! All i can say is i seriously loved this!foward-
Depressing With No Redeeming Qualities 
2009-09-24 - Simply read the other one star reviews and that will sum up my feelings about this piece of trash. I watched this on cable and it is just another example of how the horror genre has gone totally wrong.
