Aja tones down for American remake

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2006)

Yeah, this film's first 45 minutes are a bore. I think Aja tried to introduce the audience to the characters and the mood of the film the same way some flicks from the seventies (TCM, Dawn of the Dead, the original Hills Have Eyes, I Spit on your Grave) did, but in this case it really drags and feels like an empty attempt. If you loved Aja's Haute Tension, I think you will be expecting the same realistic impact from the violence, but don't be fooled, THHE doesn't feature anything like that. It's gorier, but the tone of the violence is your typical American tone, instead of the European wild-and-insane- as-hell violence present in Haute Tension. So this movie seems more like that a movie. One of the things that really made an impact on the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was the way it was filmed. Like a documentary. Haute Tension had a small dose of that, and it worked, but this one is filmed in such a neat way it feels artificial. Don't get me wrong. There's plenty of violence, but I wasn't really moved by it. The miners look good, but not particularly disturbing. If you have seen Chris Cunningham's 'Rubber Johnny', you'll find nothing disturbing about THHE's mutants there's one that resembles Rubber Johnny too much. The death's aren't that violent either. They are pretty repetitive. After everything I read here, I was expecting something with more impact.
You will have fun. But that's as far as it goes.