Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
WOW!! Just.....WOW!
Before I get to my own review (one of more than 580), let me just say that self referential movies and remakes are good for the core audience (anyone that can name Jessica Biel's other movies or anyone that's watched a boatload of the old WB), but as far as which movie is better? I can't really answer that. If Hollywood Greenlights a remake, it's automatically given a bigger budget and more creative liberties. Meaning Leatherface (or anyone else) can have a totally different backstory. He can be an uneducated lummox or a backwoods Dr. Lecter; it's the screenwriter's (and ultimately the director's) call. This is good for characterization. What I am getting at is there's no real need for an "E! True Hollywood Story" setup for a good character. What's scarier? Not knowing why someone's clubbing you over the head; or knowing that due to a crackwhore mother, and a life in "Da Hood", a person is going to start laying a smackdown on people? Not seeing the gun laying bullets into the wall next to you? Or seeing a gothic teen listening to Disturbed and Mudvayne (two bands I do like, believe it or not) loading up his dad's 30-06?Lots of blood doesn't necessarily mean scarier. I've seen really scholcky B- or C-grade movies with tons of strawberry syrup and stage blood, and it still wasn't scary.Finally, before I get off my pedestal; why is the remake better? Depending on your own judgment. If it's because Jessica Beil showed a midriff and a lowriff and highriff and the hitchhiker blew her brains out with a gun she got from an unmentionable area....AND the creepy no teeth Sherrif...ok. That's your opinion. If you need tons of expositional dialogue and gallons of blood to be shed on camera before you get scared, then, oh dear reader, I have some movies for you.The Ed Gein references you have read about in earlier posts are in part true. Ed Gein was a messed up Wisconsin resident that went over the deep end after his mother died. He loved his mom a lot, even though she was extremely overbearing(enter Norman Bates' motivation). He started making objects out of human skin (lampshades) and even sewed together some human masks to wear around the house (the reason for Leatherface's moniker). He didn't have a chainsaw, was a total packrat, and was a loner.As far as the acting; it's not an award winner by any means. Nor was it meant to be.Consider this. How annoying was Luke Skywalker when he whined about picking up power converters? Wasn't the entire movie bad acting? Wasn't the dialogue poor? Even Sir Alec Guiness suggested the series had "frightful(ly) rubbish" for dialogue.This is a movie that was made to be if not scary, than to be as creepy as possible. The Marilyn Burns Scream-a-Thon (is it me, or does that whole dinner table scene seem too Corman for its own good?) was written to be how people would really act. Ask any witness or victim of attack. Do they throw a punch and recite some trite comeback? Or do they go insane with fear?I can tell you one thing. For the people that are still on the fence about this movie; look around your DVD collection now. Is it missing some key horror movies? Exorcist, Chainsaw, Wicker Man, and Night of The Living Dead are essential.Get the best of the 60s and 70s horror; then you can decide if the new Millenium's crop is worth dropping some coin on.