Texas Chainsaw 3D
I don’t even know where to begin with Texas Chainsaw 3D. I feel like this is about the time when a bunch of movies came out that were made to make you feel bad or sympathize with the killers in the popular franchises. An example would have to be Michael Meyers coming from a broken home and poor. Where the director/writer changes the backstory in favor of the killers. And I’m not down with it.
Photo Credit: Lionsgate
Released: Jan 4, 2013
Runtime: 92 mins
Director: John Luessenhop
Writer: Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan, Kirsten Elms
Actors: Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood
PLOT
Do your thing, cuz!--Heather
A young woman and her friends travel to Texas to receive her inheritance, only to stumble upon a deadly town and family secret.
MY THOUGHTS
We get roughly 18 deaths. It’s hard to count a lot of the deaths with the opening shootout and fire killing a lot of the Sawyers. There are nine kills throughout the rest of the movie. I guess the best death was Burt Hartman’s death where he falls into a giant grinder. It’s not that graphic but it’s different. I did like Darryl’s death. The first kill (minus the aforementioned shootout and fire) is a throwback to the first death in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Darryl is searching the house for things to kill when he stumbles upon Leatherface who kills him by beating him with a meat tenderizer. Weakest kill is Nikki’s. Shot in the head by a cop who is startled.
The acting is fine. Nothing bad about it or great. I did like Alexandra Diaddario, who plays Heather. We have Treyz Songz as Ryan, her cheating boyfriend and Tania Raymonde as Nikki, her backstabbing best friend. Paul Rae plays the perfect redneck asshole that causes a lot of problems. And Thom Berry as the guilt ridden good guy Sheriff Hooper.
Heather finds out she’s adopted when a grandmother she didn’t know she had dies. She is left a house in Texas that she can’t sell and all the land and possessions on it. So Heather, her boyfriend Ryan, best friend Nikki, and Nikki’s current boyfriend Kenny drive there to check out her inheritance. On the way they pick up a hitchhiker (just like in the original movie) that is not who he seems to be. Soon a chainsaw wielding maniac is killing off her friends and those in the town that had any connection to the shootout so many years earlier. Heather uncovers the murders of her “innocent” (not really, they still killed Sally’s friends) family. Which all culminates in the worst, cheesy line in a movie. Heather tosses the chainsaw to Leatherface and says: “Do your thing, cuz!”. Sigh. It was bad.
So, Texas Chainsaw 3D sets everything up to be the Sawyers were innocent (even though they killed people) and the townspeople as evil for killing them. And we’re expecting to believe that after Leatherface kills off all of Heather’s friends, she all of a sudden is cool with Leatherface because he’s family? Yes, Ryan was a lousy boyfriend for cheating on her with Nikki, but they didn’t deserve to die. And anyways, she didn’t know they cheated so how does this all make sense?
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Overall the acting and the kills were good. And the carnival scene was good (but could have been better). I just feel the changing of the backstory just ruins it for me. Texas Chainsaw 3D isn’t the worst in the franchise but it does kind of piss me off with it. The Sawyers are not the good guys! They are cannibalistic killers. Stop trying to make them the victims! Add in the weird timelines that don’t make sense. Like, how was Heather a baby during the events of the original movie and now she’s in her early twenties. It doesn’t jive. Watch it once if you are a completionist. Or just want something playing in the background and only pay attention to the kills. The story line will annoy you.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
John Dugan, who portrayed Grandpa in the 1974 film, reprises his role in the opening scene of this film.
Gunnar Hansen's final film. He portrayed Leatherface in the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Marilyn Burns, who played Sally Hardesty in the original film, plays Verna in this.
Bill Moseley, who played Chop Top in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, plays Drayton Sawyer (known as The Cook from the first two movies).
This movie features a total of three different actors portraying Leatherface: Gunnar Hansen as the one from the archive footage, Sam McKinzie as a young Leatherface, and Dan Yeager as the main one.
In an interview with Collider, Alexandra Daddario said she didn't want to say the line "Do your thing, cuz," because she felt it was too silly. Then the producer told her the entire movie is supposed to be silly, so she ended up saying it.
It was 106 degrees in Shreveport on the day that the fire stunts were performed inside the burning Sawyer house at the beginning of the film.
Just like in the original film the 4 main characters pick up a hitchhiker with a hidden agenda.
This is a direct sequel to the 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and ignores the sequels and does not include the remakes produced by New Line Cinema.
At the end of the credits, there is one final short scene in which Heather's foster parents show up to the Carson house only to meet her cousin, Leatherface who appears with a chainsaw.
Have you seen the other The Texas Chain Saw Massacre movies? Check out my other reviews here: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Franchise.
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 4/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5
Scare factor: 3.5/5
Enjoyment factor: 3.5/5
My Rank: 2.75/5
IMDB: 4.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 1.9/10 audience: 4/10
Letterboxd: 2/5