The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003
To be upfront, I’m not a big fan of remakes/reboots and the like. However, I did find The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 a pretty decent remake. Dare I say really good? Considering a lot of the sequels are all over the place when it comes to being good or not, this one, dare I say, is the best of the sequels? Definitely in the top three.
Photo Credit: New Line Cinema
Released: Oct 17, 2003
Runtime: 98 mins
Director: Marcus Nispel
Writer: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, Scott Kosar
Actors: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Andrew Bryniarski
PLOT
Five friends returning from Mexico pick up a hitchhiker who kills herself. This sets off a chain of events that have them hunted and killed by Leatherface and his psychotic family.
MY THOUGHTS
We get eight kills, but only 2 chainsaw kills. I think Morgan’s kill may be the best, but I do feel that most of the kills are pretty good and bloody. Morgan gets one of the two chainsaw kills, with him being cut up the body. But then again, Kemper gets skinned, and a girl shoots herself in the head. Lots of blood and gore.
We get a pretty decent cast who we can root for and feel bad when they inevitably die. Jessica Biel as Erin is a pretty good final girl. I like how Jessica Biel’s Erin is a no nonsense woman who, when she finds out her boyfriend lied about the weed, didn’t put up with it. She doesn’t spend the whole movie being defenseless or screaming the whole time. Don’t get me wrong, there will be screaming, and there should be. But she’s a fighter.
Jonathan Tucker as Morgan, the prerequisite annoying guy who goes to the line of almost being too annoying but pulls back enough so we can still like him and feel bad when he doesn’t survive. He tries so hard to save Erin. It’s a shame.
Also, we get a great performance from R. Lee Ermey as Sheriff Hoyt. I feel like R. Lee Ermey was a great addition to the franchise. He, with ease, has the ability to make you believe he’s a sadistic bastard and that you probably won’t be able to escape him.
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Five friends are returning from Mexico, and on their way to a concert, pick up a haggard woman on the road. She is clearly unhinged and they want to get her help but she doesn’t let them. She shoots herself in the head. They stop to call the police and they get more than they expect with the sheriff and his crazy family. They do end up doing the wrong thing in a horror movie. The group splits up. Erin and Kemper go to a house, not realizing it’s the sheriff's house. And the other three have to deal with the sheriff.
Overall, I think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 is a great remake of the original. With a good storyline, tension, and kills. Out of the 8 sequels (so far) I half to say this is one of the best. A must see if you haven’t watched it yet.
Did you know…:
After learning about the remake, Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface) went up to producer Michael Bay at a Christmas party and personally asked him for the role.
To prepare for his role as Leatherface, Andrew Bryniarski ate a diet of brisket and white bread in order to get his weight to nearly 300 pounds.
Erica Leerhsen screamed so loudly during her screen test that people in other parts of the building called the police to report that a woman was being attacked.
On his final day of shooting, Eric Balfour stripped down, threw his wardrobe back to the crew, and walked off the set wearing only a baseball cap.
Dolph Lundgren was first considered to play Leatherface, but he turned them down so he could spend more time with his family.
Brett Wagner was cast as Leatherface in the 2003 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and has the first kill in a movie with sledge-hammer called the Kemper Kill. Brett got heat stroke during the filming and was replaced. Fans of the movie call him the Lost Leatherface.
Some of the big plot changes made in the remake: 1. It is actually not mentioned that the family is cannibalist. One of the symbols of the TCM movies was the big dinner scene where all the family tries to eat their victims. 2. The whole family has changed. Now there are 7 members of the family, plus the famous "grandpa" from the first four movies is not included here.
In a deleted epilogue scene, Erin is being interviewed from a mental institution, where she has been living for several decades after the events of this film. This sub-plot hearkens back to two persistent rumors about the original film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) ; in one rumor, the supposed true-life survivor of the original actual events spent her subsequent years in a mental facility. The second rumor alleges that filming was so arduous that the actress Marilyn Burns who played the original survivor went insane and was committed after shooting.
The filmmakers couldn't afford as many fake cows as was needed for the slaughterhouse scenes. This resulted in some of the cows on hooks being real. This probably was not the best experience for actress Jessica Biel who is vegan.
While chasing Erin through the woods, Leatherface trips and cuts into his right leg with the chainsaw. An homage to the original.
The severed head of Harry Jay Knowles from Ain't It Cool News can be seen in the basement of Leatherface's house.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave this film a rare Zero stars rating.
Have you seen the other The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies? Check out my other reviews here: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Franchise.
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 5/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5
Scare factor: 4/5
Enjoyment factor: 5/5
My Rank: 4/5
IMDB: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 3.7/10 audience: 5.8/10
Letterboxd: 2.9/5