The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 film)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Marcus Nispel
Written by	Scott Kosar
Produced by	Michael Bay Mike Fleiss
Starring	Jessica Biel Eric Balfour Andrew Bryniarski R. Lee Ermey
Cinematography	Daniel Pearl
Music by	Steve Jablonsky
Distributed by	New Line Cinema Focus Features
Release date	October 17, 2003 (2003-10-17)
Running time	113 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9,500,000
Box office	$107,071,655

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror film remake of the 1974 film of the same name. The film was directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay.

Plot

The movie begins with police footage of the crime in which police are performing a walkthrough of the basement. On August 18 1973, five college kids, Erin, Kemper, Pepper, Andy, and Morgan, are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas. The kids are returning from a trip to Mexico, where Kemper, unbeknownst to his girlfriend Erin, bought marijuana. As they are driving through Travis County, Texas, they see a girl about their age walking in the road. After nearly hitting her, Erin insists that they pick her up, and they do so. She is in a hysterical state and goes on about a "really bad man". They try pulling over to get help but the girl becomes more hysterical. She then pulls a gun out from her dress, sticks it in her mouth and shoots herself. The five are shaken and go to find help. They eventually come to store owned by an elderly woman, they are told to go to the Old Crawford Mill to find the sheriff. They arrive, and no sheriff is found, a young boy tells them where to find the sheriff. Erin and Kemper take off through the woods to find the sheriff's house, leaving the other three at the mill with the boy, Jedidiah.

Erin and Kemper come to a large farm house in a field. Erin is allowed inside by the owner, an old man in a wheelchair with no legs, but Kemper is told to wait outside. Kemper is fed-up with waiting and goes into the home where he is severely injured by Leatherface and dragged into the basement. The sheriff arrives at the mill and takes the body of the girl, when Erin arrives some time later she finds that Kemper is still missing. Andy and Erin go back into the house looking for Kemper and the old man soon summons Leatherface, who taunts and chases them with his chainsaw. Erin escapes, but Andy's leg is severed and he is taken inside where he is hung on a meat hook in the basement.

Erin arrives back at the mill in a panic. Erin tries starting the van, but it doesn't work. The sheriff soon shows up again, and, after finding a joint of marijuana, he orders the three out of the van and forces them to the ground. He makes Morgan re-enact the suicide, and then kidnaps him, leaving the girls alone at the mill with the van. Leatherface shows up (wearing Kemper's face) and taunts the girls, Pepper makes a run for it but is sawn in half. Leatherface chases Erin through the woods, where she hides in a trailer owned by two women, one with a stolen child. The women then drug Erin and take her to the Hewitts.

At the Hewitt house, Erin meets the whole Hewitt family and is then thrown into the basement.After searching around the sick and twisted place, Erin finds Andy. And in an act of sympathy, she kills him with a large knife. Soon after she finds a mortally wounded Morgan, Jedidiah then distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. They find an abandoned house and hide in the upper level of the house. Erin is pinned to the floor by Leatherface, but then saved as Morgan sacrifices himself for Erin to escape. Morgan is hung on a chandelier before Leatherface splits him in two up the crotch, killing him. Leatherface continues the chase after Erin.

Erin escapes to a slaughterhouse where she is followed by Leatherface, she then hides in a locker holding a meat cleaver. Erin then jumps out on Leatherface and severs his arm. Erin then runs out of the slaughterhouse and onto a main road where she is picked up by a trucker. The trucker then goes to find help at the eatery. Erin spots the two women with the stolen baby and the old woman who owns the shop. She watches as the women go to talk to the trucker and then goes in to rescue the baby before it faces the same fate as her friends. Erin then hotwires the sheriff's car and repeatedly runs him over, killing him. As she drives on, Leatherface appears on the road, brandishing his chainsaw in his good arm. He slices the drivers' side door of the car but Erin is unharmed. Leatherface, who is irate, just breathes heavily from the blood loss and stares as the car drives away. The other half of the police footage is shown, and Leatherface kills the policemen and cameraman. The narrator comes on and says that Thomas Hewitt was never caught, and we are shown the only known image of Thomas Hewitt, the man they call "leatherface". The case remains open.

Cast

• Jessica Biel as Erin Hardesty: Erin is Kemper's girlfriend, and they along with Morgan, Andy, and Pepper are heading to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas. Erin is the only survivor left in the end of the film (the Final girl).
• Jonathan Tucker as Morgan: A friend of Erin, Kemper, and Andy, meets his death when Leatherface hangs him on a chandalier and puts his chainsaw up between his legs.
• Erica Leerhsen as Pepper: A friend to Erin, Kemper, Andy, and Morgan. She quickly forms a relationship with Andy. Pepper is sawed in half by Leatherface.
• Mike Vogel as Andy: Andy is also along for the ride, friends of the other 3. He is attacked by Leatherface and has his leg cut off right below the knee. He is hung on a hook in the basement, and is finished off when he requests that Erin relieve him of his pain.
• Eric Balfour as Kemper: Kemper is Erin's boyfriend, the driver of the van with the others. He is the first one attacked by Leatherface, as he is killed when he is hit on the back of the head with a sledgehammer. His face is cut off, and used by Leatherface as a mask.
• R. Lee Ermey as Sheriff Hoyt: Hoyt (whose real name is actually Charlie), a very heinous person, is the "sheriff" of Travis County. He assaults the teens and manipulates them into coming to the Hewitt house. He meets his death after Erin repeatedly runs over him while making her escape at the end of the film.
• Andrew Bryniarski as Thomas Hewitt / Leatherface: Leatherface suffers from a facial disfigurement and skin disease that ate away most of his nose. He cuts off other human's faces and uses them for his own. In the climax of the film, Erin uses a meat cleaver to cut off his arm, but he survives the attack.
• David Dorfman as Jedidiah: A small boy who prowls around the Hewitt house, and helps Erin escape from Leatherface.
• Terrence Evans as Old Monty: Uncle Monty is either Charlie's or Luda May's brother and lives at the Hewitt house. He is in a wheelchair, as he has no legs.
• Marietta Marich as Luda May Hewitt: She is Leatherface's adoptive mother who lives at the Hewitt house.

Connection to actual events

This film, like its original from 1974 and the films Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs (for example), was inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Gein did wear human skin, and made up furniture out of it such as lamps, but he acted alone and did not use a chainsaw. The film's opening claims the events are factual, a use of the false document technique. (Filming of the first movie was from July 15, 1973 to August 14, 1973, while the opening narrative claims that the events took place on 18 August 1973.) Libraries in Burkburnett, Texas and nearby Wichita Falls regularly receive requests for copies of newspaper articles related to the events.

Reception

Critical reception

The film has received mostly mixed reviews from critics, while Roger Ebert gave it a rare zero stars rating, branding it 'vile and cynical', and pleading with his readers 'not to let it kill 98 minutes of your life'.

Box office

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in North America on October 17, 2003 in 3,018 theaters. It grossed $10,620,000 on its opening day and concluded its North America opening weekend with $28,094,014. It ranked number one at the box office.The film opened in various other foreign countries and grossed $26,500,000, while the North American gross stands at $80,571,655, bringing the worldwide gross to $107,071,655.

DVD Release

The region 1 DVD was released on March 30, 2004 through New Line Home Entertainment.Special features include audio commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes, and an alternate ending and opening. Also included is the theatrical trailer, image galleries, tv spots, and an evidence file with crime scene photos. The music video to "Suffocate" by Motograter was featured on the special features of the dvd

Deleted scenes

Four scenes had to be edited to avoid an "NC-17" rating and achieve an "R" rating:

• More graphic shots of Morgan's death, featuring the chainsaw slicing into his crotch, and having blood and guts falling from him.
• The hitch hiker's suicide having her ear flying off of her head and blood, and brain matter being more dark in color and more in amount flying out of her head.
• A slightly more graphic death of Kemper: after getting hit with a sledgehammer, he drops to the floor gasping and convulsing with blood pouring out of his head.
• Pepper's death originally showed the chainsaw cutting into her stomach.
• Jedidiah was going to be killed by Leatherface by slicing his chainsaw through his back because he let Erin and Morgan go.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released through Nitrus Records.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Album

1. "Immortally Insane" by Pantera
2. "Below the Bottom" by Hatebreed
3. "Pride" by Soil
4. "Deliver Me" by Static-X
5. "43" by Mushroomhead
6. "Pig" by Seether
7. "Down in Flames" by Nothingface
8. "Self Medicate" by 40 Below Summer
9. "Suffocate" by Motograter
10. "Destroyer of Senses" by Shadows Fall
11. "Rational Gaze" by Meshuggah
12. "Archetype (Remix)" by Fear Factory
13. "Enshrined by Grace" by Morbid Angel
14. "Listen" by Index Case
15. "Ruin" by Lamb of God
16. "Stay in Shadow" by Finger Eleven
17. "As real as It Gets" by Sworn Enemy
18. "Five Months" by Core-Tez
19. "Leatherface" by Laaz Rockit

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky.

1. "Leatherface"
2. "He's a Bad Man"
3. "Erin And Kemper"
4. "Hewitt House"
5. Driving With a Corpse
6. "Kemper Gets Wacked/Jedidiah"
7. "Crawdford Mill"
8. "Interrogation"
9. "Andy Loses a Leg"
10. "You're So Dead"
11. "Hook Me Up"
12. "My Boy"
13. "Morgan's Wild Ride/Van Attack"
14. "Mercy Killings"
15. "Prairie House"
16. "Final Confrontation"
17. "Can't Go Back"
18. "Last Goodbye"

External links

• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) at IMDb
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at Rotten Tomatoes