| abstract
| - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 2003 American slasher film, and a remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name. The 2003 film, also serving as a reboot of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, was directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay. It was also co-produced by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper, co-creators of the original 1974 film. This film is the first of many horror remakes to come from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company which also remade The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film is considered to be a reboot of the franchise. Though met with negative reception from critics, the film was well received by fans, and grossed $107 million worldwide above its $9.5 million budget, making it a strong financial success. A sequel was planned, but was later made into a prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The prequel was released in 2006 to negative reviews from critics. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Connection to actual events 4 Reception 4.1 Critical response 4.2 Box office 5 Home media 5.1 Novelization 6 Music 6.1 Soundtrack 6.2 Score 7 References 8 External links Plot[edit] On August 18, 1973, five teenagers, Erin (Jessica Biel), her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after returning from Mexico, to buy marijuana. As they drive through Texas, they pick up a distraught hitchhiker (Lauren German) they spot walking in the middle of the road. After trying to talk to the hitchhiker, who talks incoherently about "a bad man", she pulls a .357 Magnum, out of her vagina, and shoots herself in the mouth. The group goes to a nearby eatery to contact the police where a woman (Marietta Marich) tells them to meet the sheriff at the mill. Instead of the sheriff, they find a little boy named Jedidiah (David Dorfman) who tells them that the sheriff is at home getting drunk. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving the other three at the mill with the boy. They come across a plantation house where Erin is allowed inside by the owner, an amputee named Monty, to phone for help. When Erin finishes, the old man asks her for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin and is blindsided by the vicious-looking Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), who hits him with a sledgehammer. Leatherface drags Kemper's body into the furnace room to make a new mask , and discovers a small black box that falls from Kemper's pocket. Opening it, he discovers an engagement ring intended for Erin. Meanwhile, Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) arrives at the mill and disposes of the hitchhiker's body, wrapping her in plastic wrap and putting her in his trunk. Erin returns and finds that Kemper is still missing. Andy and Erin go back to Monty's house, where Erin distracts him while Andy searches for Kemper. Monty realizes Andy is inside and summons Leatherface, who attacks them with his chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods, but Leatherface slices Andy's leg off. Leatherface carries him to the basement and hangs him on a meat hook with his feet hanging over a piano, and rubs salt on Andy's stump before wrapping it in butcher paper and tying it with human hair. Erin makes it back to the mill but before she can leave, the sheriff shows up. After spotting marijuana on the dashboard, he orders Erin, Morgan and Pepper to get out of the van. The sheriff gives Morgan the gun he took from the hitchhiker and tells him to reenact how she killed herself. Morgan, scared and disturbed by the sheriff's demands, attempts to shoot the sheriff only to find the gun is unloaded. Sheriff Hoyt handcuffs Morgan and drives him to the Hewitt house (a drive which includes a brutal beating), taking the van's key with him. Erin manages to hot wire the truck, but one of the wheels falls off, and Leatherface begins chainsawing through the roof. When Pepper attempts to flee she is chased and killed by Leatherface. Erin, who sees that Leatherface is wearing Kemper's face as a mask, runs and hides in a nearby trailer with two women inside, an obese middle-aged women known only as 'Tea Lady', and a younger women named Henrietta, presumably her daughter, who offer her tea and try to soothe her. The women act strangely, and after telling Erin they don't have a phone for her to call for help, a telephone rings and Henrietta tells someone on the other end "she's here". Erin discovers they have kidnapped a child when she sees that the baby with them is the same child in a photograph with the hitchhiker. However, the tea is drugged and she passes out before she can leave the trailer. Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house surrounded by the Hewitt family: Leatherface, his mother Luda Mae, Sheriff Hoyt, Uncle Monty, and the little boy Jedidiah. Luda Mae tells Erin that her excuse for her son Thomas' actions is that he was tormented his whole life, because of a skin disease that left his face disfigured and she felt no one cared for her family besides themselves. Erin is taken to the basement, where she finds Andy. After several unsuccessful attempts to help him off the meat hook, he begs her to kill him to end his suffering. Afterwards, she finds a debilitated Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub. Jedidiah, who does not agree with his families actions, leads them out of the house. Jedidiah rejects Erin's plea to come with them, and distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned shack in the woods and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks Leatherface, causing him to drop his chainsaw. Leatherface lifts Morgan entangling his handcuffs in the chandellier, and slices his groin, killing him. Erin runs out of the shack and escapes through the woods. While pursuing her Leatherface trips over a wired fence and cuts his own leg with the chainsaw. Erin finds a slaughterhouse and hides in a locker. Leatherface opens the locker across from hers and she attacks him with a meat cleaver, chopping off his right arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to drive away from the Hewitt's house. But he stops to find help at the eatery. Erin sees Luda Mae and Sheriff Hoyt talk to the trucker, and Henrietta watching over the kidnapped baby in a highchair. When Henrietta walks outside to join Luda Mae and Sheriff Hoyt, Erin sneaks the baby out of the eatery and places her in the sheriff's car, before hot-wiring it. Hoyt notices her and tries to stop her, but she runs him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface suddenly appears in the road and attempts to stop her with his chainsaw, but he is too slow, and Erin escapes with the baby. Cast[edit] Andrew Bryniarski as Thomas Hewitt / Leatherface, a serial killer who wears masks made of human flesh to hide a rare skin disorder that has left him disfigured and caused him to be judged by others. Jessica Biel as Erin who, along with her boyfriend Kemper and her 3 friends, make an ill-fated trip to Texas. She is the only survivor. R. Lee Ermey as Charlie Hewitt Jr. / Sheriff Hoyt, the brother of Thomas Hewitt / Leatherface and the only sheriff the town has left. Eric Balfour as Kemper: Erin's boyfriend, and the 'leader' of the group. He is the first to die. Jonathan Tucker as Morgan: Erin and Kemper's stoner friend who accompanied them on their trip to Texas, He is the 'nerd' of the group and the fourth and final survivor to die. Erica Leerhsen as Pepper: a hitchhiker who the group met hours prior to the events of the film and the second of the group to die. Mike Vogel as Andy: Erin and Kemper's friend who accompanied them on their trip to Texas and the third to die. David Dorfman as Jedidiah Hewitt: A child member of the Hewitt family, who disagrees with his family's actions. He is possibly an orphan from one of the Hewitt's victims over the years. Marietta Marich as Luda Mae Hewitt: The matriarch of the Hewitt family. Terrence Evans as Monty Hewitt: A grumpy old amputee, and the uncle of Leatherface and Charlie Hewitt. Heather Kafka as Henrietta Hewitt: Charlie Hewitt's significant other. Kathy Lamkin as Tea Lady Hewitt: Henrietta's obese mother. Lauren German as Teenage girl hitchiker: Her family was killed by the Hewitt family prior to the film, she managed to survive but committed suicide due to the psychological trauma. Connection to actual events[edit] This film, like the 1974 original, as well as Psycho, was inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.[3] Gein skinned human bodies and made up furniture out of it, but he acted alone and did not use a chainsaw. Most of his "victims" were already dead and he "only" personally murdered two people. The film's opening claims the events are factual, a use of the false document technique (filming of the first film was from July 15, 1973 to August 14, 1973, while the event took place on August 18, 1973). Reception[edit] Critical response[edit] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre received mixed critical consensus. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes shows a rating of 36% for it with the consensus "An unnecessary remake that's more gory and less scary than the original."[4] Metacritic, another review aggregator, calculates an average of 38%, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film a rare 0 stars out of 4, calling it 'A contemptible film: Vile, ugly and brutal. There is not a shred of reason to see it. Those who defend it will have to dance through mental hoops of their own devising, defining its meanness and despair as "style" or "vision" or "a commentary on our world."'[5] The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Remake or Sequel, but lost the award to Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Box office[edit] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in North America on October 17, 2003 in 3,018 theaters.[6] It grossed $10,620,000 on its opening day and concluded its North America opening weekend with $28,094,014, ranking No. 1 at the box office.[7] The film opened in various other countries and grossed $26,500,000, while the North American gross stands at $80,571,655, bringing the worldwide gross to $107,071,655.[8] All based on a $9.5 million budget,[9] the film was a commercial success. The film's box-office success was notable for starting a long line of remakes of 70s/80s horror films that continues to the present day. Home media[edit] The film was released on VHS and DVD March 30, 2004 through New Line Home Entertainment.[10] Special features include seven TV spots and trailers and a music video for Suffocate by Motograter. A two-disc Platinum Series Edition was also released that same day, containing a collectible metal plaque cover, 3 filmmaker commentaries with producer Michael Bay, director Marcus Nispel and others, crime city photo cards, deleted scenes, an alternate opening and ending, Chainsaw Redux: In-Depth documentary, Gein: The Ghoul of Planifield documentary, cast screen tests, art gallery, 7 TV spots & trailers, Suffocate by "Motograter" Music video, and DVD-ROM Content including script-to-screen A UMD version of the film was released on October 4, 2005 and on Blu-ray on September 29, 2010. Novelization[edit] Stephen Hand wrote a novelization that was published March 1, 2004 by Black Flame. Hand previously wrote the novelization for Freddy vs. Jason, also for New Line and Black Flame. Music[edit] There were two soundtrack albums released by Bulletproof Records/La-La Land Records for the film; the first was meant for regular audiences featuring popular metal music and was released on November 4, 2003.[11] The second was the film's original score as composed by Steve Jablonsky. This was released on October 21, 2003 and has a run time of 50:25.[12] Trailers and TV spots used This Mortal Coil's cover of "Song to the Siren", which was originally performed by Tim Buckley. "Lynyrd Skynyrd"'s "Sweet Home Alabama" is heard at the beginning of the film. This is a continuity error as the song wasn't released until June 1974, although it was available on the Second Helping album which was released in April of the same year. Soundtrack[edit] "Immortally Insane" by Pantera "Below the Bottom" by Hatebreed "Pride" by Soil "Deliver Me" by Static-X "43" by Mushroomhead "Pig" by Seether "Down in Flames" by Nothingface "Self-Medicate" by 40 Below Summer "Suffocate" by Motograter "Destroyer of Senses" by Shadows Fall "Rational Gaze" by Meshuggah "Archetype (Remix)" by Fear Factory "Enshrined by Grace" by Morbid Angel "Listen" by Index Case "Stay in Shadow" by Finger Eleven "Ruin" by Lamb of God "As Real As It Gets" by Sworn Enemy "Five Months" by Coretez Score[edit] "Leatherface" (2:45) "He's a Bad Man" (4:02) "Erin and Kemper" (1:07) "Hewitt House" (1:09) "Driving with a Corpse" (1:24) "Kemper Gets Whacked/Jedidiah" (1:56) "Crawford Mill" (1:50) "Interrogation" (3:50) "Andy Loses a Leg" (1:41) "You're So Dead" (3:33) "Hook Me Up" (2:40) "My Boy" (3:15) "Morgans Wild Ride/Van Attack" (4:35) "Mercy Killing" (2:59) "Prairie House" (3:13) "Final Confrontation" (5:25) "Can't Go Back" (3:55) "Last Goodbye" (1:00)
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