The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
The Beginning

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman
Produced by
Screenplay by Sheldon Turner
Story by
Based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 
by Tobe Hooper
and Kim Henkel
Starring
Narrated by John Larroquette
Music by Steve Jablonsky
Cinematography Lukas Ettlin
Edited by Jonathan Chibnall
Production
company
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release dates
  • October 6, 2006 (2006-10-06)
Running time
 91 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $16 million[2]
Box office $51.8 million[2]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a 2006 American slasher film and a prequel to 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The sixth adaptation in the Texas Chainsaw franchise was directed by Jonathan Liebesman and co-produced by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper (co-creators of the original 1974 film). The film went into release in North America on October 6, 2006. The film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film. It stars Jordana Brewster, Diora Baird, Taylor Handley, Matt Bomer and R. Lee Ermey.

Originally, the film had the subtitle The Origin. New Line had to pay $3.1 million more than expected in order to keep the rights to the franchise after Dimension Films made a large offer to buy it from the original right-holders. The film grossed less than half of what its predecessor had.

Plot

In 1939, a woman dies while giving birth in a slaughterhouse, and the manager disposes the baby in a dumpster. A young woman, Luda Mae Hewitt, finds the child while searching for food. She takes him back to the Hewitt residence, names him Thomas, and decides to raise him as her own.

Thirty years later, Thomas works in the same factory in which his real mother died, working for the same man who left him in the dumpster. He is informed that the plant has been shut down by the health department, but refuses to leave until the boss forces his assistant to make him leave. Later, Tommy returns and brutally murders his boss. Before leaving, Tommy finds a chainsaw. Luda Mae's son, Charlie Hewitt, learns from the town's Sheriff what Tommy has done and accompanies him to arrest him. When they find Tommy, Charlie kills the Sheriff and assumes his identity. He takes his body back home and butchers him for stew meat. He informs the rest of the family that they'll never go hungry again.

Two brothers, Eric and Dean, are driving across the country with their girlfriends, Chrissie and Bailey, to enlist in the Vietnam War. At a diner, they meet a female biker named Alex, who later follows them. Dean reveals he's decided not to enlist and burns his draft card, right before Alex draws a shotgun and orders the group to pull over. A chase ensues and the car crashes; Chrissie is thrown from the Jeep and lands in a field out of sight. Hoyt arrives and immediately shoots Alex.

Hoyt finds Dean's burnt draft card and demands to know who it belongs to. To save his brother, Eric claims that it's his. After making them put Alex's body in his car, Hoyt forces the group in as well, and calls for Uncle Monty to tow the wreckage, which Chrissie is hiding in. Hoyt drives them to the Hewitt house and has Tommy butcher Alex's body. He then hangs Eric and Dean up by their arms from rafters in a barn, and ties Bailey under a kitchen table inside the house. Monty brings the wrecked car back to the house, and Chrissie sees her friends from afar. She runs back to the highway to get help and flags down Holden, Alex's boyfriend, who follows her back to the house.

At the house, Hoyt wraps Eric's face with cellophane, slowly suffocating him for trying to dodge the draft. Dean begs him to stop and admits the draft card was his. Hoyt allows Eric to breathe and releases Dean, promising to let them go free if he can do twenty push-ups. He does so, but Hoyt beats him with a baton, leaving him incapacitated. When Hoyt leaves, Eric breaks free from his restraints and gets Dean to safety before sneaking into the house to free Bailey. However, Dean is caught in a bear trap and Hoyt knocks Eric unconscious. Bailey escapes in Monty's truck, but Tommy stabs her in the shoulder with a meat hook and drags her back to the house. He carries Eric to the basement, where he sees Alex's mutilated body hanging from the ceiling.

That night, Holden and Chrissie arrive at the house but part ways to search for their friends separately. Chrissie finds Dean, who informs her Eric and Bailey are still inside. Holden encounters Monty and shoots him in the knee before taking Hoyt hostage, and ordering him to take him to "the girl". Meanwhile, Chrissie hears Eric screaming and finds the basement door. Hoyt takes Holden to Bailey, incorrectly thinking she is the girl he's looking for. He calls Tommy for help and Chrissie enters the basement unnoticed. Holden prepares to kill Hoyt but Tommy arrives and kills Holden with the chainsaw. Chrissie finds Eric but is unable to free him, and hides when Tommy returns. Tommy inspects Eric's face before impaling him with his chainsaw. He skins Eric's face and wears it as a mask.

Chrissie is about to flee when she hears Bailey's screams and decides to go back and save her. She finds her upstairs but Hoyt catches her and brings her downstairs for dinner, along with Bailey and an unconscious Dean. Leatherface slits Bailey's throat and tries to take Chrissie to the basement, but she stabs him in the back and jumps out of a window.

Dean regains consciousness and beats Hoyt before heading off to find Chrissie. Chrissie enters the slaughter house, and after noticing that Leatherface has tracked her, she grabs a knife and hides. She cuts Leatherface's face when he finds her but he overpowers her. Dean arrives as he is about to kill her, but Leatherface kills him with the chainsaw. Chrissie finds a car and drives off. She sees a state trooper in the distance, but as Chrissie pulls over, Leatherface appears in the back seat and impales her, causing her to lose control and run over both the trooper and the man he pulled over. Leatherface then exits the car and walks along the road back towards the Hewitt house.

Cast

Release

Box office

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released on October 6, 2006 in 2,820 theaters debuting at #2 at the box office, grossing $18,508,228 on its first weekend. Its second week saw a 59.6% drop in attendance, grossing only $7,485,290 and coming in at #5 at the box office. During its third week it grossed $3,779,829 and came in at #10 at the box office. The film dropped out of the top ten and into eighteenth place with $1,269,942. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning would fail to regain a top ten spot at the box office for the remainder of its theatrical run,[3] ending with $51,764,406 in total gross.[2]

Reception

The film received largely negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 12% "rotten" rating, based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The site's consensus states: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is full of blood and gore, but not enough scares or a coherent story to make for a successful horror film."[4] Metacritic reports a 29 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5]

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone awarded the film half a star out of four stars, calling the film "putridly written, directed and acted", also criticizing the film's obvious plot turns.[6]

Nathan Lee from The New York Times panned the film calling it "an invitation to hard-core sadism".[7]

At the 27th Golden Raspberry Awards (2006), the film was nominated for a Worst Prequel or Sequel, but lost to Basic Instinct 2.

References

  1. ↑ "THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING (18)". British Board of Film Classification. October 3, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.com. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Weekend Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.com. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  5. ↑ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Travers, Peter. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning". Rolling Stone.com. Peter Travers. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Lee, Nathan. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Th The Saga of Leatherface and His Signature Power Tool". New York Times.com. Nathan Lee. Retrieved 24 April 2015.

External links

  1. REDIRECTTemplate:Metacritic film
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