Texas Chainsaw Massacre (series)

Its that time again, time to review not just one, but an entire series of horror movies. And any fan of horror has heard of the infamous Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The first film was directed by Tobe Hooper and released in 1974, and later spawned 3 sequels, a remake, a prequel as well as a video game and comic books. The first film is loosely based on the real life serial killer Ed Gein (read about him here.).

The first one tells the story of four teenagers on a road trip who break down on a Texas back road. On their search for help they meet alot of strange characters and later find a house inhabited by a family of demented cannibals, one of them being horror icon Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen). They are now on a fight for survival that no one could ever imagine. Despite the name, this first instalment is not the gore fest you'd expect, yet its dark atmosphere, unsettling musical score and high suspense make it the perfect horror movie. This film made it onto the video nasties list and remained banned in the UK until 2000. In 1982 a video game was made for the Atari (see Angry Video Game Nerd tear it apart here.).

1986 saw a long awaited sequel, simply called Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which despite picking up where the last film left off, this one had a more over the top black comedy style about it, and also was very gore heavy. This one introduced Chop Top (played by Bill Moseley) who is just simply awesome, a very demented but strangely very likable character. This movie was a flop at the box office but has developed a cult following among horror fan and i highly recommend checking this out, because its the last one to be directed by Tobe Hooper and the last of the good Texas Chainsaw Massacre films of that generation.

The 90's saw two god awful abominations that bared the tag of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In 1990 we saw the release of Leatherface:Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, which stared Viggo Mortensen (of Lord of the Rings fame) and was going to be the first in a line of sequels by New Line Cinema, but due to its lack of success New Line stoped any involvement in the franchise. All in all its not the worst, its still watchable but doesn't give us anything new, nothing about leatherfaces past, no twists, no silly black humour, just a generic sequel really, yet still worth the watch if your stuck.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation from 1994 on the other hand, those who are easily offended, stop reading now because i'm about to tear this one apart in ways only a foul mouth can. This movie is a piece of shit covered in more shit and dipped in puke and sprinkled with dried horses semen. Yes, you heard me, avoid this like the plague. I would not force my worst enemy to watch this. it is so bad. It is pretty much a bad remake as alot of scenes are similar but its just boring the whole way trough. The film doesn't feature one chainsaw murder at all, so why 'chainsaw' is in the title is beyond me, and they made Leatherface into a cross dresser, like WHY??????? Just do what i do and pretend this movie didn't happen.

A remake of the original was then made in 2003, three years after the original was released uncut on DVD in the UK. Generally i have a great dislike for remakes but this was one of of only 2 i like. It was pretty much the same as the original but some things were changed, like at the beginning it showed stock video footage of a police officer exploring the Leatherface house and the film also dwelt in the origin of Leatherface. Its also alot darker and has the same, if not better suspense and terrifying scenes.

This remake was such a success that the same people later released not a remake of the sequel but a prequel. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released in 2006 and i just loved it. They painted Leatherfaces past and how his family became poor and became demented cannibals perfectly, it is just an under rated masterpiece. It pretty much ties up all the loose ends and i highly recommend it. So to finish it off, the first two Texas Chainsaw Massacre are horror classics, the 90's saw two bad sequels and the 21st century gave it the reboot that it needed. While doing research for this review i saw that Tobe Hooper is planning a Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D, which i can't wait for, but until then, i'll leave you with my rating's.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 10/10
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 9/10
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 3/10
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (didn't happen)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Remake 8/10
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning 9/10