The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

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Directed by Jonathan Liebesman.

Starring Andrew Bryniarski, Lee Tergesen, R. Lee Ermey, Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley, Matthew Bomer, Diora Baird.

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Bear witness to the birth of the most horrifying legend in the history of cinema as director Jonathan Liebesman explores the nightmarish origins of the psychotic Hewitt family in this sequel to director Marcus Nispel's 2003 hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The year is 1969, and despite the fact that the Vietnam War is raging halfway across the globe, all is ominously quiet on the back roads of America. Eighteen-year-old Dean Hill (Taylor Handley) has just received his draft notice, and his older brother, Eric (Matthew Bomer), is determined to watch out for his younger sibling by ensuring that Dean enroll in the Marine Corps rather than risking his luck at the local induction center. Dean has other plans, though, and as soon as the pair and their girlfriends, Bailey (Diora Baird) and Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), return from their final fling in sunny Texas, he plans to confront his brother with the prospect of dodging the draft. When an unsettling encounter with malevolent bikers Holden (Lee Tergesen) and Alex (Cyia Batten) results in a serious car accident in which Chrissie is thrown from the vehicle, the arrival of Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) at first appears to be a moment of divine intervention. However, when Sheriff Hoyt murders thieving Alex in cold blood and then shepherds her friends into the back of his police cruiser as Chrissie watches from the brush, their momentary reprieve soon gives way to an unimaginable terror. As Hoyt transports her ailing friends to the Hewitt home, where a childlike man named Thomas is currently undergoing the transformation into cannibalistic madman Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), a desperate Chrissie attempts to enlist the aid of Holden in rescuing her friends from a fate worse than death. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Th ...
by MovieBabe in MovieBabe Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"By Tricia Olszewski “That’s the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Would you expect someone to react to the newborn Leatherface any other way? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning takes us from the Dumpster-dwelling infancy of the future power-tooler to 1969, when the adopted, now-30-year-old Thomas Hewitt (Andrew Bryniarski) first goes batshit. The mayhem is spurred by the closing of the family’s rural Texas meatpacking plant and, likely, people’s tendency to call Tom a retard. Leatherface’s violent tendencies are encouraged by relative Sheriff Hoyt (evil-lapping R. Lee Ermey). The officer goes into sadistic overdrive when he tells his family that, as God as his witness, they’ll never go hungry in the abandoned town and makes stew out of the few people who are still around. And then some more tender flesh happens by: handsome youngsters Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), Bailey (Diora Baird), and brothers Dean (Taylor Handley) and Eric (Matthew B ... " [More]

Stolen Spotlight
by The1TheOnlyJP in The Paxton Log

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"Brothers Dean (Taylor Handley) and Eric Hill (Matthew Bomer), along with their girlfriends are on a trip across Texas, which will end with Eric getting Dean to enlist in the Marine Corps. This plan is put a stop when the group is confronted and followed by a ruthless biker named Alex (Cyia Batten). She causes the gang of friends to get into an accident which throws Chrisse (Jordana Brewster) from the vehicle and into nearby brush. Just as Alex attempts to rob them, Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) shows up and kills her. As Chrisse watches from the brush Hoyt orders her friends into his patrol car. He then takes them to the Hewitt family's house where Thomas (Andrew Bryniarski), who inevitably becomes Leatherface, is. Now it's all left up to Chrisse to save her friends from the horror waiting. No question goes unanswered in Johnathan Liebesman's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning'. We find out how Hoyt got the title of sheriff, how Monty lost his legs, & ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

lost interest.

What's funny about Texas Chainsaw films is that they basically follow the same general premise in that unsuspecting youngsters stumble into this crazy messed up backwoods family that wants to kill and eat them. So here comes Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning to tie up all the knots and try and give the whys and how's of what made this family the way they are. So does it succeed? Absolutely not. Does it deliver the shocks? Oh yes, in some rather blunt and truly effective moments of cruel violence. So is it worth a look? Yes and no, depending on one's taste for the new school of big screen sadism. As far as the prequel is concerned, the film wallows in sheer laziness. Any pivotal moments of Leatherface truly becoming one with the ol' saw is thrown away as if it weren't really important. By the same rationale, the audience is made to believe that the family is screwed up simply because of its patriarch -- in this case, R. Lee Ermy. When it comes down to it, the movie is simply a stage to showcase how messed in the head this guy is, although zero explanation is even attempted to say why this is. "Okay, the meatpacking plant closed, so now it's time to show the world what this family means -- oh yeah, and we're all going to start eating humans from now on. Okay, kids?" It's here that the flaws of this remade franchise come to a head, as the filmmakers are now stuck with a chainsaw family that has none of the screwed up dynamics of the original, which leaves Ermy as the lone nut ordering everyone around. This fact becomes even more evident by the time the production finally tries to undertake a redo of the famous dinner scene from the original (note: see laziness quote above). And as for the far too modernized teens go, it's nice to see the writers try to give them some sort of back-story, but it's maddening that the characters aren't even given a chance to fight back against their tormentors -- especially when one is trained to do so. Thus, the film gives its hand away -- this is mean, nasty filmmaking that offers zero release for its audience, other than providing them with sudden jolts of brutal violence to keep them awake. On a plus note, the score by Steve Jablonsky sets a wonderful monster movie tone that deserves a better home than this. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Tags: backwoods , brutality , murder , family , terror
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