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User:Paleface Jack/The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

< User:Paleface Jack
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Directed byMarcus Nispel
Screenplay byScott Kosar
Based onThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre
by Kim Henkel
and Tobe Hooper
Produced byMichael Bay
Mike Fleiss
StarringJessica Biel
Jonathan Tucker
Erica Leerhsen
Mike Vogel
Eric Balfour
R. Lee Ermey
Andrew Bryniarski
Narrated byJohn Larroquette
CinematographyDaniel Pearl
Edited byGlen Scantlebury
Music bySteve Jablonsky
Production
companies
Next Entertainment
Platinum Dunes
Radar Pictures
Distributed byNew Line Cinema (United States)
Focus Features
Release date
  • October 17, 2003 (2003-10-17) (United States)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9.5 million[1][2]
Box office$107.9 million[1][3]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Marcus Nispel (in his feature directorial debut), written by Scott Kosar, and starring Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, and R. Lee Ermey. Its plot follows a group of young adults traveling through rural Texas who encounter Leatherface and his murderous family. It is a remake of Tobe Hooper's 1974 film of the same name, and the fifth installment in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Several crew members of the original film were involved with the project: Hooper and writer Kim Henkel served as co-producers, Daniel Pearl returned as cinematographer, and John Larroquette reprised his voice narration for the opening intertitles.

The film was released in the United States on October 17, 2003, received negative reviews from critics, and grossed $107 million at the box office on a budget of $9.5 million. A prequel was released in 2006, titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the first film to be produced by Platinum Dunes, who would go on to produce remakes of several other 20th-century horror films.

Plot

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On August 18, 1973, five young adults – Erin, her boyfriend Kemper, Erin’s brother Morgan, and hitchhikers, Andy and Pepper – are traveling to a concert after visiting Mexico to purchase marijuana. While driving through Texas, they pick up a traumatized hitchhiker walking in the middle of the road. The woman speaks incoherently about "a bad man", and when they try to comfort her, she pulls out a revolver and shoots herself.

The group goes to a nearby gas station to contact the police, where the proprieter Luda Mae Hewitt tells them to meet Sheriff Hoyt at the mill. Instead, they find Jedidiah, a young boy who claims Hoyt is at home getting drunk. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving Morgan, Andy, and Pepper at the mill with Jedidiah. They come across a plantation house, and Erin is allowed inside by Monty, an amputee, to call for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin, and is murdered by Leatherface a large man wearing a mask made of human flesh. Leatherface then drags Kemper's body into the basement where he begins to butcher his corpse, and discovers an engagement ring intended for Erin.

Hoyt later arrives at the mill and disposes of the hitchhiker's body, before leaving. After Erin returns and discovers that Kemper is missing, she and Andy return to Monty's house. There, Erin distracts Monty, while Andy searches for Kemper. After realizing that Andy is inside, Monty summons Leatherface who attacks them with a chainsaw. Erin escapes to the woods, while Leatherface catches up to Andy and saws off the latter's left leg. Leatherface carries the wounded Andy to the basement, where he impales him on a meat hook. Erin returns to the mill, but before she and the others can leave, Hoyt returns. Finding marijuana on the dashboard, Hoyt orders Erin and Pepper to get out of the van. Hoyt then gives Morgan the hitchhiker's gun and tells him to reenact how she killed herself. Morgan attempts to shoot Hoyt, but realizes Hoyt removed the bullets. Hoyt arrests Morgan and drives him back to the house, giving him a beating along the way.

With the keys taken by Hoyt, Erin manages to hot-wire the van, but the two are then attacked by Leatherface. While attempting to run, Pepper is killed by Leatherface, who reveals that he is now wearing Kemper's face. Erin runs and hides in a nearby trailer belonging to the Tea Lady, an obese middle-aged woman, and Henrietta, a younger woman who gives her tea that has been drugged. Erin discovers that they have kidnapped the hitchhiker's baby, but passes out before she can escape. Erin wakes up at the house, surrounded by the Hewitt family: Leatherface, his mother Luda Mae, Hoyt, Monty, and Jedidiah. Luda Mae tells Erin that Leatherface, revealed to be named Thomas Brown Hewitt, was tormented his whole life because of skin cancer that left his face disfigured, believing that no one cares for her family besides themselves.

Erin is taken into the basement, where she finds the remains of Leatherface's victims and Andy. After unsuccessfully attempting to free him, Erin reluctantly puts him out of his misery at his insistance. She later finds a debilitated Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub. Jedidiah, who disagrees with his family's actions, leads them out of the house and distracts Leatherface while they escape. Finding a depitulated shack, they barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks him. During the fight, Leatherface manages to hang Morgan from a chandelier by his handcuffs and kills him with the chainsaw. Erin escapes into the woods with Leatherface still in pursuit. She flees into an abandoned slaughterhouse and manages to attack Leatherface with a meat cleaver, severing his right arm.

Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to drive away from the house, but he stops to find help at the gas station. Erin sees Luda Mae & Hoyt talk to the trucker while Henrietta watches the baby. As Henrietta walks outside, Erin sneaks out with the baby and places her in the sheriff's car. Erin hot-wires the car and Hoyt tries to stop her, who runs him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface then appears on the road and slashes the car with his chainsaw, but Erin escapes with the baby.

Two days later, two officers investigating the house are killed by Leatherface, as a voice-over states that the case remains open.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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In 2001, Michael Bay created Platinum Dunes with producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller, to focus on producing low-budget films. The company was intended to produce films under $20 million, with concept development and marketing in mind. For Bay, his main desire was to create a company that could help aspiring directors make films.[4] As the company was considering various film options to produce, the rights to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise became available. On December 5, 2001, it was announced on the website Creature Corner that Bay and his company had acquired rights to the franchise.[5] Several news outlets reported a year later that production would begin in the summer,[6][7] which garnered mixed reactions from fans of the original film.[7] Several years before production began, Mike Fleiss, an American reality television producer and president of the production company Next Entertainment, established contact with creators of the original film Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel and convinced them that they were the right ones to produce a remake of the film. The remake's budget eventually grew from $3 million to over $9 million.[7][8][9]

To gain public interest in the film, Bay shot a promotional reel composed of a black screen and audio. In the reel, a woman runs into a house, climbs the wooden steps, then barricades herself in a room. A man's footsteps are heard as he approaches the door, followed by silence. The sound of a chainsaw is heard, followed by the deafening screams of the woman.[8][9] The reel was unveiled at the annual American Film Market, in Santa Monica. Producers later screened the reel to different studios in hopes of finding a distributor.[8] On June 19, 2002, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased rights to the remake with plans on distributing the new film.[citation needed] New Line had purchased rights to the franchise back in 1983, releasing Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III in 1990.[8][9][10]

Producers spent months looking for a director, opting for someone new to the Hollywood film industry. It was an agent from the Creative Artists Agency who suggested the German-born director Marcus Nispel to Bay. At the time, Nispel had primarily directed television commercials and music videos for artists Janet Jackson, Billy Joel, and Elton John. Nispel was initially opposed to remaking the film, but Daniel Pearl, the cinematographer for the original film and regular collaborator with Nispel, convinced him to direct.[8][11] Meeting with the producers, Nispel presented Bay and Fleiss with thousands of photographs to reference his intended vision for the film. In June 2002, it was announced that Nispel would direct the film in his directorial debut.[6][8]

Writing

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From the outset, producers intended to bring the franchise back to its darker roots, described by Bay as "the old school of horror".[8][12] As co-producer Form states "We wanted to go back to the old type of horror. No jokes, just straight terror."[7] Early announcements indicated the film would be told in flashback, as an aged Sally recounts the events in the film. However, this proved to be false[8] Producers spent time looking for a screenwriter who could add a fresh look to the franchise while respecting the original film. While it was reported that Hooper and Henkel were writing a script for the film, it was later announced that Scott Kosar signed on as the film's screenwriter.[6][9] The film was Kosar's first professional job as a screenwriter. Kosar later described feeling both thrilled and honored at the prospect of writing the screenplay for the remake. When discussing with the film's producers, Kosar felt that the remake should not try to compete with the original film, as he felt that it was made under different circumstances.[citation needed]

In earlier drafts, Erin was revealed to be nine months pregnant but was removed from later drafts at Bay's insistence.

Casting

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Jessica Biel

Actresses Katie Holmes, Kirsten Dunst, and Jessica Alba were originally in consideration for the lead role Erin. Jessica Biel, who previously starred in the television series 7th Heaven, was eventually cast in the role.[4]

Johnathan Tucker

Erica Leerhsen

Marietta Marich

R. Lee Ermey

Filming

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Principle photography began on July 2002.[6]

Production design

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Special effects

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's makeup and special effects were designed by effects artist Scott Stoddard,[13] who had previously worked with Bay on Pearl Harbor.[14] In designing Leatherface's masks, Stoddard explained that the character was an amateur taxidermist. This allowed for a with the mask itself a combination of many different pieces taken off the faces of his victims. As Stoddard commented, each piece of Leatherface's mask was something the character had seen and admired, which was then stitched together in a crude and rudimentary fashion. Many of the earlier designs took into consideration the age of each face that made up the mask; some pieces were very old and dried up, while other pieces were "months old" and still retained moisture that caused those pieces drooped down the face. The final design was deliberately made to look as though it was all stitched together in places that "didn't make any sense", as Stoddard felt that Leatherface admired a certain part of an individual's face but stitched them together in a way that could fit on him, one such design aspect was the inclusion of the nose and mouth of a woman stitched into the neck portion of the mask. Details such as open sores, pus balls, and chapped lips were applied to the exposed area around the actor's mouth, implying that the character was suffering from a skin disease.

Post production

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Music

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The film score for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was composed by Steve Jablonsky,[15] who worked as an assistant to composer Hans Zimmer on Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001).[16] For the film, Jablonsky composed an electronic score, describing his intention of creating an underlying score that was not 'too modern'. Leatherface's theme is heard at the beginning of the film. The track uses low strings, which gives a melancholic effect, according to Jablonsky: "It gives it an ethereal quality that draws you into the film, gets into the mind of the viewer so that it makes them react when they [Leatherface] will reappear".[8]

Original track listing

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The album of compositions by Jablonky was released on October 21, 2003.[citation needed]

No.TitleLength
1."Leatherface"02:45
2."He's a Bad Man"04:01
3."Erin and Kemper"01:07
4."Hewitt House"01:09
5."Driving with a Corpse"01:24
6."Kemper Gets Whacked / Jedidiah"01:56
7."Crawford Mill"01:50
8."Interrogation"03:50
9."Andy Loses a Leg"01:41
10."You're So Dead"03:32
11."Hook Me Up"02:40
12."My Boy"03:15
13."Morgan's Wild Ride / Van Attack"04:35
14."Mercy Killing"02:59
15."Prairie House"03:13
16."Final Confrontation"05:25
17."Can't Go Back"03:55
18."Last Goodbye"01:00
Total length:50:17

Analysis and themes

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Sociocultural context

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Corruption of family values

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Hippie era and rite of passage

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Final girl and gender depictions

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Release

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Marketing

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Theatrical release

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre premiered in North America on October 17, 2003, in 3,016 theaters.

Box office

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Censorship

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Reception

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Contemporaneous reception

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre received mixed to negative reactions from critics and fans upon its initial release. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which has compiled old and contemporary reviews, reports that 37% of 159 critics provided positive reviews for the film, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "An unnecessary remake that's more gory and less scary than the original."[17] On Metacritic, a similar website that aggregates both past and present reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable ".[18]

Gore

lack of scares

performances

story

Critical reassessment

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Post-release

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Home media

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Other media

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A novelization of the film, written by Stephen Hand was published on March 1, 2004. It was based on one of the film's earlier drafts, containing plot points that were discarded from the film's final draft, including Leatherface's murder of Jedidiah, one of his younger family members who had decided to help Erin escape.[19] In 2005, Avatar Press began publishing a comic books based on the 2003 remake continuity. Leatherface made his official appearance in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special #1, a one-shot comic, centering on a group of three escaped convicts who rob the Hewitt family General store, bringing them into direct conflict with Leatherface and his family.[20]

Legacy

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Prequel

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References

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Footnotes

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Notes

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)". Box Office Mojo. October 17, 2003. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  2. ^ Fleming, Michael (October 8, 2009). "Twisted moves to 'Texas'". Variety. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  3. ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Mania.com. December 5, 2001. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
  5. ^ Roche 2014, p. 11.
  6. ^ a b c d Harris, Dana (March 3, 2002). "O'seas distribs rev up 'Chainsaw' redo". Variety. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Spong, John (October 1, 2002). "Oh, the Horror!". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Schwartz 2004.
  9. ^ a b c d Roche 2014, pp. 10–16.
  10. ^ Newman 2011, pp. 382–383.
  11. ^ Pollard, Andrew (January 5, 2015). "Marcus Nispel: THE ASYLUM, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, FRIDAY THE 13TH". Starburst. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
  12. ^ Roche 2014, pp. 28–30.
  13. ^ Wilson, Sarah (December 22, 2008). "Friday the 13th Special Effects". Interview Magazine. Archived from the original on August 27, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Thomas 2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Selected Projects - Steve Jablonsky". Steve Jablonsky.com. Retrieved February 18, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Newman, Melinda (June 26, 2014). "Composer Steve Jablonsky on 'Transformers: Age of Extinction': 'This was the craziest film of all'". Uproxx. Retrieved August 10, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
  18. ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
  19. ^ Hand, Stephen (March 1, 2004). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Black Flame. ISBN 978-1-84416-060-0.
  20. ^ Brian Pulido (w), Jacen Burrows (p), Jacen Burrows (i), Andrew Dalhouse
    Greg Waller (col), William Christianson (ed). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Special, vol. 1, no. 1 (April 2005). Avatar Press.

Sources

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Books

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Periodicals and media

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  • David Gregory (Director) (2000). Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth (Documentary). United States: Blue Underground.
  • Jeffrey Schwarz (Director) (2004). Chainsaw Redux: Making a Massacre (Documentary). United States: Automat Pictures.
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