The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
A tale of five 20-somethings whose freespirited roadtrip becomes a terrifying descent into
madness. When they find themselves isolated in a rural Texas community, they fall into the
clutches of a monstrous clan of Texas cannibals and find themselves being whittled away by the
chainsaw-wielding Leatherface.
2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre does so many things right that its one downfall may
be that it's just too good at accomplishing what it sets out to do. While that's normally something
that would make a movie an all-time classic, this is one instance where "too much of a good thing"
can have the opposite effect. On one hand, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an incredibly
well-made movie in the context of its genre. One of the most chillingly atmospheric films viewers
are ever likely to see, there's not one single frame in the movie that doesn't at least hint at despair;
the film's vomit-toned color palette is evidence of that. The atmosphere is made possible thanks to
stunning cinematography, chillingly grisly and worn down locales, and above-average acting from
every member of the cast. The film is also incredibly brutal; legs and arms are hacked off, people
are impaled on hooks, bodies are sliced in half from the groin up, people are shot through the head,
and their faces are worn as masks. The gore, combined with the atmosphere, simply becomes too
overpowering.
Before dinner.
Five friends are en route to Dallas to see Lynard Skynard in concert. Driving across the back
roads
of Texas in a hot van with no air conditioning, love, good times, and "Sweet Home Alabama" are
in
the air -- until the van almost strikes a dazed pedestrian wandering aimlessly about the road.
The girl -- clearly traumatized, bloodied, and claiming that everyone is dead -- shoots herself in
the back of
the van. In a panic, the friends -- Kemper (Eric Balfour), Erin (Jessica Biel), Morgan (Jonathan
Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen) -- soon find themselves with the
unenviable task of explaining the situation to authorities. Despite their best efforts, they
cannot track down the local sheriff. Finally becoming privy to the location of his home, Erin and
Kemper leave their friends behind to find the only man that can help them. However, he's
nowhere to be found, and while Erin once again tries to contact him, Kemper goes missing.
Returning to the sheriff's home with Andy and in search of Kemper, Erin comes face-to-face with
Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), a deformed, chainsaw-wielding killer. Though Erin escapes,
Andy is not so fortunate. Finally meeting the town sheriff, Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey), it soon becomes
clear that he's in on the fun and that the surviving teens are in for a night of pain and suffering
beyond their wildest imaginations.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a tale of two worlds, a grim film of unrelenting terror
framed around a beautiful shooting style that utilizes angles, a mixture of steady and handheld
shots, and distant and in-tight framing to tell the story. Simply put, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre is to gore what South Park: Bigger, Longer, &
Uncut is to bad language. There's no way around it; this is a terribly brutal film that's
difficult to watch, and even seasoned gore hounds will likely find themselves wincing during
several scenes, though the film's dark and unforgiving atmosphere and hellish locales only add to
the intensity of the violence. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre might be grotesque beyond
imagination,
but it's also a
well-crafted film from a technical perspective. There's an ever-present feel of doom-and-gloom
that permeates every frame; even the film's more free-flowing, happy-go-lucky opening minutes
feature a vomit-toned color scheme that positively spells out the dread and despair to come. The
film also differs from its predecessor in that it eschews
that film's grittier, documentary tone and surprising lack of on-screen, front-and-center violence
in favor of atmospherics and sheer brutality. As a result, this remake is less effective in tone but
not in style. This is certainly a film geared more towards modern audiences; it can be
slow and deliberate -- and effectively so -- in its opening act, but when the chainsaw starts
a-buzzin' and limbs go a-flyin', there's no reprieve until the credits begin to roll.
One strength of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that seems to get lost in the shuffle of
the atmosphere, gore, and cinematography is the surprisingly sound acting from the bevy of lead
characters; Horror aficionados are all-too-familiar with the shoddy performances that seem to
come standard with the genre, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre throws that hindrance
to the side and delivers a collection of raw, emotional, and all-too-real performances that sell the
sense of dread and terror that overlay the film. Biel and Balfour in particular are excellent;
though Balfour doesn't stick around long enough to face the nightmare head-on, he delivers a
fine performance as a man facing an impossible situation while trying his best to take it all in
stride and provide something of a much-needed leadership role to the group after the suicide. Of
all the players, though, Jonathan Tucker delivers what might be the single-finest moment in the
film. Facing off with Sheriff Hoyt in the back of the van, he positively exudes fear in a scene that
demands to be witnessed in its entirety to be fully appreciated. One thing that helps the
actors along the way is the film's locales, design, and make-up. They always seem to be in the
midst of dark,
grimy, inhospitable locales and covered in filth, blood, sweat, and, in times of
great panic and fear, their own spit, snot, vomit, and tears. The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre truly
is a product of its look, and the atmosphere, cinematography, gore, and performances -- for
better or worse -- come together in nearly perfect harmony to create one of the most brutal
and bone-chilling films ever made.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre slices into Blu-ray with a transfer that reflects the film's
intended rotten appearance. Presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, this 1080p Blu-ray
looks about as good as it can given the source material. As might be expected of a
dark and grimy movie, fine detail is never all that impressive; then again, the dreary, depressed,
and borderline grotesque locations and color palette, combined with plenty of dark locations, don't
really lend to the film an opportunity to present lavish eye candy. Interiors are often hazy and
drenched in shadow, lending even less opportunity for the transfer to reveal the nitty-gritty
nuances of the film's several eerie locales. Nevertheless, there are a few shots that allow the film
to bask in the resolution afforded to it by Blu-ray, particularly in the film's opening segment inside
the hot and stuffy van, which showcases a fair amount of sweat glistening off skin and facial hair
on the men. Though much of the film is bathed in darkness, black
levels can sometimes
look too bright and unnatural, but then again the film must juggle between being so dark that
audiences can't see what is going on and brightening things up just a bit to reveal the intricacies
of
the set design. The transfer also retains a generally fine layer of grain throughout. Though there
is a touch of shimmering in a few scenes as well as a bit of edge enhancement, the film doesn't
seem to
suffer from too many other problems. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may not be pretty,
but this Blu-ray seems to capture the film's intended look nicely.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre features but one soundtrack, a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless
mix. Dialogue is occasionally a bit difficult to make out, though this seems more a result of
character sometimes mumbling their lines rather than forcefully annunciating each syllable. The
track's true strength and most noticeable trait, however, comes in the form of its excellent,
virtually
seamless atmospherics. Many outdoor scenes reveal a fabulous level of environmental ambience,
particularly in the form of buzzing insects, that brings the hot and sticky Texas afternoon to vivid
sonic life. Indoor scenes, too, deliver the goods; Leatherface's hellish basement features the
sound of
dripping water and rattling chains coming from every direction; the surround speakers are used
to
good, natural effect here, only adding to the nasty visuals and intense violence. As to the more
aggressive sound effects, the film's title weapon -- the chainsaw -- buzzes with a horrific presence
and
slices through wood and flesh with a terrifying volume and power. While The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre isn't the most aggressive, bass-heavy, or loud soundtrack out there, its incredible
sense of space
and atmosphere nevertheless makes it an upper-echelon track.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre serves up a smorgasbord of supplemental features, this
package headlined by a trio of commentary tracks. Track one features Director Marcus Nispel,
Producer Michael Bay, Executive Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, and
then-Co-Chairman/Co-CEO of New Line Cinema Robert Shaye. This track is cobbled together
from several sources, but this doesn't really interrupt the flow. The participants discuss the way
the film came to be, the importance that audiences believe the story to be true, the film's look
and tone, the assemblage of the cast, the film's uneasy tone, set design, and more. Track
number two again features Director Marcus Nispel, this time accompanied by
Cinematographer Daniel Pearl, Production Designer Greg Blair, Art Director Scott Gallagher,
Supervising Sound Editor Trevor Jolly, and Composer Steve Jablonsky. Billed as a "technical
commentary," this one is again cobbled together from several different recordings and looks at
the differences between this film and the original, the budget, the film's look, shooting locations
and geographical conditions, set dressing, and more. Finally, track three is manned by Director
Marcus Nispel, Producer Michael Bay, Screenwriter Scott
Kosar, Executive Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, and Cast Members Jessica Biel, Erica
Leerhsen, Eric Balfour, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel, and Andrew Bryniarski. As with the other
two commentaries, this one is assembled from various sources and edited together. The
track covers much of the same information as heard in the previous tracks but sometimes from a
different perspective. The
participants speak on how the story evolved, the characters' experiences throughout the film,
shooting on budget, casting, why people are drawn to Horror films, and more.
Next up is Chainsaw Redux: Making a Massacre (480p, 1:16:08). Though dubbed a
"featurette," this is in fact a fill-length documentary that begins by looking back at the original
picture and the process of reinventing it for a modern generation. Though some of the
comments overlap from the commentaries, this piece does take a solid, fascinating, and
to-the-point look at the production. The piece recalls New Line buying the film before there was
even a script and takes an in-depth look at the casting, shooting the picture, designing the sets
and
Letherface's mask, creating some of the more gruesome special effects, and more. Ed Gein:
The Ghoul of Plainfield (480p, 24:16) gives viewers a more in-depth look back at the
Wisconsin killer that served as an inspiration for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Severed Parts (480p, 16:41) takes an in-depth look at the cutting room floor and reveals
some of the scenes deleted from the final picture. These scenes are also included separately
under the Additional Footage heading. Next is a collection of three screen tests, one
each for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour, and Erica Leerhsen (480p, 7:16). Rounding out this collection
of extras is the music video Suffocate by Motograter (480p, 3:06), two trailers (480p,
1:30 & 2:20), and seven TV spots (480p, 3:49 combined runtime).
No doubt about it, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most effective movies ever
made. It absolutely captures the tone it strives for, but it's so effective at being positively terrifying
that it often seems just too much to bear. As to whether this is a "good" movie or not, that's
up to each individual viewer's tolerance levels for the material. Most over-the-top or excessively
violent films seem to have some sort of lighter, maybe even comedic edge to them, but not here.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is dark, unforgiving, exclusively violent, and unbearably
atmospheric from beginning to end. Be forewarned. New Line's Blu-ray release is generally
spectacular. The 1080p transfer recreates the film's intended look just fine, and the Dolby TrueHD
lossless soundtrack reinforces the film's chilling atmosphere to near perfection. Also featuring a
plethora of bonus materials, this Blu-ray comes recommended to fans of the film.
