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| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
In 2001, director-producer Michael Bay of The Rock and
Armageddon joined forces with co-producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form to
start their own production company Platinum Dunes. While they’re known for producing the live-action
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and its sequel Out of the Shadows,
the company is mostly known for their horror output usually stemming from big-budgeted
remakes of prized and renowned horror franchise films from the 1970s and ‘80s. Dealing regularly with New Line Cinema, MGM,
Universal and Paramount, they’re a bit like an expensive slick proto-Blumhouse
corporation specializing in horror remakes and originals that were characterized
by having an edge up on their inspirations often dealing in grislier graphic
violence and/or sexual content spicing up the sleaze factor while pumping up
the production values quotient. With
everything in place, Platinum Dunes’ first venture came in the form of Pathfinder
director Marcus Nispel’s 2003 remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 all-timer The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Technically the fifth installment in the franchise despite
being a remake, this new and ‘improved’ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre redux
is noted for reuniting many of the original crew members coming back on board
for another round such as writer Kim Henkel and director Tobe Hooper serving as
executive producers, John Larroquette reprising his voiceover narration opening
both the original and redux but most importantly it brings cinematographer
Daniel Pearl back on board whose grimy crusty scuzzy visual style from the 1974
film carries over to this new 2003 shoot.
Set in the scorching hot August summer of 1973, this new iteration of
the film follows a similar kind of ragtag group of stoners led by Erin Hardesty
(Jessica Biel), her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour) and their mutual friends
Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel) and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen) in a minivan
on their way to Mexico to buy some weed.
However their sojourn is interrupted by a traumatized hitchhiker who
keeps referring to a ‘bad man’ before violently taking her own life in the back
seat of the van, setting the tone with a harbinger of things to come.
Much like the original film, following a shocking encounter
with a hitchhiker, the group stops at a gas station trying to refill their tank
and contact authorities regarding the suicide in their vehicle only to meet
more rednecks including a sleazy frumpy store owner Luda Mae (Marietta Marich)
who points the kids towards connecting with Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) at a
local mill. However, their search for
the Sheriff who is reportedly at home getting drunk leads them to a deserted
plantation house presided over by an amputee named Monty (Terrance Evans) and after
trying to call for help, not knowing the danger lurking in the form of the
infamous “Leatherface” (played here by Andrew Bryniarski) a chainsaw wielding
maniac donning a severed and sewn human face for a mask who makes easy work of
Erin’s boyfriend Kemper. Realizing he’s
missing, Erin and Andy venture out to the house searching for him only to
encounter the same chainsaw horrors and worse still the mercurial Sheriff Hoyt
shows up and begins terrorizing the kids now knowing he is in fact the
ringleader of an entire family of cannibals known as the Hewitts who aim to
kill, cook and eat the kids.
Written by The Machinist screenwriter Scott Kosar and
directed by Marcus Nispel in his first feature, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was
initially considered by its director to be a blasphemous exercise and smiting
of the original Tobe Hooper film before his cinematographer Daniel Pearl talked
him into going ahead with it. With
Michael Bay producing and influencing the film creatively from the script to
casting including Pearl Harbor actor Andrew Bryniarski as the titular
Leatherface who asked Bay for the role personally, the film was shot in Texas
amid hot humidity for roughly forty days by Pearl with videogame composer
turned Michael Bay frequent collaborator Steve Jablonsky scoring. Reportedly the Leatherface suit and mask were
difficult for the actor to use who already put on considerable weight for the
role but he pulled it off nevertheless.
Of the ensemble cast members Jessica Biel and R. Lee Ermey stand out the
brightest with her assuming the role of sweat and blood drenched scream queen
and Ermey’s hick-tastic adversary is threatening and believably dangerous.
Opening theatrically in October 17th 2003, the
$9.5 million remake scored huge at the box office amassing $107.4 million
against negative critical reception as well as mixed word-of-mouth among horror
fans. Considerably overproduced, meaner
and nastier than the 1974 film without being anywhere near as frightening, this
new Michael Bay produced iteration looks slick but maintains the grimy patina
of the original film thanks to Daniel Pearl’s camerawork and the film is
largely anchored by Jessica Biel and R. Lee Ermey as the standout performers of
the piece. As a result of the success,
it kicked off a whole wave of remakes throughout the 2000s and 2010s including House
of Wax, The Wicker Man, The Omen, Friday the 13th
(also directed by Marcus Nispel), A Nightmare on Elm Street and even
the Halloween franchise not once but twice with Rob Zombie’s two films
and then David Gordon Green’s new trilogy of films. Three years later, Darkness Falls director
Jonathan Liebesman was tasked with directing a prequel film entitled The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning predating the events of the 2003 film by
four years which was more expensive but only proved to be a modest box office
success compared to the previous iteration.
While the previous Blu-Ray edition was done by Warner
Brothers and included a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track and included a number of
archival featurettes and commentary tracks, Arrow Video with their newly
rendered Dolby Vision 4K UHD have gone an extra mile by including the original
theatrical DTS-HD 7.1 audio track. There’s
also a new audio commentary by Dread Central founder Steve Barton and Spooky
Picture Show podcaster Chris MacGibbon. Porting
over all the archival extras from previously releases, this new Arrow also
includes several newly conducted interviews with the director, cinematographer,
makeup artists and composer Steve Jablonsky.
Though this new edition won’t necessarily convert naysayers who
abstained from seeing their favorite horror film remade with slicker production
values and sound design, those who dug it will find much to enjoy with Arrow
Video’s limited special edition set including but not limited to a double-sided
foldout poster and newly illustrated collector’s booklet with essay writings by
Michael Gingold. All in all, a strong
release from Arrow who seem to be doing up special editions of nearly all the
Warner Brothers catalog titles consisting of 2000s-2010s horror remakes.
--Andrew Kotwicki
