Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Bloody gore fest retreads old gruesome ground.
Why We Rated This 
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Parents need to know that this grisly horror film isn't for kids -- though lots of horror-loving teens will want to see it. It's relentlessly bloody, dark-shadowed, and gruesome, with the titular chainsaw wreaking predictable (but still dire) havoc. Violence is graphic and incessant, with a range of weapons (guns, meat hooks, cleavers) producing severed limbs and body parts. A cow is smashed to bloody smithereens by a jeep; human victims are tortured (hung from hooks, tied up, taunted, stabbed, and sawed). The faux sheriff taunts a girl by pressing up against her and whispering ("I love you"). Some cleavage shots, and the girls' clothing appears in increasing disarray. Frequent foul language, mostly "f--k" and its permutations.
Families Can Talk About
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- Families can talk about the movie's representation of "families." How does it suggest that Leatherface's dismal birth, abandonment, and training make him into a demented killer? How is environment a factor in his brutality (and how does the film use the Vietnam War as backdrop for that question)? How can you tell that Chrissie's efforts to save her friends are futile? Does that encourage viewers to look forward to her bad end? What's the ongoing appeal of horror films? Does anything set this one apart from the rest of the genre?
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More on Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
What’s the Story?
Leatherface (played as an adult by Andrew Bryniarski) was born in 1939 to a mother who died immediately. Picked out of a dumpster, he's raised by Luda May (Marietta Marich) and the monster known as Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey), who kills the real sheriff and steals his badge and cruiser. Trained to be a meat chopper, Leatherface snaps when the slaughterhouse he works at shuts down in 1969 and begins killing, chopping, and eating anyone he meets who's not "family." At the same time the slaughterhouse closes, a jeep full of kids crosses Hoyt's path, and he brings them home "for supper." Vietnam war veteran Eric (Matthew Bomer) is planning to go back for another tour in order to go look after his just-drafted brother Dean (Taylor Handley). Though Dean and his girlfriend Bailey (Diora Baird) mean to go to Mexico instead, by the time they confess their scheme to Eric and his girlfriend Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), it's too late -- Hoyt has found them.
Is It Any Good?
You know a trend has crested and collapsed by the time Michael Bay gets hold of it (he's a producer here). TEAXS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING mainstreams and dilutes the effectiveness of ornery, low-budget, so-called "horror-porn" movies (Wolf Creek, Hostel, etc.). Reviled for their grisly excess, those films also make relevant cultural and political critiques, modeled after the analyses offered by some '70s proto-slasher movies. Not so the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which repeats its source material, including the basic plot: Good-looking kids on the road stumble into a Terrible Place and suffer bloody, screaming deaths. Its many torture scenes are pretty much what you expect from mainstreamed horror porn. The shadows are dark, the floor and walls slick, the devices rudimentary and filthy. Hoyt hangs the boys up in the barn and beats them, Leatherface hacks up limbs and torsos in the basement, and Mama attends to the cooking, trying to sort out which tongue is which.
The gore does make a point, after a fashion. This has to do with Eric's determination that the group must "stay the course." Since any number of lines might have served him equally well, the choice of the Bush administration's repeated assessment of strategy in the Iraq war seems to be the movie's attempt at political analysis. As Eric says, the Vietnam War has shown him that "it's amazing the things you can get used to." The argument might be made that characters who choose to "stay the course" let themselves in for the atrocities they encounter (and, in a couple of cases, commit). Such appalling acts are a function of both environment and necessity. Just as Eric got used to things in Vietnam, audiences are getting used to horror porn and its increasingly formulaic arrangements. And so we're missing the horror of it.
Movie Details
Studio: New Line, Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Run time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release: 10/6/2006, DVD release: 1/16/2007
MPAA Rating: R for for strong horror violence/gore, language and some sexual content.
Run time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release: 10/6/2006, DVD release: 1/16/2007
MPAA Rating: R for for strong horror violence/gore, language and some sexual content.
Our Members Say
See 23 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title off for age 13 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Negative role models
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I rate this title off for age 17 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
This film is rated r for a reason
Very bloody slasher film- NOT FOR KIDS
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I rate this title iffy for age 14 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate language
- Negative role models
Not for anyone under 14
This is a good horror movie!! Warning, parents: Extremely gory! Old mangets shot in the leg, and instead of helping him, leatherface slices off that leg with the chainsaw, and then the leader tells him to chop off the other leg so it will be even. Extreme torture. Man strapped to a table gets sliced through the stomach with chainsaw (half of the blood splatters onto the girl hiding under the table) and then gets his face cut off by leatherface, and worn as a mask 0_0! Also sliced throats, broken teeth in mouth all bloody. Like i said, VERY GORY!!! also very sadistic! family is cannibalistic, and absolutley merciless!
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I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
Wud hav givin it 5 stars had it not been for the ending
Pretty scary and suspensful..i liked it i just thought the ending was stupid as hell
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I rate this title off for age 17 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
Movie review: The Texas chainsaw massacre: The beginning
If you are looking for non-stop build up of terror, suspense, emotions, and some blood splatter mixed with attractive young folks see the 2003 remake. If you are looking to see a grindhouse-like film with some jump surprises see the original. Although if you are willing to see a brutal exercise of gruesome violence and a back story on the life of Leatherface, sit down, grab some popcorn, and watch The Texas chainsaw massacre: The beginning. While this movie didn't live up to the 2003 remake, or its 1973 predecessor, it still is a well made film. The biggest problem is it's not "fun" to watch. It's highly brutal and there are a lot of scenes of torture. Although it's not extremely frequent, we do get more character development, hence since it's a prequel focusing on the beginning of the chainsaw massacres. The movie does slow down in some spots, but it gains enough speed to make it a mild recommendation. For sexual content, there is a scene where a woman licks a man's chest erotically, then they kiss. For violence, while it isn't extremely frequent, there is quite a bit of violence. There are tons of torture sequences as well as violent ones. For profanity, there are frequent uses of the f word and its derivative, the a words, the s words, g*dd*mn, Oh my god, and infrequent uses of c*cks*cker, p*ssy. One derogatory term for Vietnamese. One brief sexual hand gesture is seen. For drug content, people tend to drink and smoke. For commercialism, there is none to be spotted. For social behavior, it's bad. Age recommendation is seventeen and up. Constant foul language, including sexual slang for genitalia, a derogatory term for Vietnamese, and multiple scenes of torture and grotesque violence. Brief sexual content including a sexual hand gesture.
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