The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning | |
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Directed by | Jonathan Liebesman |
Screenplay by | Sheldon Turner |
Story by |
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Based on | |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Lukas Ettlin |
Edited by | Jonathan Chibnall |
Music by | Steve Jablonsky |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $16 million[3] |
Box office | $51.8 million[3] |
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a 2006 American slasher film and a prequel to the 2003 film. The sixth installment in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, it was written by Sheldon Turner from a story by Turner and David J. Schow, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and co-produced by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper (co-creators of the original 1974 film). The film's story takes place four years before its predecessor. It stars Jordana Brewster, Diora Baird, Taylor Handley, Matt Bomer and R. Lee Ermey.
Originally, the film had the subtitle The Origin. New Line Cinema had to pay $3.1 million more than expected in order to keep the rights to the franchise after Dimension Films made a large offer to buy it.[4]
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released in North America on October 6, 2006. The film received negative reviews from critics but still grossed $51.8 million on a budget of $16 million, although this would be less than half the gross of the previous film.
Plot
In 1939, a woman dies while giving birth in a
Thirty years later, Thomas works in the slaughterhouse under the same supervisor who left him in the dumpster. When the plant is shut down by the health department, he refuses to leave until the supervisor makes him. Thomas kills the supervisor with a hammer and finds a
Meanwhile, brothers Eric and Dean, are driving across the country with their girlfriends, Chrissie and Bailey, to enlist in the
Hoyt drives the group to the Hewitt house where he has Thomas butcher the biker's body. Chrissie runs to the highway and flags down Holden, the biker's boyfriend, and they return to the house together. Hoyt tortures Dean after finding out that he was
Holden and Chrissie part ways to search for their friends. While Chrissie finds Dean, Holden takes Hoyt hostage. Thomas straps Eric to a wooden table and slices off the nerves in both of his arms. Hoyt calls out to Thomas for help, and Thomas kills Holden with the chainsaw. Chrissie finds Eric in the basement but is unable to free him, and hides when Thomas returns. Thomas kills Eric with the chainsaw, then skins his face and wears it as a mask. Chrissie is about to flee when she hears Bailey's screams and decides to save her. She finds her upstairs, but Hoyt catches her and brings her downstairs for dinner, along with Bailey and an unconscious Dean. Leatherface slits Bailey's throat and tries to take Chrissie to the basement, but she stabs him in the back with a screwdriver, and jumps out of a window.
Dean regains consciousness and savagely beats Hoyt before heading off to find Chrissie. Chrissie enters the slaughterhouse, grabs a knife and cuts Leatherface's face, but he overpowers her. Dean intervenes but Leatherface kills him with the chainsaw. Chrissie escapes in the slaughterhouse supervisor's car and drives off. She sees a
Cast
- Andrew Bryniarski as Thomas Hewitt / Leatherface
- Charlie Hewitt Jr.
- Jordana Brewster as Chrissie
- Taylor Handley as Dean
- Matt Bomer as Eric
- Diora Baird as Bailey
- Lee Tergesen as Holden
- Monty
- Luda Mae
- Allison Marich as young Luda Mae
- Kathy Lamkin as Tea Lady
- Tim De Zarnas Supervisor
- Lew Temple as Sheriff Winston Hoyt
- Cyia Batten as Alex
- John Larroquette as Narrator (uncredited)[citation needed]
Production
Development
After the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Platinum Dunes producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller began brainstorming story ideas for another installment, deciding a prequel would allow for more narrative possibilities. They contacted Scott Kosar, who wrote the 2003 remake, but he was tied up with other projects, so they turned to Sheldon Turner, whom they worked with on The Amityville Horror (2005). The producers asked Turner to answer questions posed by the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre story concerning the Hewitt family.[5]
Director Jonathan Liebesman was not certain about taking on the film until he learned that it was to be a prequel. He proposed not trying to explain too much of the killer's motives, and that "the movie needed to feel like the beginning of hell."[5]
Filming
Principal photography began in
Release
Box office
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released on October 6, 2006, in 2,820 theaters, debuting at number 2 at the box office, grossing $18,508,228 on its first weekend. Its second week saw a 59.6% drop in attendance, grossing only $7,485,290 and coming in at number 5 at the box office. During its third week it grossed $3,779,829 and came in at number 10 at the box office. The film dropped out of the top ten and into eighteenth place with $1,269,942. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning would fail to regain a top ten spot at the box office for the remainder of its theatrical run,[6] ending with $51,764,406 in total gross.[3]
Home media
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released on
Critical reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 15% approval rating based on 87 reviews and an average rating of 3.80/10. The site's consensus states: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is full of blood and gore, but not enough scares or a coherent story to make for a successful horror film."[8] Metacritic reports a 30 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[9]
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone awarded the film zero stars, calling it "putridly written, directed and acted", also criticizing the film's "obvious" plot turns.[10] Nathan Lee from The New York Times panned the film as "an invitation to hard-core sadism".[11] In a more positive review, Peter Debruge of Variety thought "Liebesman hews close to the 2003 pic's bile-tinged snuff film aesthetic ... Purists who wondered what had become of the family dinner scene (left out of the remake) should be pleased to find an even creepier version recreated here."[12]
At the
Cancelled sequel
In January 2007,
References
- ^ Goodridge, Mike (February 27, 2004). "Bay's Platinum Dunes signs international agreement with Focus". Screen International. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- ^ "THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING (18)". British Board of Film Classification. October 3, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
- ^ a b c "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.com. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
- ^ B, Brian (July 21, 2004). "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in the works". MovieWeb. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ^ a b c "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Production Notes". Retrieved November 1, 2022.
- ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Weekend Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.com. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
- ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Jonathan Liebesman". AllMovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
- CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ Travers, Peter. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 24, 2015.[dead link]
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
- ^ Debruge, Peter (October 5, 2006). "Reviews - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning". Variety. Archived from the original on October 16, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
- ^ "RAZZIE's Worst Award Nominees of 2006 Released". MovieWeb. January 22, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
- ^ "Platinum Dunes Talks 'Texas 3', Upcoming Slate". Bloody Disgusting. The Collective. January 6, 2007. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
External links
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at AllMovie
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at Box Office Mojo
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at IMDb
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at Metacritic
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at the TCM Movie Database