Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning’

Written by Scott Edwards

For some people, life is nothing but sacrifices, at least that is what it seems like to them. Providing care for a child could be considered one of the greatest sacrifices anyone could ever make, but most of the time it is beneficial to both the child and the parent. There is much to be said about taking care of yourself first, since you are the only one that can control what you do, yet there are people that still think that others are controlling them, even when their sacrifices have ended.
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Young Tommy was born on the local slaughterhouse floor and has known nothing else after being raised by the Hewitt family. Returning to cut meat when he was old enough, there is nothing more that Tommy knows how to do, but when the meat packing plant goes under Tommy is forced to leave and move on with his life. After being insulted by one of the former workers, Tommy takes his pound of flesh out on the foreman who used to be his friend and kills the man for the pain losing his job has caused him. The local Sheriff heads over to talk to Charlie Hewitt and let him know that Tommy will be arrested for the murder in the dying town, but Charlie has something else on his mind and shoots the Sheriff in the head. With a fresh body and a boy that knows how to carve it up, the Hewitt family has been granted the greatest gift of all, to never go hungry again.

Preparing to head back over to Vietnam, Eric is getting his mind set once again to take out anyone that gets in his way, but not for himself, but to keep his younger brother Dean safe. Even though Chrissie is upset that her boyfriend is leaving for another tour, there is nothing she can do to stop Eric from fulfilling his brotherly duty, but Dean has other plans. Talking with Bailey in their hotel room, Dean is planning on running south of the border to avoid the draft and not die across the ocean. Needing to break this to his brother at some point, Dean is looking for the right time to bring it up, but sooner may be better than later.

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Heading down the road, the group stumbles upon a roadside shop and the girls want to stop and take a look. After a quick talk, Chrissie finds out Dean’s plans from Bailey and applauds the move but knows the two need to speak up soon before they make it to the recruiting office. Running into a gang of bikers, the girls are ready to leave, but little do they know that one will be following them on their drive to freedom. Trying to burn his Draft Card in the back seat, Dean’s problems seem like next to nothing when an armed biker is quickly headed their way. With a gun in the glove compartment, Eric tries to eliminate the threat, but when he takes his eyes off of the road to shoot, the jeep plows through a cow that made its way onto the road. Waking up in a daze, Eric sees that Chrissie is the only one not accounted for in the car and tries to find her, but instead finds his worst nightmare.

Sheriff Hoyt (previously Charlie Hewitt) has spotted the crash and is ready to figure out what the heck happened on his road. Killing the biker that was following them, Hoyt throws Eric, Dean and Bailey in the back of his cruiser and takes them back to the house.  Seeing what happened to her friends, Chrissie tries to locate the gun that Eric lost in the crash but finds herself being towed back to the house by Uncle Monty who cleans up the scenes. With nobody knowing that she is there, Chrissie tries to run back to town to get help, but runs into another biker instead, but this one wants revenge for what happened to his girlfriend on the road. Following the biker, Chrissie quickly finds out that she will be fighting the battle to free her friends alone, or at least with whatever she has left in the tank as the Hewitt family seems to have all of these young people on their menu for survival.

I am not a huge fan of prequels that come out after originals or remakes, but you know what, this one kind of caught me off guard. I must admit that seeing the rise to power for Sheriff Hoyt was rather cool and getting R. Lee Ermey for this was the greatest choice any casting director ever made. Watching as Eric and Dean try to battle for each other was a great show of brotherly love and when it is revealed that the only reason Eric was going back to Vietnam was to look out of his little brother was pretty nice. I wish Bailey had a little more story as she always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chrissie really was the star as she was able to make her way throughout the house to try and free anyone inside, yet when she had a path to freedom, she chose to stay behind and help. That might not have been the wisest idea, but it really does make her the hero. But the story has taken a shift from the other Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, making Tommy (Leatherface) the victim in all of this. Being raised by the Hewitts, he will do anything to defend his house and anything that Uncle Charlie (Sheriff Hoyt) tells him to do. That might be the most frightening story of all in the movie, especially since he does not know any better.  Stay Scared.

Additional note: This will not change how I view the previous movies, because Leatherface is the baddest of the bad and no one escapes his chainsaw!

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