When I first heard news about there going to be a remake for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I was skeptical. I thought it was totally unnecessary and when I learned about Jessica Beil being in the cast, I was thinking Hollywood just F'd up. After a while I became more open about it, especially when the first pics starting showing up online. Well I was lucky enough to catch a screening of the film last night, even though my friends and I came close to not seeing it, because the theatre was packed. After waiting in a separate line for almost no reason and little hope, the theatre people were nice enough to open another screening for us. I went in seeing the movie with an open mind, but knowing that it will not top the original. Now having seen the movie the question remains... is it better than the original?... Hell NO!

Yes, the movie is good and a decent remake, but it's far from toping what the original had. I'll get to the details later, for now lets get to the plot. The story has obviously been tweaked a little. The five youths are heading towards Mexico instead of visiting an old family home like in the original. They encounter a bewildered girl on the side of the road, almost slamming into her. They pick her up and bring her into the car, ah, something bad happens, and they are forced to stop at a local BBQ to call the sheriff. They do so, but are told to meet at a mill somewhere. The group visits the old mill to meet the sheriff and meet a little boy there that tells them the sheriff lives close by. Realizing the sheriff isn't around they split to visit the home. The rest of the story is obvious...

The movie does have some similarities to the first film, but overall it's a pretty different story, which I suppose is a good thing, because it keeps those of us who've seen the original many times, wondering what will happen next. The movie has a lot of good tension involving Leatherface and R. Lee Ermey's character as the Sheriff, but I personally didn't find the movie scary at all. One big complaint I have about the movie is the fact that there was entirely too much Leatherface. In the original he was a main character, but they didn't show him as much, and it was split with the cook and the crazy old man. In this movie we mainly just see Leatherface and the sheriff. There are other smaller character roles thrown in, but the movie was pretty much pure Leatherface. Some may think it's a good thing, because he's a badass character and looks pretty badass in the movie, but I thought more could have been done to bring up the tension without involving Leatherface.

So, I'm sure some of you are wondering if we get to see Leatherface without his mask. Well the answer is yes, you do get to see his face after he takes off his mask at one point. They even go as far as to explain why he wears masks in the movie. They said that he had a skin disease as a kid and it just kept getting worse as he grew older. Apparently he was made fun of a lot as well, which is supposedly one reason why the family and Leatherface really dislikes outsiders.

The film is pretty tension-filled and the run-from-Leatherface-sequence involving Jessica Beil's character and Leatherface was a lot longer than the one between him and Sally in the original. Just when you think the movie's gonna end, it keeps going. That's a good thing, because I didn't know what to expect or how exactly it would end. You get a few surprises here and there towards the end, but I wasn't too into the final climax of the film. It reminded me too much of another film that I will remain nameless, so I don't spoil the ending for anyone.

One thing this film had that the original obviously didn't was the gore. This movie had a nice amount of it that should please horror fans of this day and age. The original was superior in a way that it didn't need gore to shock the audience, but having gore doesn't make the movie any less watchable in my opinion. Hell, it makes me want to watch more. Those who didn't really like the original much, might like this remake more, only because of the fact that it has more going on and might please the younger audience. I have to admit that the Leatherface in this movie was a lot cooler looking than in the original and he doesn't really play as mentally-impaired as he was played as in the first. So pretty much overall the movie is a good watch for horror fans and fans of the original, but like I said earlier, it doesn't top it.

A good remake, but it fails to top the original, but does top it in some aspects. Worth a check.