The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

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.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJonathan Liebesman
Produced by
Screenplay bySheldon Turner
Story by
Based on
Characters
by
  • Tobe Hooper
  • Kim Henkel
Starring
Music bySteve Jablonsky
CinematographyLukas Ettlin
Edited byJonathan Chibnall
Production
company
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • October 6, 2006 (2006-10-06)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million[2]
Box office$51.8 million[2]

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.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released in North America on October 6, 2006. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $51.8 million on a budget of $16 million, less than half that of the previous film.

The next installment, Texas Chainsaw 3D, was released in 2013.

Plot

In 1939, a woman dies while giving birth prematurely in a slaughterhouse in Texas, and the manager disposes of the baby by leaving him in a dumpster outside. When young Luda Mae Hewitt finds the child, she takes him back to the Hewitt residence, names him Thomas and raises him as her own son.

Thirty years later, Thomas (Andrew Bryniarski) works in the slaughterhouse under the same manager who left him in the dumpster. When the plant is shut down by the health department, he refuses to leave until the manager makes him. Thomas later returns to murder his manager and finds a chainsaw, which he takes with him. When Sheriff Hoyt attempts to arrest him, Luda Mae's son, Charlie Hewitt (R. Lee Ermey) kills him and assumes his identity.

Meanwhile, brothers Eric (Matt Bomer) and Dean (Taylor Handley), are driving across the country with their girlfriends, Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) and Bailey (Diora Baird), to enlist in the Vietnam War. At a diner, they run into a biker gang, one of whom follows them on her motorcycle. She draws a shotgun and orders the group to pull over. In the ensuing chaos, the car crashes, and Chrissie is thrown into a field out of sight. When Hoyt arrives, he kills the biker and makes them put her body in his car. Hoyt then forces the group in as well, and calls for Uncle Monty to tow the jeep, which Chrissie is hiding in.

Hoyt drives them to the Hewitt house where he has Thomas butcher the biker's body. He then holds Eric, Dean, and Bailey captive. When Monty brings the wrecked car to the house, Chrissie runs back to the highway and flags down Holden, the biker's boyfriend, and they return to the house together. At the house, Hoyt tortures Dean after finding out that he was going to forgo the Vietnam War draft. When Hoyt leaves, Eric breaks free from his restraints and gets Dean to safety before sneaking into the house to free Bailey. Bailey escapes in Monty's truck but Thomas stabs her with a meat hook and drags her back to the house. When Dean attempts to run, he is caught in a bear trap, and Hoyt knocks Eric unconscious.

Holden and Chrissie arrive at the house but part ways to search for their friends. While Chrissie finds Dean, Holden takes Hoyt hostage, and orders him to take him to his girlfriend. Hoyt calls out to Thomas for help, and he kills Holden with the chainsaw. Chrissie finds Eric in the basement but is unable to free him, and hides when Thomas returns. Thomas inspects Eric's face before killing him with the chainsaw. He then skins his face and wears it as a mask. Chrissie is about to flee when she hears Bailey's screams, and decides to go back and 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 beats Hoyt before heading off to find Chrissie. Chrissie enters the slaughterhouse, and after noticing that Leatherface has followed her, she grabs a knife and cuts his face, but he overpowers her. Dean intervenes but Leatherface kills him with the chainsaw. Chrissie escapes, hijacks an abandoned car, and drives off. She sees a state trooper and pulled over pedestrian in the distance, but as Chrissie pulls over, Leatherface appears in the backseat and impales her with the chainsaw, causing her to lose control and crash into the trooper and pedestrian. Leatherface exits the car and walks along the road back towards the Hewitt house.

Cast

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,[3] ending with $51,764,406 in total gross.[2]

Home media

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was released on DVD by New Line Home Video on January 16, 2007. This release included both theatrical and unrated versions of the film, as well as a double feature with the first film. EIV would release the film in the UK on February 19 that same year as both a two-disk uncut edition, a single-disk theatrical version, and as a part of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre collection. New Line would re-release the film in 2008 and 2009 before releasing the film on Blu-ray on October 15, 2013. The film had previously been released for the first time on Blu-ray by Ais on July 6, 2010.[4]

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 13% approval rating based on 87 reviews and an average rating of 3.60/10. 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."[5] Metacritic reports a 30 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[6]

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone awarded the film zero stars, calling the film "putridly written, directed and acted", also criticizing the film's obvious plot turns.[7] Nathan Lee from The New York Times panned the film calling it "an invitation to hard-core sadism".[8]

At the 27th Golden Raspberry Awards (2006), the film was nominated for a Worst Prequel or Sequel, but lost to Basic Instinct 2.

Cancelled sequel

In January 2007, Platinum Dunes executives Bradley Fuller and Andrew Form stated that the company would not be producing the third film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot franchise.[9]

References
  1. "THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING (18)". British Board of Film Classification. October 3, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  2. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.com. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  3. "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.
  4. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - Jonathan Liebesman". AllMovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  5. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
  6. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  7. Travers, Peter. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning". Rolling Stone.com. Peter Travers. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  8. Lee, Nathan. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Th The Saga of Leatherface and His Signature Power Tool". New York Times.com. Nathan Lee. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  9. "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.
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