The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) – Review

Opening with some quick exposition, this remake goes a bit deeper into some immediate exploration of events, offering some “found film footage” and evidence tapes of an event at the Hewitt residence where multiple victims were found. It paints a horrendous picture of the events dubbed ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’

Enter the flashback to the beginning of our tale, Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes and a hot August 1973 day setting. As five friends bomb along a Texan highway on their road trip, Pepper (Leerhsen) marvels how she just met Andy (Vogel) 19 hours ago, and now she can’t stop making out with him. Morgan (Tucker) warns them on the percentages of young people having STDs to cool them off. Kemper (Balfour) drives, having driven his girlfriend Erin (Biel) and the crew down to Mexico for four days of vacationing and partying, before heading back through Texas for a Skynyrd concert.

Then… they almost flatten a wandering woman in the middle of the road, who was slowly stumbling along. Erin quickly hops out to ask her if she is okay. This woman however only can mumble about wanting to get away and to go home. Something seems very off. The group offer her a ride and to take her home.

As she sits crying in the back of the van, the vibe is totally different and fully creepy now. The passenger says something about everyone being dead, and that the van is going the wrong way. She saw something outside, and now she does not want to go back.

This event starts a disastrous set of dominoes falling. Tensions rise almost immediately. Horror hits with a bang. The shrieks and emotions are intense. What does this film have in store for you? Well, if you saw the original then you have a very good idea. The good news is, the female hitchhiker is not the only shift from the original, however this film still remains pretty faithful to its core story.

The minimal cast is pretty good, though the friends are all a bit whiny at times. The thing is, the original’s group was pretty hard to put up with at times, so I guess in some ways this is not a major shift. The brain power is medium as they at times try to think their way out of things, but they are not very successful.

The creep factor is definitely super high, and the violence can be intense with some sleekly shot darkly lit scenes and good backdrops for fleeing danger. If you like crazy slashers with a side of meat, then this throwback remake is a good one. It doesn’t quite hit the creepy highs of the OG, but it is a worthy trip.

I would fulllllly pass on the prequel to this movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. There is not much redeeming there.