Texas Chainsaw (2013)
A Movie Review by Dave Randal
Genre: Horror | Mystery | ThrillerCast: Alexandra Daddario, Dan Yeager, Trey Songz, Scott EastwoodDirector: John LuessenhopWriters: Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan, Kristen Elms, Stephen Susco, Tobe Hooper(characters), Kim Henkel(characters)Studios: Twisted Pictures, Nu Image, Millennium Films, Mainline PicturesDistributed by: LionsgateRelease Date: January 4, 2013Plot: A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding killer is part of the reward.
In horror franchises there usually isn't a whole lot of continuity. This is because a lot of horror franchises usually change directors and writers a lot. The studios want to make more money off these cash cow franchises so usually what they do is hire other writers and directors to suck on the utters for a while. Texas Chainsaw is one of those movies.
In this reboot of the famous franchise a young woman named Heather Miller, played by Alexandra Daddario, finds out that she has inherited a huge house in Texas. She decides to go on a road trip with her boyfriend Ryan, played by Trey Songz, and two of her other friends. Little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding maniac killer is also part of the reward.
I'm going to go right into the thing that bothered me the most about this movie. The year that this takes place is very confusing. The movie starts out right at the conclusion of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) movie. It is suppose to be a direct sequel ignoring the other five movies in the franchise. After the opening scene the movie jumps forward in time where we meet Heather. How far ahead does it jump? I had no idea. At first I figured it was the early '90s due to the fact that the original movie was suppose to have taken place in 1973. Instead it gets pretty obvious that this movie takes place in modern day which makes absolutely no sense. They could have easily set it in the early '90s, but instead they wanted to have a pointless scene with an iPhone. I guess Apple product placement money was too good to pass up even if it does screw up your timeline. Over indulgent Hollywood greed strikes again!
Now that we are past the confusion of what year this movie is suppose to take place I'll just say what I thought of the movie as a whole. It wasn't necessarily a good movie, but there were a lot of things in it that I liked. The beginning is very slow and weak. The second half of the movie really starts to amp it up though and it kind of exceeded my expectations to a certain extent. I really liked where they went with the movie at the end and thought it was a pretty decent direction. The ending is nothing we haven't seen before, but I thought it was pulled off pretty well for an otherwise mediocre movie. I was really afraid it would be like a lot of horror B-Movies and have an all of a sudden anti-climatic ending.
The actors in the movie are alright, but none of them really stand out. The way they act pretty much fits the movie. Compared to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) remake and it's prequel this movie doesn't come off as quite so serious. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but this movie just wasn't very stylized. The way this movie was filmed reminded me a lot of the Final Destination movie franchise although it didn't have any tongue-in-cheek comedy like those had. Due to this the actors are playing pretty basic characters. I know that is common in horror movies, but I think it is very apparent in this movie. There is a tinge of character development with the character of Heather, but it is pretty standard. Famous R&B singer Trey Songz as her boyfriend Ryan does alright in the movie although I'd like to see him in a more serious movie in the future so that I can really see if he is any good. Usually when musicians get into acting it is more miss than hit.
To sum up what I thought of the movie I'd say it was decent, but it is by no means a great film. I might be giving this a bit of a higher rating than it actually deserves, but I really liked where it went at the end even if it wasn't all that original. The movie overall is pretty mediocre although it could have been a lot worse.
Dave Randal's Rating-
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Dave Randal's Star Rating- ★★★½(3½) out of ★★★★★(5)
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