Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2003 | 08:58
'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' preview
in brighter news, i saw the texas chainsaw massacre remake. at least they're smart enough to have john laroquette narrate it, as he did with the first one. they also changed enough of the movie that i won't be comparing the two. i mean, i'm not pissed off that they messed up the spirit of the original--i think they stuck to that relatively well. still, despite the gore and the jumps and the seriously messed up nature about it, i felt something was missing. maybe because the kids were too pretty. maybe because everything looked too perfect, too placed. maybe because the lead girl's nipples didn't stand up when she was in the meat locker. maybe because it lacked the unintentional humour and crazy independent fimmaking quirks. the original was much scarier because you didn't know what was coming, and because what you do see is very unsettling. this new one has a good deal of blood while the original just gives the impression of blood. the impression of being terribly gory, when in fact there isn't much gore at all. the remake showed just a little too much, while pretending it would hide things. also, they took out the creepiest facet of the original, which i won't go into here. worse, the motivation for the family is even less present. i wish they'd been developed more.
despite my gripes, it wasn't a bad movie, and i think i'd be willing to see it again. i think also it might be fun to get busy in the back of the theatre while it plays. but that's just me.
