After the opening credits TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D picks up where the 1974 film left off and has a bunch of the townsfolk burn the Sawyer house to the ground. The odd thing about this scene for all the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fans out there is the sudden addition of all the Sawyer family members inside the house? Continuity error for sure but I had fun with it in a “exploitation film” kinda way. Speaking of continuity errors, the movie's main character was born in 1974 and is obviously twenty-something in 2012 where our story takes place? This definitely has to be one of the strangest “blunders” in a theatrical movie I've seen in a long time. What were the powers-at-be thinking? How can a major studio like Lionsgate let something like this slide? This is something I'd expect out of a cheep cash-in exploitation movie! Wait. Oh... I get it.
Somewhere in Texas 20 years after the burning down of the Sawyer house killing everyone inside, a young woman named Heather receives an inheritance from a grandmother she never knew she had. To learn more about this inheritance business Heather and her friends take a road trip to her late grandmothers estate only to find out that Heather is now the proud owner of a mansion. Unbeknownst to Heather and her friends that the lone survivor of the Sawyer house raid, Leatherface lurks in the basement below.
What happens next is your typical paint-by-numbers who is Leatherface going to kill next slasher movie fare; however, the atmosphere was quite creepy and the gore was good and not overly nasty.
In the films final act it takes this horror revisionist left-turn at who the “real” bad guys are and while it didn't ruin the movie for me it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Monsters should die in slasher films! Period!
In closing TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D is a poor cash-in of the original film. My opinion may change but as of now despite all the problems with this new movie, I still prefer it over the polished remake and prequel from Platinum Dunes.
Die hard fans of the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (which I am not) will hate on this for sure but I'll go ahead and recommend TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D to horror movie fans, especially exploitation film fans.
