It’s Halloween season again. This means that ghouls and maniacs are rampant amongst us. The problem is that these ghouls and maniacs lack substance. The fear and gore factor are present, but they are reduced to mere eye candy. Have Price, Hitchcock, and Carpenter taught us nothing?
First on the chopping block is the prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. This aptly titled movie doesn’t leave much to the imagination, well, neither does the movie. The basic plot here is that Leatherface’s past is shown to us and we get to understand why he became such a crazy skin-wearing and chainsaw-wielding freak.
Allegedly, Leatherface, born Thomas Hewitt, had a skin deformation which rotted away his nose and some of his face, thus making him an easy target for bullies as a child. This and the insane cannibalistic family that he grew up with are the catalysts for his evil demeanor and viscous behavior. The opening credits show him as a child chopping up a stray dog he caught with a bear trap and then rubbing its freshly butchered skin against his face. Let me tell you; there is nothing like wiping dog flesh on your face in the morning. It’s the best part of waking up!
Basically, in order to make this a movie people will want to see, New Line had to think of a way to throw in some good looking teenagers to kill. The movie takes place in 1969, four years prior to the events in the remake. So, the concept here is that two couples are having some quality time together before heading out on the road to drop the boys off, who happen to be brothers, at some military base so they can be deployed to Vietnam. How romantic.
The car full of teens crashes and Leatherface’s uncle, pretending to be a sheriff, takes the group to his house and begins to torture them slowly. The female protagonist is thrown from the vehicle and is not visible to the sheriff. She makes her way to the house and chaos ensues.
The Beginning is nothing more than blood, gore, and an overweight man making pretty masks out of skin. Metaphorically, this movie is nothing but a bunch of random limbs chopped off of different bodies and sewn back together to create some sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a film.
There is no true plot present and to make things worse, it is not even a true story. In fact, it is based on the acts of a serial killer named Ed Gein, the same inspiration for Buffalo Bill and Norman Bates, yet many people still believe this really happened. Apparently, stamping “based on a true story” on a film makes it true. I must have missed that memo.
Final Grade: D-
If someone is killed in a fit of rage they live behind a curse. If someone is killed from confusion due to a movie’s puzzling plot they leave behind $7. The Grudge 2 definitely has its moments of terror and jumpy surprises, but the film lacks a coherent plot.
The film resembles The Ring about halfway through (the ghost’s motives: spread the pain it had to deal with all over and never stop) and becomes hard to follow, which hurts it immensely. Luckily, the film delivers plenty of scenes that are visually and audibly disturbing. One scene in particular that was extremely scary involved an office, three ghosts, and the most terrifying yell I have ever heard. It was scarier than seeing your grandma naked in the bathtub.
The concept for this movie is that Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her role form the original) has been put in a hospital after the ending of the first Grudge and her sister, Aubrey, has flown to Tokyo to bring her back home. The problem is that Karen has this feeling that some crazy Asian woman with obnoxiously long black hair is after her and she just can’t shake it off. Aubrey, desperate to know what has happened to her sister decides to become a modern day Nancy Drew and investigate to her heart’s content.
The problem with The Grudge 2 is that there are three separate stories to follow and this really creates confusion. In the end, it all comes together, but it just feels so choppy. The ending is 100% identical to the original, thus leaving room for another sequel. How innovative.
The jumps are abundant in this film, and the characters, except a nosy boy named Jake, do not go into dark rooms that scream angry Japanese women and death. This is refreshing and helps the film feel a little less cliché.
Sam Raimi, the director of the Spider-Man franchise, is an executive producer on this film. If only he could put in half as much effort on this film as he does on one scene in his Spider-Man films, this movie could have been greatly improved.
What’s also weird is that Amber Tamblyn, who plays Aubrey, was the first character to die in The Ring, another Japanese horror remake. Uh, oh, someone is getting typecast. Better call that manager; you don’t want to end up like Screech and hand out a Sanchez or two, do you?
Final Grade: C+