The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) – The Remake That Changed Horror
Does anyone else celebrate Thanksgiving by watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies? I always feel drawn to the franchise around the time of that holiday. You see, while they’re not set on Thanksgiving or even considered strictly a turkey day horror, I always found the original film to be the best and most fitting genre viewing option for the holiday because of its morose subject matter and the importance of family, both on protagonist and antagonist sides of things. Long before Joe Bob hosted it on his Dinners of Death Thanksgiving special, it was almost a comfort watch for me in late November, as odd as that sounds. But last Thanksgiving, my thoughts weren’t on the original or its first few sequels that I’ve covered. I was thinking of the remake from 2003, which I don’t think gets enough credit for what it brough to the table. It stands out as one of the great remakes in horror and also started the huge influx of remakes that is still going strong almost 23 years later.
The Remake Boom at the Turn of the Century
Remakes weren’t new at the turn of the century. The 1980s produced some of the best, including The Thing and The Fly. The 1990s had scattered attempts like Night of the Living Dead (1990) and a shot-for-shot Psycho remake. Others, like The Haunting and House on Haunted Hill, felt more like reimaginings than true remakes.
Initially, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise was set to continue with a fifth installment called TX25 (an anniversary release because Halloween H20 did really well, in spite of Josh Hartnett’s bad haircut), but plans shifted. By 2001, Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes acquired the rights – not for a sequel, but for a remake. While early scripts from original creators Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel never materialized, the final screenplay was penned by Scott Kosar, marking his first major project and setting him up for other successful remakes like The Amityville Horror and The Crazies. Directing duties went to Marcus Nispel, a veteran of nearly 100 music videos making his theatrical debut. While his future output would be halted after the ill-fated Conan remake, the guy also got to do the Friday the 13th remake, which is also top tier, and even a version of Frankenstein a year after this.
A Cast That Elevated the Remake
One of the film’s strongest aspects is its cast. Jessica Biel, known for 7th Heaven, would go on to star in Next and The Illusionist. Jonathan Tucker, who later appeared in Justified and Hostage, delivers a strong performance. R. Lee Ermey steals the show as the cunning and ruthless Sheriff Hoyt, while Erica Leerhsen and Eric Balfour bring depth to the ensemble. This is a movie about people you actually care about.
Plot Changes That Work
The movie changes a decent amount from the original, but what makes it special is that it keeps enough of the story similar while adding on to make it feel fresh and familiar. We have five people traveling across the state of Texas just like in the original, but instead of stopping by a cemetery and picking up a dangerous hitchhiker, we have five friends that are headed to a concert after buying drugs in Mexico and picking up an innocent hitchhiker. The poor girl escaped from where these friends will end up and she takes her own life in their van.
The complete change from the unease caused by an intruder who hurts one of the group to their car becoming a crime scene is wild. It’s an especially good move to take viewers of the original off their axis. This is a massive change and it’s so early that it makes the rest of the movie anyone’s guess as to what’s coming.
The group stops off at a gas station for help and are told to speak with the sheriff, but they split up. Three of them stay at a mill to meet with the officer while Erin (Biel) and Kemper (Balfour) go to the house to search for him directly. Kemper is killed similarly to the first death in the original movie when Leatherface smashes him with a hammer, and they do such a good job making the house (and the whole movie) look grimy and disgusting.
Erin heads back to the mill but can’t find Kemper, so her and Andy (Mike Vogel) go back to the house to find him. What they find is Leatherface out in the open. For the most part, the original film kills off people one at a time and Leatherface, while still a big dude, isn’t a behemoth that looks like he could break through walls and maybe not need a chainsaw to kill you. Leatherface here is played by Andrew Bryniarski, who wasn’t unknown, but we didn’t know he had this in him. Looking back at his earlier stuff is kind of funny, with his portrayal as Butterfinger in Hudson Hawk or Zangief in the Street Fighter movie. He’s big, yes, but played for comic relief, while here he runs at people like they are playing for keeps. His physicality and brutality make for something special in a slasher villain and he is probably the best to play the character besides original actor Gunnar Hansen.
He chases Erin and Andy around the property before slicing off Andy’s leg and taking him downstairs. It’s brutal and another change for the good. The original movie is known for the dichotomy of not showing any real gore but also being one of the most brutal movies in history. It tricks your mind into believing you saw something gruesome. but it’s just what your brain knows what you should be seeing. This movie doesn’t offer the same exchange rate. It’s incredibly gory. Andy is impaled on a meat hook, but we don’t see the real hardship until later on. It feels so much colder and more brutal than what we had seen already.
Back at the mill, we see why R Lee Ermey was the right choice for this in a shockingly tense scene that doesn’t involve Leatherface. It should be said though that the character for Leatherface is more of a tool than a straight-up villain whereas Sheriff Hoyt is a damn criminal mastermind. He is ruthless, smart, and wants to put these kids through absolute hell before letting them die. He takes the body of the hitchhiker just fine, but when he finds weed in the car, it sends him over the edge. He treats them like hardened criminals and it’s only when he makes Morgan (Tucker) put a gun in his mouth do you realize that he’s that bad. Erin and Pepper (Leerhsen) are chased by Leatherface and in one of the best shots of the movie, Erin watches Pepper die only to see Leatherface turn around wearing Erin’s boyfriends face. The poor girl can’t win, as she looks to find help but is met by an extension of the family, something done better here than in House of 1000 Corpses the same year.
After Erin is captured, she ends up in the basement, where she sees Andy again. For all of Sally Hardesty’s hardships that she had to endure in the original film, she didn’t have to kill any of her friends to set them free from their pain. It’s a rough scene, even if it is a little in your face with the Christ forgiveness allegory when Erin plunges the knife into Andy, but its done well with the set up that she can’t save him physically, only from further indignity and torture at the hands of the family. Erin also tries to save Morgan, but this too is fruitless.
Chases, Showdowns, and Horror That Sticks
The climactic chase scene feels the most in line with the original movie. It’s shot great, with the house and stalker as imposing things standing out in the darkness and when Morgan dies, the chase is a reinterpretation of the original movie. Instead of Sally ending up back at the house, which is in a sense a slaughterhouse, Erin ends up at an ACTUAL slaughterhouse, where she engages in a battle of wits in a frightening game of hide and seek. She ends up chopping off his arm before killing Hoyt in one of the most satisfying villain deaths of the 2000s and then the movie keeps one of the most important aspects alive with one final jump scare. Showing us that Leatherface is still out there.
Legacy of the 2003 Remake
For better or worse, the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake changed the game for horror remakes. It influenced successful later remakes like Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead, and set the tone for Platinum Dunes’ early 2000s horror wave. Today, it still holds up as a thrilling, brutal, and intelligent reinterpretation of a classic.
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