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DVD Review: TCM: The Beginning
By Dave Dreher

Jan 14, 2007, 16:21

*SPOILERS ALERT - -PROCEED WITH CAUTION

My problem with TCM: The Beginning lies not with the acting nor the effects nor the production values but with the fact that this is just a film that never needed to be made.  It exploits the franchise to a point of being silly.  Do we really need the backstory on why Leatherface is a wacked out maniac?  Do we really?  No, we don’t.  Actually fo me knowing his story just makes me sad.  Nothing fun about watching a child be born onto a dirty factory floor and then left for dead in a dumpster.  We knew he had a fucked up childhood.  He chases people around with a chainsaw wearing someone else’s face for a mask I mean, c’mon.

As I watched the opening moments of this film I found myself wondering how we have ended up at this point.  How has the genre evolved to a point that this film needed to be made.  It is commercialism plain and simple.  The remake made good green so they had to, just had to make another one.  Can’t just leave well enough alone.

Fortunately this film has one saving grace and the producers of this film should thank god for the fact that R. Lee Ermy agreed to be in this project.  He is amazing.  He is the reason to watch this film.  He plays Sheriff Hoyt to disturbing perfection.  As the head of the family he is commanding as the character as well as bringing some much needed professionalism to the cast.

Once we get through the horrible opening moments of the film it does get a little better.  The bad news is from about the 12 minute mark it is pretty much just the original remake (isn’t it strange that I can use a phrase like original remake) done over again.  Group of young kids on their way somewhere find themselves the guests of Sheriff Hoyt and his family of wack jobs.  They get beat, they bleed, they attempt to escape, they get caught again and get beat some more.  Yawn!

At some point Leatherface grabs his chainsaw and the flesh and bone and blood fly.  Nothing and I do mean nothing original.

The strange thing is that the franchise does reinvent itself a bit by bringing the genre a new horror icon in Sheriff Hoyt.  The films to this point have pretty much been about Leatherface but in this one you find out that Hoyt is the man who controls Leatherface and there fore the one to be more feared.  

Fans of the franchise will feel compelled to pick this up and probably should.  Just don’t expect any great new revelations.  If you have not seen a TCM movie, don’t start here it is not a fair representation of what Tobe Hopper and clan had in mind some 30 years ago.

The saw may be family but this film is kind of like that uncle that no one talks about at the reunion.

Here are all the disc specs and official synopsis from New Line:

For more than 30 years, cinema’s most depraved maniac Leatherface, along with his sadistic family, have been terrorizing audiences worldwide. See how it all began with a haunting journey into the gruesome childhood of Thomas Hewitt and his transformation into Leatherface as the hit prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning arrives on DVD on January 16, 2007, from New Line Home Entertainment. Born under the most horrific of conditions, an abandoned baby is found and taken in by the demented Hewitt family. As he grows under their morbid nurturing, the boy develops a ravenous appetite for chainsaws and torture – which is unfortunate for four teens who are captured and brought to the Hewitt’s secluded house of horrors. There, the teenagers must fight to survive as Thomas’ murderous desires are unleashed, and Leatherface is born.

Directed by Jonathan Liebesmen (Darkness Falls, Rings), the film stars Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious, Annapolis), R. Lee Ermey (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Se7en), Taylor Handley (TV’s The OC, TV’s CSI), Diora Baird (Accepted, Wedding Crashers) and Matthew Bomer (Flightplan, TV’s Tru Calling). Available in both unrated and R-rated versions, the DVD features terrifying extras including deleted/extended scenes, audio commentary from Liebesmen and a bloodcurdling behind-the-scenes documentary. The DVD will be available at $28.98 SRP, and the order due date is December 12, 2006.
The year is 1969. On one last fling before leaving to serve in the Vietnam War, two brothers, Dean (Handley) and Eric (Bomer), embark on a road trip across Texas with their girlfriends, Chrissie (Brewster) and Bailey (Baird). After their jeep crashes on a deserted highway, the sadistic Sheriff Hoyt (Ermey) mysteriously arrives on the scene. Chrissie hides in the nearby brush as she helplessly watches the sheriff abduct her three friends. Taking them to his secluded house of horrors, Hoyt introduces his new captives to the deranged Hewitt family and their gruesome son, Thomas/Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), who has a ravenous appetite for chainsaws and torture. Chrissie becomes an eyewitness to the gory carnage inflicted by Leatherface upon her friends and quickly realizes that she is their only hope of survival.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*


• Deleted/extended scenes
• Audio commentary with director Jonathan Liebesman and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form
• Deleted scenes commentary with director Jonathan Liebesman and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form
• “Down to the Bone” behind-the-scenes documentary
• Theatrical trailer
• 16x9 widescreen (1.85:1) version of the film
• English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS 6.1, and EnglishStereo Surround 2.0
• English & Spanish subtitles
• Closed captions
• Animated menus

*DVD special features subject to change.

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