So, what does Texas Chainsaw 3D try to do to challenge this perception of modern horror? Well, nothing really. It's pretty much a 'paint-by-numbers' horror film with a much forced twist at the end.
Texas Chainsaw 3D is claiming to be the 'true' sequel to the 1974 horror classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. TC3D picks up exactly where the 1974 film left off and sees Sheriff Hooper (Thom Barry) responding to the Sawyer household where Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) has just escaped. After a botched up attempt at the Sawyers handing over Leatherface (Dan Yeager), the Sawyer household is burnt down with all the family inside... except a single surviving baby. That baby grows up to be Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) who is unaware of her family's dark past. When she is informed that her Grandmother has died and left her house with all it's possessions to her, Heather takes a road trip with her jock boyfriend, Ryan (Trey Songz), her slutty best friend, Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and her new Chef boyfriend, Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez). On the way to Texas, in true Texas Chainsaw tradition, they pick up a wandering hitchhiker, Darryl (Shaun Sipos) who is not all that he seems. After managing to annoy the town Mayor, Burt Hartman (Paul Rae) and attract the attention of the young attractive Policeman, Carl (Scott Eastwood), Heather and her friends decide to bed down for the night in her new house, because it looks so cool. What they don't realise is that Leatherface also survived the fire back in 1974 and is living in the basement of the house.
I'm not sure where to start with my review of Texas Chainsaw 3D to be honest. It's not because I found it to be completely terrible, but more that its a horror film, that knows it's a horror film, and doesn't do anything to try and attempt a fresh spin on the genre. The opening of the film, which sees the 1974 film converted into 3D, is actually pretty special (especially for horror fans) and then the continuation of what happens after the end of the 1974 film is also quite interesting. While the Director, John Lussenhop and writers, Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan and Kirsten Elms (it's always a bad sign when there are three writers!) could have plumped for a bit more tension between the Sawyer family and the rest of the town, when they were demanding for Leatherface to be handed over, it was still a pretty sweet scene.
However, as you can probably guess, Texas Chainsaw 3D is not all a bed of roses and suffers from many common flaws that modern day horror films fall for. The first off is the characters themselves... they are all pretty flat and two-dimensional (see what I did there?!) The only real stand-out is Heather (which is good, considering she is the main protagonist) and is given her chance to stand-out properly from the rest of the crowd in the film's third act. But the rest of them are as paper cut-out characters 101 as you can get. The jock boyfriend, Ryan is simply there to pull in the female crowd (he spends a lot of his screen time topless) and to try and be the strong one for Heather to rely on. However, we find out that he has cheated on Heather with her slutty best friend, Nikki - a plot line that could have been interesting, but instead the writers decide to completely by-pass with two fleeting scenes which show how much of a cheating scum-bag he really is. But what's the biggest annoyance about the whole cheating sub-plot is that Heather has no reaction to it, not a single ounce of her is bothered by the fact that her boyfriend and best friend and sleeping together. Then, there's Kenny, who likes to cook. That's about it for him, we don't find out anything else considering he is the least developed character and therefore the first one to die.
It's not just the characters that are the only flaw in the film. The plot points that lead up to the main twist in the story, at the end of the film, all seem rather brushed over in favour of ramming more gore down the audience's throat. Now, I'm all for a big chase scene followed by an equally good payoff, but when the film's entire third act twist relies on the struggles that Heather has faced in order to corrupt her, points like her cheating boyfriend, her allegiance to the Sawyer Family and her torture by the Mayor and the towns people really needed to be given time to be properly developed. Instead, we don't see one single reaction from Heather or an act vicious enough from the Mayor or the townspeople that warrants for Heather's corruption. It all just seems rather forced, and when Sheriff Hooper decides to let Leatherface go free at the end of the film, it just raises all sorts of questions that the film fails to answer.
I hope I haven't given too much away about the 'twist' (as easy as it is to guess while watching the film), because it's the best thing that Texas Chainsaw 3D has going for it. The one thing that attempts to break Texas Chainsaw 3D from being a generic, Direct-to-DVD horror film. While the fact that the film relies heavily on horror conventions isn't completely detrimental - I still had a blast watching it - I just couldn't help but feel like this film could have been so much more.
As for the 3D? For a film that had a fairly modest budget of $20million, it was used pretty well. Most of the time, it was used as an immersive tool, giving the film great depth and really bringing you into the world of Texas. However, I really enjoyed the 'money shot' moments, like when Heather stupidly decides to hide in the only open coffin to hide from Leatherface and his chainsaw comes through the lid AT THE AUDIENCE or when Leatherface throws his chainsaw AT THE AUDIENCE. Sure, it's a bit of a drag that as an audience you don't have the choice to view this film in 3D, but I must admit that it was used well and at no point did the film look flat (it's just a shame that the characters and plot were so flat - see what I did there?!)
So, if you are a horror fan - or more importantly, a Texas Chain Saw Massacre fan - then Texas Chainsaw 3D is a pretty good time. Don't expect anything as gritty as the original 1974 film, but do expect just as shallow characters doing just as stupid things.
Is horror dead? There's still a little bit of life in this old chainsaw yet.
**½ / *****
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