Texas Chainsaw 3D DVD Review

Once upon a time the use of 3D in a horror film suggested a degree of novelty.  Those days however are long gone and now when used the process usually produces little more than substandard, clichéd shocks.  Which raises the question why director John Luessenhop and the makers of Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) saw the need to use the gimmick?  A 'sequel' of sorts to the cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), the film starts promisingly before degenerating into a standard gorefest of the kind which audiences are coming to expect from contemporary horror cinema.

 Heather (Alexandra Daddario) is bequeathed a house by her dead grandmother whom, until recently, she didn’t even know existed.  With boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz) and best friends Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez), she sets out for rural Texas in order to claim her inheritance.  On arrival the group discover what initially appears to be a beautiful mansion, however, unknown to them, the house harbours a dark secret which is about to reveal itself with murderous results.

Where exactly does Texas Chainsaw 3D falter?  After cleverly splicing footage of the original film’s victims over the opening credits, we are regaled with an imagining of the immediate aftermath of that said film’s grisly climax.  So far so good. Up to this point the premise is promising and in fact surprisingly imaginative considering the familiarity of Tobe Hooper’s version.  Even when the action is brought up to date there are enough knowing winks to the past that fans of the series will allow themselves a wry smile as they recognise the all-American kids in their camper van, and the unexpected addition of a suspicious looking hitchhiker.

Unfortunately once the unsuspecting twenty-somethings arrive at grandma’s house things start to unravel, with the film losing the secret ingredient which made the original terrifying - namely the power of suggestion.  In 1974, though it was clear what Leatherface and his family of inbred yokels were up to, the real horror all happened offscreen - at no point did the viewer see blade actually touch flesh.  Now you see it not only touch but gouge, mash, tear and mutilate bone and tissue is full gory glory.  That the demise of the victims is also well signposted in modern horror film fashion, means those wearing white, smoking pot or partaking in premarital sex are unlikely to make it as far as a sequel.

Visually stunning, the plantation style mansion Heather inherits from granny is, on the surface, beautiful, only serving to make the horrors it hides within its walls all the more distressing when revealed.  This time however the story is not restricted to the confines of the family homestead.  Some of the best sequences take place amongst the garish surroundings of a local funfair, whilst the inevitably gore-soaked climax happens within the bloody interior of an abattoir - a setting which goes some way to explain why Leatherface and his family became what they did.

The cast are standard fodder for this kind of film.  Not much is required of Daddario, Songz, Raymonde and Malicki-Sánchez other than to run around screaming like headless chickens whilst shouting obscenities with unrestrained enthusiasm when faced threat of any kind.  The only others, apart from Leatherface himself, consist of the usual ineffectual police men and meathead town officials - roles which need little ability other than to intermittently pull hostile and suspicious faces.  As for Dan Yeager in the said role of the masked anti-hero, it’s hard to decipher anything under his grotesque features other than that he manages a reasonably convincing line in guttural grunts.

Texas Chainsaw 3D ends on an ambiguous note, as noncommittal to the fate of its surviving characters as it is to the future of the series.

★★½☆☆

Cleaver Patterson

Rating:18
DVD / BD Release Date: 27th May 2013 (UK)
Directed By: John Luessenhop
Cast:  Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde,Scott Eastwood, Tania Raymonde, Trey Songz

Buy Texas Chainsaw 3D: DVD / Blu-ray / Blu-ray 3D