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. Up to this point the premise is promising and in fact surprisingly imaginative considering how well known Tobe Hooper’s version is. So, where exactly does director John Luessenhop’s 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. Unknown to them however, the house harbours a dark and long kept secret, which is about to break loose with murderous results. On arrival the group discover what initially appears to be a beautiful mansion. Taking her boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz) and best friends Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez), she sets out for rural Texas in order to find out what she has been bequeathed. Heather (Alexandra Daddario) inherits some property from a dead grandmother whom, until recently, she didn’t even know existed. Unfortunately those days are long past with the process now used in horror films to produce little more than substandard cliché shocks, beggaring the question why Texas Chainsaw 3D(2013) saw fit to draw attention to it in its title, if indeed use the gimmick at all? A ‘sequel’ of sorts to the cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), this new instalment in the franchise starts promisingly but soon degenerates into the standard gorefest audiences are coming to expect from contemporary horror cinema. There was a time when the inclusion of 3D in a film title suggested a degree of novel originality.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |