4.03.2004
the texas chainsaw massacre (for ed)
since i haven't been able to talk anyone into seeing the dawn of the dead remake yet, i might as well post a bit about the texas chainsaw massacre remake. i found it a bit better than i thought it'd be, unlike ed, who was pretty much ready to throw down after watching it.
the thing to keep in mind is that it's a hollywood horror flick. so i went into it treating it as such. and i thought it had a few decent little tricks in it (the camera-view-through-the-hole-in-the-head scene was gross out fun), and the acting-- while far from good-- wasn't so distractingly bad as to take away from anything. while it's no where near as interesting as the original (of course), one decent addition was that the victims this time around weren't as unforgivingly stupid-- it wisely steered clear of the unplausible "don't-go-in-there" trappings that make so many dumb horror movies that much dumber.
still, beyond a few decent jolts, it's pretty tame nonsense. predictably, the new director envisions the "family" in a far more mundane sort of way, resorting to the usual bag of white-trash class-isms (and when it comes to playing out your dormant xenophobic fantasies, there's no victim like poor white folk to ensure you won't get called on your shit with it) as well as some embarrassing "freaky" stuff (the shot of leatherface sewing was a nice, unintentional john waters moment). the casting of that goofy drill seargent from full metal jacket certainly didn't help, proving once again that you should never underestimate the baggage that comes along with recognition... i could go on and on...
the biggest problem, i think, is that it doesn't sound like the original. there's a million weirdo morsels that make the original fucked up, but at the top of that list would have to be the increasing elimination of language. by the end of the 70's version, almost all dialogue has been reduced to ecstatic screams and mumblings (insert paul mc carthy reference here). instead, it's just the usual carnival of crap you've seen before.
but it was still sorta fun. i liked it better than adaptation, which i saw the same night (and thought was really annoying). i dunno. whatever. here's a cool pic from the original...
the thing to keep in mind is that it's a hollywood horror flick. so i went into it treating it as such. and i thought it had a few decent little tricks in it (the camera-view-through-the-hole-in-the-head scene was gross out fun), and the acting-- while far from good-- wasn't so distractingly bad as to take away from anything. while it's no where near as interesting as the original (of course), one decent addition was that the victims this time around weren't as unforgivingly stupid-- it wisely steered clear of the unplausible "don't-go-in-there" trappings that make so many dumb horror movies that much dumber.
still, beyond a few decent jolts, it's pretty tame nonsense. predictably, the new director envisions the "family" in a far more mundane sort of way, resorting to the usual bag of white-trash class-isms (and when it comes to playing out your dormant xenophobic fantasies, there's no victim like poor white folk to ensure you won't get called on your shit with it) as well as some embarrassing "freaky" stuff (the shot of leatherface sewing was a nice, unintentional john waters moment). the casting of that goofy drill seargent from full metal jacket certainly didn't help, proving once again that you should never underestimate the baggage that comes along with recognition... i could go on and on...
the biggest problem, i think, is that it doesn't sound like the original. there's a million weirdo morsels that make the original fucked up, but at the top of that list would have to be the increasing elimination of language. by the end of the 70's version, almost all dialogue has been reduced to ecstatic screams and mumblings (insert paul mc carthy reference here). instead, it's just the usual carnival of crap you've seen before.
but it was still sorta fun. i liked it better than adaptation, which i saw the same night (and thought was really annoying). i dunno. whatever. here's a cool pic from the original...
