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Compiled by: Jack Foley
THE merits of remaking Tobe Hooper’s horror classic is one
which has clearly continued to divide opinion in America, even
now that the film has been released.
Reaction seemed to be clearly divided between love and hate,
with the majority of the better notices appearing in horror specialist
publications, while the really scathing notices being reserved
for the bigger names.
That said, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that ‘this
particular reconceptualization actually does an impressive job
of capturing the nasty dread of the original’, while the
Chicago Tribune referred to it as ‘an effectively
scary slasher film’.
But Entertainment Weekly dismissed it as ‘a remake
that turns every kill into an opportunity for overkill’,
while the New York Times wrote that ‘rather than exhilaration,
this bilious film offers only entrapment and despair. It's about
as much fun as sitting in on an autopsy’.
The Houston Chronicle went one worse, stating that ‘it's
just as guilty as Blair Witch 2 for smothering bare-bones fright
with ladles of gore’.
Horror.com, meanwhile, opined that ‘while the remake
is a faithful up to a point and does utilize some of the tried
and true from the original, there is still plenty of fun for those
us of us who've practically memorized every stitch in Leatherface's
mask’.
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And Reelviews stated that ‘there's nothing extraordinary
or groundbreaking here, but the film delivers with enough consistency
to warrant a qualified recommendation for those seeking a few
extra scares at this time of the year’.
USA Today referred to it as ‘junky and disposable
but fast most of the time’, while Citysearch concluded
that ‘there are so many jump-out- of-your-seat surprises
that it's bound to be embarrassing for a number of moviegoers’.
Continuing the mixed reaction, is the Los Angeles Times,
which found that ‘the remake moves faster and sounds louder,
but comes off as callous rather than creepy’, while Arizona
Republic concluded that ‘this bloody, exploitative mess
is the cinematic equivalent of a dumpster fire - stinky but insignificant’.
Juicy Cerebellum, meanwhile, urged ‘go you skeptics
and be shocked all over again. This remake does not take a thing
away from the original. It's a movie worthy of the name, The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre’.
The Christian Science Monitor was a little more restrained,
however, stating that it is ‘a lot more violent and a tad
less creepy than the 1974 original, the much-changed remake delivers
enough gory, belligerent mayhem to keep horror fans screaming’.
We’re going to give the final word, however, to Efilmcritic.com,
which found the remake to be ‘a bold, boisterous, bloody
good time - and any old-school Horror Freak able to get over the
"How dare they?!?" attitude should absolutely find a
lot to enjoy here’.
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