LUCIDMEDIA

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, New Line Cinema)

A surprisingly faithful, yet wholly unnecessary remake of Tobe Hooper’s classic faux neo-snuff film finds a group of five young people on their way home from Mexico along the backroads of Texas in the 70s, who end up crossing paths with a family of cannibals. I admire director Marcus Nispel for not pulling any punches with the film’s gruesome violence and keeping an authentic Texas setting and with a vintage 70s feel, but a couple of things about this new Chainsaw just bother me. One is Andrew Bryniarski as the new Leatherface, whose presence is a little too domineering and obvious, not to mention the new mask which is a little too sophisticated. Second is the filmmakers’ inclusion of Leatherface’s extended, grotesque family, which skips over ridiculous and goes right to sublime as these homicidal slack-jawed yokels completely deflate any sense of foreboding reality. Still though, Nispel nails the tone and obviously has great reverence for the original, even allowing John Larroquette to return to do the narration once again.

The Grudge (2004, Sony)

The Grudge is one of the few American remakes of J-horror that manages to translate well across the Pacific. Why? I don’t know. The Grudge movie I saw was weak tea: you get some "kinda creepy moments" and the impression that the filmmakers were working hard to do something different, but it just never clicks with me as an audience member. Although the story is split into three different, yet interlocking, stories with several characters, I never found myself caring much about any of it. The performances are stilted, and, while we get an explanation about how “the Grudge”—the angry dispossessed spirit that haunts a Tokyo home—came to be, it’s never related why the creepy, long-haired girl ghost and the bizarre meowing cat boy are going around eliminating everybody that comes in contact with the house. One thing I’ll say about The Grudge is that it at least tries to bridge the cultures and address the fact that these are American characters in Japan. Ultimately though, the movie doesn’t jump out at you enough; it’s creepy, but it’s never scary.

Saw (2004, Lions Gate Films)

Before becoming “Henry Gale”, blight to the castaways on the popular TV show Lost, Michael Emerson was the red herring at the center of the first Saw. Director James Wan hits the ground running as we meet Adam (Leigh Whannell, who also wrote the screenplay) and Lawrence (Cary Elwes), two men who seemingly have nothing in common except the fact that they’re the chained-up victims of the Jigsaw Killer; whose elaborate death traps are meant to teach valuable life lessons. Like any good horror movie, the low budget forces Wan to get dirty and original, and in the glut of the PG-13 horror rush, Saw was appropriately grisly, living up to Jigsaw’s promise: “Oh yes...there will be blood.” The simple concept and jilted narrative proved to make for a compelling mix that was pliable enough to allow for the inevitable sequel.

Saw II (2005, Lions Gate Films)

One year later, Darren Lynn Boussman took over from James Wan to continue the saga of Jigsaw, but there are returning faces with Dina Myer’s detective, Shawnee Smith’s Amanda and Tobin Bell as the Man himself. Also returning is Leigh Whannell, but only as the film’s screenwriter. Jigsaw sets up a booby-trapped house filled with horrible goodies to test the survival instincts of a group of young punks, all for the seeming torment of Donnie Wahlberg’s Detective Matthews. Saw II is definitely a little more focused as Boussman avoids some of the jarring camera work Wan liked to use, but aesthetics aside, I wouldn’t elevate one Saw above the other. A bump in budget also sweetens the deal, but the filmmakers of the Saw movies know that if they don’t deliver something new and cool, they’ll turn off the fans. If they play their cards right, the makers of the films could be kept busy well beyond part three.