FILM: Texas Chainsaw 3D (18) (From Bridgwater Mercury)

FILM: Texas Chainsaw 3D (18)

4:23pm Friday 18th January 2013 in What's On

Given the notoriety of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, featuring Tobe Hooper’s memorable big screen bogeyman, Leatherface, a cult following was guaranteed.

Despite the many prequels, sequels and remakes, the original film, which fell foul of British censors and was banned for over 20 years, is still a classic of the horror canon.

Director John Luessenhop tries to reinvigorate the seventh instalment in the franchise, which begins directly after the events of the original, and is set in the land of sun-kissed cotton fields, in-bred psychopaths and grinning vigilantes.

Sheriff Hooper (Thom Barry) races to the Sawyer farmhouse where hulking Jed Sawyer has run amok with his beloved chainsaw.
A tense stand-off spirals out of control when Burt Hartman (Paul Rae) and his gun-toting posse arrive at the scene and torch the house with the family still inside.

Gavin Miller (David Born) and his wife Arlene (Sue Rock) steal the last surviving Sawyer baby from the farm and claim the child as their own.
Two decades later, Heather (Alexandra Daddario) discovers the truth about her adoption when she inherits a mansion from a grandmother she never knew existed.

Heather then heads to her home town of Texas with boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz), best friend Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Nikki’s current squeeze, Carl (Keram Malicki-Sanchez) in tow . . . despite warnings from Arlene.
En route, they pick up a hunky hitchhiker called Darryl (Shaun Sipos) and arrive in Newt, population 2,306, full of expectation.

Alas, the out-of-towners unwittingly stumble into a bloody battle for survival against hulking Leatherface (Dan Yeager), who lives in the basement of Heather’s new home.

Texas Chainsaw 3D attempts to humanise Leatherface at the expense of developing the other characters and sows the seeds for further sequels.