The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

New Line Cinema and Michael Bay productions present

Starring: Jessica Biel Eric Balfour R. Lee Ermey

Directed by: Marcus Nispel

Rating:****

Plot: Five teens on a joyful ride to Dallas to see a concert pick up a hitch hiker. Bad idea. Things go from bad to worse and than worse to holly fucking shit!!! Once the teens stop at an old mill and they find a guy named "Leather face" chasing them around with a chainsaw. Chainsaw action ensues.

Acting: What makes a movie scary? Is it things popping out of corners? No not really, sure girls like that stuff because they like to get scared. But a movie which really scares you has great set up and great acting to help all that set up. This movie really never has a calm place in it. When we start off were in the teen's van and then things quickly get rolling. Now I have not seen Jessica Biel in anything before. She plays Erin a sweet low down girl with a once shaky past. I don't know how she did it but her down to earth reality acting really got to me. When the chainsaw starts roaring she seems actually be really scared and it seems like pure terror. Also the poor girl had to go through several scenes in which she was either soaking wet or screaming non stop or covered in blood. So coming out of this movie I simply love Jessica Biel now. The rest of the cast was very strong. I have never really seen anyone else in the group of teens, which is better. Horror works better when you don't know the actors. So don't look past that unknown cast, they did a brilliant job of being so real, they acted like real teens would act like in a sictuation like that, they acted stupid. The one performance which stood out strongly was by R. Lee Ermey who played Sheriff Hoyt, who plays a pretty nasty Sheriff who does not care for out of towners. He is so good at just yelling I know I'd piss my pants if I had to face off with him. Just to make sure he played the drill sargent in Full Metal Jacket and also hosts the History Channel's mail call.

Directing/Writing: Pacing, it is all about pacing and a little bit of atmosphere. This movie had both locked down hard. This is seriously the scariest movie of the year and if you really don't like gore, do not see this movie because you'll have a hard time. Now style has a little to with all of this. The movie starts off with this eerie police video of the after math of the chainsaw murders. Some scenes in this film just stick with me like this one scene where Biel is chased by Leather Face and sunlight pierces through thick trees. Nicely done. Now I think this movie has the greatest pacing in a horror film since Alien, my only compliant is I would have enjoyed less gore I mean wow I couldn't believe I even got effected by the gore in this movie.

Overall: See this movie with someone you can hold because otherwise you might hurt yourself. Scary shit I mean I never want to be chased by a guy with a chainsaw, especially if his name is Leather Face, yikes.