Film Review: LEATHERFACE (2017)

The latest prequel/remake/reboot to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre arrives with the origins of our favorite killer Leatherface (2017) which strives to tell the story on how Leatherfae became the infamous killer we now know and loathe.  Verna (Lilli Taylor) has been taking care of her boys for a long time until one day they end up killing Sheriff Hal Hartman’s (Stephen Dorff) daughter.  As punishment, he takes Verna’s youngest boy away from her and places him in a halfway house. 

Years later, Verna is still trying to get custody of her boy when a break out at the halfway house leaves several people dead and nurse Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse) prisoner to three of the children from the halfway house.  Now Lizzy must find a way to stay calm as she finds herself in the middle of a murder spree and a deranged Sheriff will stop at nothing to recapture the children at any costs.

Written by Seth M. Sherwood and directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julian Maury this is a violent and unforgiving film in the same vein as the latter Chainsaw films.  The film pays homage to the legacy of the original film (while ignoring most of the previous film Texas Chainsaw 3-D) which is to be expected from Bustillo and Maury who crafter the film Inside (2007).

Keeping the true identity of who ultimately becomes Leatherface among the four hospital escapees is a new added level to the franchise but I’m not convinced it was needed but that is a small gripe for a film that does a good job of trying to appease fans of the franchise.  The film may not succeed on all levels but it does do a good job of keeping the legacy alive and relevant at a time when most horror “old school” horror franchises have already seen their final days.

RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

Early this year during the 2017 Something Wicked Film Festival (www.somethingwickedfilmfestival.com), Festival Panel Moderator Jim Adams created a panel discussion that would forever define the future of panel discussions for the event (especially since I’m the Festival Director and I just hired him to be the Official Festival Panel Moderator.  One of Mr. Adams’ first duties were to come up with some original ideas for new panel discussions and thus “How Monster Films Defined My Life” was born. 

Now I know part of the reason why Mr. Adams decided on this topic for a panel discussion is because he has the podcast “Monster Attacks!” where he has spoken at length about his love for monster films.  For many people, monster films from the Universal horrors of Dracula and The Wolfman to Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein and The Mummy were defining characters of fear from childhood.  For more modern audiences there is Leatherface and that dream demon Freddy not to mention the likes of Ghostface Killer and The Jigsaw Killer.  No matter which decade, audiences have their own nightmare monster that haunts them or fascinates them to no end.

I was one of the film-makers on this panel discussion and one of the films that defined my childhood was the Joe Dante film Gremlins (1984).  I saw this in the theater in ’84 at the early age of 8 and it left an undeniable impression on me.  The monsters were both cute and cuddly and dangerous and fun at the same time.  It was like watching a bunch of unruly children at play able to do whatever they wanted.  It also had an amazing soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith (who became my all-time favorite music composer).  The film was dark and horrifying as well as funny and entertaining.  It had the perfect mixture of comedy and horror and part of that is due to the very dark photography of the film and the fluid cinematography.  It truly became one of my all-time favorite films for which my love for other monsters would grow.

 

I didn’t grow up with the black & white Universal monsters nor had I seen many of the bloody Hammer Studio films until I became a big horror fan in my teenage and college years.  The next monster I gravitated to was that of the Good-Guy doll Chucky.  When I saw Child’s Play (1988) I had never seen anything like it before.  A serial killer uses Voodoo to possess a doll and to continue his killing spree.  Even though this film played straight into horror (unlike the more comedic sequels) it still was quite fun and entertaining.  By ’88 when this film was released and I was eleven years old I had already become a horror fan but nothing had defined my true love of the genre just yet until this film.  I got the poster for the film from the nearby Video Store (how I miss these establishments) and I placed it lovingly on my bedroom wall (where it was later joined by posters of the second and third films).  It was the first poster I ever put on my wall but it would not be the last.

I followed the continuing exploits of Chucky to cinema with Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991) which I had to beg my Father to take me to since I was too young for the R-Rated horror.  At this point I did come to realize how much I loved horror films but more importantly – monster films.

At this point you could say I went looking for monsters as I learned to love all monsters big or small.

It wasn’t until Clive Barker’s Nightbreed (1990) that I wished I was one of the amazing monsters that populated our magnificent world.  Barker crafted a story where the monsters were the good guys while man was the bad guy.  This film defined the idea of what a monster could truly become.  The monsters in Barker’s film were deformed and misunderstood as well as dangerous and fascinating.

It was after this that I became a true and everlasting monster fan.  From the films featuring Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery to the Cenobites of the world of Hellraiser I loved monsters both other-worldly and those more human.  My favorites were monsters not easily described or defined like those in Christine (1983), The Thing (1982), Puppet Master (1994), Critters (1986), and especially Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988), to name but a small few.

I most certainly enjoyed the exploits of Michael Myers and Leatherface (and family) and even those Freddy films but it was with these non-human monsters that I enjoyed more and would later define my love and appreciation of horror.  For me, monsters aren’t defined as either good nor evil but in most films, they are simply just trying to survive and do what comes naturally.  This is the defining trait of King Kong and Godzilla as well as many other timeless monster films.

Serial killers and mass murders are interesting but monsters are something from the imagination where anything that can be dreamed can become a reality.  Therefore, they’ve had such a profound effect on me as not only a film maker but a storyteller and a film lover.  If nothing else, I implore others to seek out monster movies not just for pure entertainment and enjoyment but to understand oneself and the world in which we live (and the one created for the monsters to live in).  It’s never too late to enjoy a good monster film.

To view the entire “How Monster Movies Defined My Life” panel discussion go here - https://vimeo.com/238990857

Film Review: HEAD OF THE FAMILY (1996)

The clan of Full Moon Entertainment’s Head of the Family (1996) is very much the same as Tobe Hooper’s Sawyer Clan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre…only more “PC”.  Myron is the literally the “head” of his family as he is one of a quintuplet that each share the same brain but have different bodies.  Myron (the brains), Otis (the brawn and muscle), Wheeler (the eyes, ears, and smell), and Ernestina (beauty with the body) like to abduct strangers for their own personal experimentation and fun.  When local sleaze Lance (Blake Adams) secretly watches the family in action he decides to capitalize on the family’s misfortune by blackmailing them to make the husband of his mistress Lorretta  (Jacqueline Lovell) disappear. 

Myron doesn’t like being blackmailed and used and will do everything in his power to bring Blake down.  Like the Sawyer clan Myron’s clan each have their own strengths and weaknesses that are used to great effect in the film.  Myron plays a mental chess game with Blake to see who can out smart whom; he uses Ernestina to seduce men at their weakest moments; Wheeler is used to spy on Blake and get information with his super skins and Otis is the muscle that forces himself upon others (he is the Leatherface of the group).  They live in complete obscurity from the rest of the town but instead of cannibals they experiment on the people they abduct.

The film is actually better than expected as the film is anchored by the performances of Adams and Lovell  who have great chemistry with one another for a couple having an affair and Adams and J.W. Perra (as Myron) have equally great chemistry in their scenes.  The makeup effect are great and the film is better than most of the average Full Moon films.  The film also has a whit to it missing from these types of films that are aware of themselves giving it a charm that makes it worth seeking out if you haven’t already seen it.

Movie Review: TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (2013)

Let me just say first that I’ve never been a fan of any of the films in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series.  Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) is the seventh one and I don’t understand why the franchise has endured for as long as it has.  The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) had its moments mostly during the first half of the film but for me becomes a dull bore once you get to the diner scene.  From there on the film spirals downhill and never recovers.  The film did introduce me to Gunner Hansen as Leatherface who is one of my favorite character horror actors of all time.  I hated Part 2 (1986) completely and have never gotten into the comedy aspect of that film (although again it introduced to another one of my favorite character actors Bill Moseley).  I do enjoy the siege of the radio station but that’s about it.  Part 2 had great production design but like its predecessor falls apart some time during the second act.  At the time of its release Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III (1990) was a good film (or at least that’s what I thought when I was a kid) but time has not been kind to this film as it now comes off as an uninspired slasher film.  The less said about Return of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation- 1994), which was the first one I saw on the big screen under this title, the better.  Then came the remake (2003) and its Prequel (2006) which are both competent and have a strong cast.  While the first one was actually quite good, it suffers from a less than thrilling ending when the main character goes back to save the baby and the prequel suffers from being a cliché of the genre and a ludicrous ending. 

 

Now we have the latest entry in the undying franchise which decides to go back to the original for inspiration by being a sequel to that film.  This in and of itself is actually an excellent idea and hasn’t really been done that often since Halloween: H20 (1998) decided to dismiss the four films that came before it.  After a 3D re-hash of events from the original film, this film opens just moments after the events of the original film as the Sawyer clan is gunned down and murdered by the towns folks leaving only a baby child to be taken in as an orphan.  About twenty years later (which if it was a true sequel it would be about 30 years) that baby grows up to be Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) who just learns that her relative died and that she has inherited a large estate.  As with most of these types of films she heads off with a group of her friends to search out this property discovering that her roots lie with that of the infamous Sawyer clan and that the estate harbors deep and dark secrets that may get her and her friends killed.

The problem with this film is that the first half comes off as a simple slasher movie cliché where one person after another is killed (in great ways mind you) by Leatherface.  None of his victims this go around have a brain in their heads and are dispatched very quickly before Leatherface sets his sights on Alex whom he just can’t seem to kill despite how much he tries.  That’s the first half of the film because as soon as the film becomes an Alex vs. Leatherface film it switches gears to a film about a town full of secrets and conspiracies and Alex discovering the real truth about her family which leads her to discovering her true purpose.  

I for one enjoyed the second half of the film.  The first half was a by the numbers rendition of previous films in the franchise but the moment the film decides to make Leatherface into a real character with a real purpose the film had something to say and Alex’s story became stronger.  The film is filled with excellent moments for the horror fan but those looking for a Leatherface who just lumbers around and kills people will be turned off by the second half of the film.

With a screenplay by Adam Marcus & Debra Sullivan and Kristen Elms the film does a decent job of opening up the mythology of the Chainsaw Universe (which may not appease everyone) and leaves one to believe that a sequel opens up the possibilities even more.  Director John Lussenhop continues the look and style established by the last two films which will make fans of the remakes happy but other than the opening sequence there is little for fans of the original ’74 Tobe Hooper film.  The opening sequence does contain several notable cameos from the original two Hooper films (one of my favorite parts of the film bridging the old guard with the new).  This film is so far removed from being a simple horror film (the original) or a satire comedy (Part 2) that the fans for whom this film was originally conceived may find themselves turned off.  Either way, this is the first sequel to present a whole new set of rules from which future films will be able to play by.