The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original, by now an American classic (see Time In, page 184), is “beginning” enough. So it’s hard to credit director-for-hire Jonathan Liebesman for upping the gore quotient from Marcus Nispel’s ill-considered 2003 remake when he misses the point entirely: Psychological explanations do not make things scarier. So the young Leatherface was downsized from his job at the meatpacking factory; so his adoptive parent is Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Boo hoo. (Now playing; Click here for venues.) — Joshua Rothkopf