Being one of the many horror fans to cringe when this remake was announced and also being really worried about them tarnishing the image of an original film that's a classic I'm glad to announce that this "reinterpretation" of the 1974 film manages to be a unsettling, grim and well done update.

The story is pretty much the same as a group of teens on the way to a rock concert in 1973 pick-up a woman who's wandering down the middle of the road. Soon that proves to be a fatal mistake as she mutters something about them all going to die before commiting suicide right in front of them. Soon they're caught up with a murderous backwoods clan (who's most memorable member is, of course, Leatherface - who looks pretty cool here) who proceed to start torturing and killing them off one-by-one.

Here's a re-do that manages to be better than all the sequels to the first film. Debuting director Marcus Nispel shows us a strong visual sense (like when he pans a camera back through a headwound) and is quite adept at making the movie a tense time without having to resort to flashy MTV style direction, the cast is all quite convincing (lead Jessica Biel is also quite a looker and R. Lee Ermey rocks yet again as the asshole sheriff) and there's a heck of a lot more gore than the first one's mostly implied violence.

This sticks fairly close to the story of the original but adds in a more meaty finale and changes a few things, there's a few cringe worthy moments (such as when one victim tries to remove himself from a meathook) and the entire film just feels disturbingly unnerving. In other words this is quite recommended.

The opening narration is by John Laroquette (who did the same thing in the first film). (Chris Hartley, 3/21/04)

Directed By: Marcus Nispel.
Written By: Scott Kosar.

Starring: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Pretty flawless. The picture is nice and clear, the colour is strong and I didn't notice and grain or shimmering.

Extras: Earlier this year New Line's "Platinum Series" impressed me with their Freddy Vs. Jason DVD - this one's even better. First off is the awesome packaging which not only comes with a metal "art plate" of Leatherface but it also folds out with cool looking chainsaw blade art and comes with a cool "evidence" envelope that contains mock "police snapshots". Then there's the features, which are a highly pleasing bunch of stuff with a very cool teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer, 7 TV spots, a music video by Motorgrater, trailers for other New Line films (Highwaymen, Willard, Butterfly Effect and Ripley's Game), a pretty cool featurette on Ed Gein (who was the inspiration behind the original film), seven deleted scenes with director comments (including the alternate opening/closing and one moment of excised gore), two brief art galleries of conceptual drawings, screen tests for Biel and two other cast members, an extremely well done "making of" featurette that runs just under eighty minutes and three commentaries (each intended to focus on one part of the film: production, story, effects) that seem to contain almost everyone who worked on the movie (and don't make for a bad listen either). New Line continues to give horror fans the DVD goods, and it'll be hard to top this when it comes time to name the best DVDs of 2004.