Texas Chainsaw - Bloody Disgusting Blu-ray SteelBook

Like so many other slasher franchises, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has traveled a long and winding road of sequels, remakes, requels, prequels, and legacy sequels. In the last fifty years the franchise certainly has seen some serious ups and downs. While some of the sequels were wildly entertaining and the remake was even pretty damn decent, the bad entries are notable. Despite best intentions to craft a direct legacy sequel to Tobe Hooper’s iconic original, Texas Chainsaw missed the grade. Because he’s the better franchise voice than I and he has some particularly strong feelings about this entry, I’ll let Mr. E’s review stand:

Many generally good, fairly interesting ideas are put to complete and utter waste in this latest installment in the 'Texas Chainsaw' franchise. Altogether ignoring the several sequels since Tobe Hooper's seminal slasher classic, which is a rather bold move in and of itself, the script, which apparently required four writers to crank out, picks up soon after the events of the 1974 horror favorite. "Final Girl" survivor Sally (Marilyn Burns) escapes on the back of a pickup truck and informs local authorities, which quickly develops into a lynching mob outside the Sawyer house. Inside, Bill Moseley, Gunnar Hansen (the original Leatherface), and family take refuge when things suddenly escalate into a shootout and bonfire.

It's an engaging, and even somewhat provocative start to an already familiar story, and as an added bonus, serves as an important plot element that eventually grows to a promising twist. And I'm not referring to the lone survivor of the fire caused by the redneck vigilante gang: a little baby girl literally stolen from the dead arms of her mother. She later grows up to be the voluptuous Alexandra Daddario, who learns about being adopted the same day she inherits the Sawyer-Carson estate and all its assets, including the responsibilities and liabilities it entails, which, of course, turns out to be more than she can handle. With friends Ryan (Tremaine Neverson), Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez) in tow, she travels to Newt to reclaim her birthright and legacy.

The twist isn't her being a member of that sadistic, coldblooded family — we obviously know that going in — but it's what she does with the knowledge of her family's history which amuses. As she slowly warms up to the idea of Jedidiah "Leatherface" Sawyer (Dan Yeager) being her long-lost cousin, the small Texas town is forced to confront the sins of its past, making another titillating twist revealing the real monster of this whole silly affair. Mayor Burt Hartman (Paul Rae) was the ringleader of the prologue's stereotypical lynch mob, who in the present day abuses his power to get his way. Sheriff Hooper (Thom Barry) was pretty much useless in controlling the situation at the start, and he largely feels ever more neutered at handling the current blood-drenched mess.

Again, some fairly good ideas with the potential to deliver at least a decently entertaining horror flick, particularly with the added 3D cinematography. Unfortunately, director John Luessenhop, who has yet to make anything of real note, completely wastes the possibilities by failing to include a single moment of suspense or scares, relying too much on explicit gore. Granted, some of the fault originates with a screenplay so badly written that I can't imagine Leatherface doing any worse if tasked to write his own autobiography. Some characters, like lawyer Farnsworth (Richard Riehle) and Deputy Carl (Scott Eastwood), are bought into the mix but then altogether forgotten at pivotal moments while very specific dramatic devices, like Ryan and Nikki's secret affair, are mentioned but never addressed or serve a useful purpose. And finally, it would seem everyone involved failed basic arithmetic since no one took notice of the blatantly obvious age discrepancy in Daddario's character, making her quite a bit older than the filmmakers clearly desire her to be.

Making matters worse is the rather chauvinist depictions of the only two supposedly well-rounded female characters. In both Daddario's Heather and Raymonde's Nikki, the women are little more than objects oozing with a heaping amount of sexual desire, either for male characters or the camera's lustful gaze. No matter the situation, whether running for their lives or facing the end of Leatherface's chainsaw, showing plenty of cleavage takes priority over creating a frightful environment. What could have been a clever twist by movie's end is swiftly ruined by Heather readily accepting the role of dutiful, silent homemaker. Added to that is the idiotic notion that the blood and mayhem could have been avoided if she only bothered to read the letter first; the same goes for the producers and studio execs who greenlit this ultimately asinine sequel.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray

Following some of its fellow horror films, Texas Chainsaw revs up for another run on Blu-ray as a single-disc Blu-ray + Digital SteelBook from Bloody Disgusting exclusively at Walmart. The BD-50 disc inside is the exact same one from 2013, only without its 3D Blu-ray counterpart. The disc is housed in a lovely black SteelBook with orange highlights. The disc loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options.

Even clocking in at a decade old, Texas Chainsaw remains an impressive disc. Shot on the Red Epic camera rig, details remain crystal clear. It’s a so-so flick but it made for a great 3D disc and it’s a shame that’s not available here too, but if you’re not so equipped, this presentation still holds. Here’s what E. had to say:
The high-def transfer is also highly-detailed and razor-sharp, revealing lots of crisp, lifelike textures in close-ups, particularly Leatherface's skin mask. Individual blades of grass, bark on the side of trees and every stich and thread of the costumes are distinct while fine lines along the wood furniture and walls of the Sawyer mansion are resolute and crystal-clear. Unfortunately, the presentation drops a small notch when some minor aliasing rears its ugly head, and contrast tends to run much hotter than needs to, causing quite a bit of blooming and posterization in the highlights while whites noticeably clip in several areas. Thankfully, black levels are not affected, appearing accurate and inky rich, which adds to the dimensionality. Colors are very animated and vivid with primaries looking especially energetic and gaudy.

On the audio front, we have a pretty damned impressive DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio mix. You gotta hand it to the sound design, when that chainsaw revs up, it’s a ride! Dialog is clean without issue, not that you really want to spend too much time with the dialog, it’s pretty rough, but you can always hear it! Surround channels are well employed and once the carnage starts it’s a fun run. Here’s what Mr. E. had to say:

Along with an excellent video presentation, Leatherface revs his chainsaw with an enjoyable and often cracking DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. The design doesn't exactly make the best use of the surround speakers, but there are plenty of good atmospherics, like the local wildlife, which create a satisfying environment and the music often bleeds into the background. With smooth, well-balanced channel separation, imaging feels wide and welcoming as several off-screen effects broaden the soundstage with amusing results. Vocals are crisp and clear in the center at all times, and the mid-range exhibits brilliant, detailed clarity in the upper frequencies. Low bass isn't very demanding, but it adds sufficient weight and depth to the music, action and the roars of the chainsaw.

The same extra features from the past return.

• Audio Commentaries Original creator of the 'Texas Chainsaw' franchise Tobe Hooper sits with producer Carl Mazzocone sharing their thoughts on this movie. Second commentary track has cast members Bill Moseley, Gunnar Hansen, Marilyn Burns and John Dugan chatting with one another about their characters, being on set and this sequel as a whole.
• Alternate Opening (HD 3 min) Not really much different than what's already seen in the final print, but interesting nonetheless for its change of tone and different order of footage.
• The Old Homestead (HD 15 min) With cast & crew interviews, viewers take a tour of the reconstruction of the original house, which is eventually burned to the ground.
• Leatherface 2013 (HD 15 min) Dan Yeager, who plays the modernized version of "Leatherface," talks about the inspiration behind his performance as a horror icon, the costume and props.
• Casting Terror (HD 12 min) Collection of short interviews with the cast and their involvement.
• Lights, Camera, Mayhem (HD 12 min) An interesting look at the production, preparing a shot and challenges of filming in 3D.
• Resurrecting the Saw (HD 9 min) More interviews with the filmmakers about revisiting a horror classic for a new, younger generation.
• It’s in the Meat (HD 8 min) A look at the makeup and practical special effects which litter the screen.
• Texas Chainsaw Legacy (HD 7 min) Precisely as the title implies, this much too brief featurette tries to cover a 40-year-old franchise in a few minutes but only serves to remind fans how much this movie really sucks.
• On-Set Short Subjects: Five Minute Massacres (HD) An assortment of BTS footage from six different scenes in the movie, showing the amount of preparation and time that went into each.

Like so many other franchise entries over the last five decades, Texas Chainsaw tried its best to bring the franchise back to its roots while also bringing it into the future. That didn’t work out. It tried but missed the mark by an unfortunately wide margin. It’s not the worst entry, the latest on Netflix would hold that honor. This one at least has some entertaining moments. Lionsgate partnered with Bloody Disgusting to give us a Walmart-exclusive Steelbook that gives us some attractive artwork and recycles the old 2D Blu-ray but sadly does not include the very fun 3D disc. But for franchise completionists and collectors, this one is at least Worth A Look.