The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

This is a textbook example of how not to make an effective horror film. Purporting to tell the story of the birth of Leatherface, we learn that he was taken in as a child and raised by Ermey's cannibalistic nutjob and his loony family, later to hone his mutilation skills on a group of pretty youngsters who've stumbled across their remote dwelling. As they're picked off one by one, buckets of blood are spilled, limbs fly and skulls are cracked, but there's nothing remotely frightening or disturbing in any of it - in fact it's dull. Uninspired, dull and completely lacking in tension. Of course, even thinking about comparing it to the 1974 original is an exercise in futility. The true barometer (and the true indictment) is that it doesn't even stand up to the 2003 remake, the film to which it serves as a prequel [Paul Greenwood]