3/5 Surprisingly Good!
  by Moviefanatic12 (Florida, USA)
I remember seeing Jonathan Liebesman's first film "Darkness Falls" at the Toronto Film Festival before it hit theatres. It was an awful movie that nonetheless showed great promise on the part of the director. Beginning vindicated that notion. His TCM prequel is easily one of the best of the entire series.

The bloody bits were brutal, and harrowing, and the Vietnam motif - and metaphor - imbued the film with a power Marcus Nispel's re-imagining lacked. Granted, the tension is undercut somewhat by the fact that we anticipate certain family members must survive in order to have appeared in the previous film, which takes place a few years after the events of this movie (remember this is a prequel) , but R. Lee Ermy's leering performance as the depraved Sheriff Hoyt, not to mention the historic explanation he provides for the family's cannibalism and the sadistic "tests" he subjects the kids to, are intriguing enough to sustain audience interest.

Lastly, by not giving Thomas Hewitt his human skin mask until the tail end of the third act - a decision akin to stripping Jason Vorhees of his Goalie mask - the filmmakers demonstrate gumption often missing in horror films.

2/5 Tries So Hard, Yet Fails Horribly.
  by Matt Layden (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
On one last road trip before going off to serve in Vietnam, two brothers and their girlfriends get into an accident on an isolated road. The local sheriff shows up and brings them home to his deranged family, that nurtures a young man, that soon becomes the notorious Leatherface.

In 1974 Tobe Hooper gave audiences a new experience in horror and created a horror icon, that to this day still sends shivers down some spines. Spawing many sequels, that gradually got worse and worse, it was time for a revamp. In 2003 was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, this time with Jessica Biel and Michael Bay as a producer. While it did have some nice moments, it failed to capture any real sense of terror or horror that it intended. Now we have a prequel to that remake that promises gore, terror and the birth of fear. Unfortunately for the horror fans, it's yet another miss for the chainsaw wielding menace and instead of shivers being sent down those spines, it's simply agony.

Seeing the poster for the new TCM film gave me hope, it was actually good, in fact it was better then good, it was one of the best horror posters I've seen in a while. Maybe, just maybe someone could turn this franchise in the right direction. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that the direction has gone off the map. While in some scenes the film is indeed better then the remake, the film just happens to turn a horror icon into a mess. What once was a scary as hell character, leatherface, is now nothing more then just a misunderstood boy.

Right from the beginning of the film, I found myself laughing at it. Seeing the birth of fear, as they say, reminded me too much of the film Bride Of Chucky. Which could have been fine, if the film didn't take itself so seriously. It does indeed follow the horror formula, bad acting, blood and guts, profanity, somewhat disturbing images and even a ****ty script, but those things that are suppose to make a horror film fun, does the exact opposite with The Beginning.

With a short running time of 84 minutes, it seems to go on longer because your not enjoying yourself. Sure it's nice to see how things happen in the prequel that connects to the other films, but this is the case for all prequels and it's expected. Not even the deaths were enjoyable. The chainsaw death scene in "Dead & Breakfast" was gorier and more enjoyable then any chainsaw related death here...and the frickin movie is called the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is some gore, not as much as I would have wanted, and it's not full screen gore either. It's edited in a way that you can see some of it, but not all of it. Right from the beginning with the death of the old man who owned the meat company, the cuts were too quick to see the damage that was being done. You'll see the blood splatter on the faces of the characters, but only a quick glimpse of the actual chainsaw death. I'll give this film props though for having more then one chainsaw death though.

R Lee Ermey plays the over the top sheriff again, he fits the role well, but the film put a little too much emphasis on his character. Sure he is leading the family pack, but the film is about the origin of leatherface, more on him killing the others would have been great. All the victims here are by the numbers, the boyfriend, the best friend and brother, all die. The hot lead, and boy is she hot, dies in this one. I'm actually happy with that, and the fact that the director chose to showcase Jordana Brewster's ass every chance he got.

There were certain scenes that I did enjoy though, they were shot fairly well. Which was a surprise to me. To say this is a step of for Liebesman is an understatement. After the horrible, HORRIBLE, Darkness Falls, I'll gladly welcome this with open arms. He still has much to learn, but given enough time, he can become a prominent horror director. The obligatory chainsaw chase scene was better then the remake. I felt the sense of being there on the chase, which was fun for a bit and the film does pick up from there, but there is only ten minutes left after that chase and then it's over.

The film ends with the voice over of how the murders were real and the film is base don a true story, I think after 30 some odd years we get it, no need to continue to jam that message down our throats. With so many good remakes out there, Dawn of the Dead, Hills Have Eyes and horror films that are actually good, Devil's Rejects and Silent Hill. There is really no need to watch The Beginning.

5/5 Love This...
  by Ghoste Kruegar x (Maryville,TN)
When it came to the remake, i thought it was kind of bland but still scary and enjoyable. This prequel is something else! i watched it-like-45 times! All i can say is i seriously loved this!foward-

1/5 Depressing With No Redeeming Qualities
  by C. Williams
Simply read the other one star reviews and that will sum up my feelings about this piece of trash. I watched this on cable and it is just another example of how the horror genre has gone totally wrong.

5/5 I am sometimes too generous in giving star ratings...
  by A Hermit (Southwest Pa.)
...in I get a kick out of something, only to later think I could have knocked a star off, maybe this'll happen here. Maybe not.

This is a BRUTAL movie. EXTREMELY brutal. Using gore effects, just for the sake of gore effects, is, to me, anyhow, a turn-off. But it is an outlet for the people making these things happen for the film. It's the creative process in action. The film makers have fun doing this. And, despite the physical ordeal, the actors often have fun, too. And this was the case here.

Where I am almost always partial to the original versions of these, or any films, this one stands up very well in it shows the viewer just where the family met by one Ms. Biel(Erin, an updated Sally circa 1973) and company came out of. They were scavengers, misfits, society's losers. They were literally starving, living in a ghost town, dumpster diving for the next meal. An abandoned, deformed baby, with cockroaches crawling on him, is found in said dumpster. The opening montage gives the viewer a very quick, Reader's Digest version of his upbringing, and soon we see the slaughterhouse where he worked close down, condemned by the Health Board. It was his only way to feel useful, be productive, and be somebody, and now, it is gone.

But the breadwinner is resigned to not let his brood go hungry, never again. And, as many of these reviewers have said, it isn't Tommy Hewitt, aka "Leatherface," who the story centers on, it is Sherriff Hoyt, given to us by R. Lee Ermy. Off screen, he must be a maniac as well, because he is a little too good in this role. He simply steals the show.

Apart from the uncredibly hard-hitting violence in this movie, the element to note with the most kudos, is the continuity respected in this series. Though it was filmed three years after the 2003 installment, which is the remade version of the 1974 classic, it has the the exact same look and feel, with the same cast. Having the same cast members come back, all of them, always helps, and can even make a feeble follow-up bearable. I thought the original, from 1974, was a masterpiece of its kind, and the follow-up, though it was the same family, only had Jim Siedow return. A different actor played Leatherface, and it just wasn't the same. Killing off the Edwin Neal character, and having Bill Mosely, as his twin brother, back from "Nam" in his place, helped a little, but a different cast, as well as the production company's constant cat-and-mouse games during shooting, really messed it up. So, here, in "The Beginning," the film makers, unlike so many sequels (or in this case, the prequel) went the distance to keep up the continuity. If this movie were bad, which it isn't, it would garner two additional stars, for continuity alone.

But, in my own little world, the Leatherface portrayed by Gunnar Hansen, living in the house decorated by Bob Burns, with John Dugan, Jim Siedow, and Edwin Neal, was the real thing. Not that this, and its 2003 sequel, aren't noteworthy, because they really are.