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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre | 2003 | R | - 4.10.8

A sequel that in many ways is also a remake of the 1974 cult horror film: Supposedly inspired by the "true events" depicted in the original, the brutal slaying by chainsaw of 33 people in August of 1973 in Texas were apparently not solved by the police. Eventually, the only survivor has finally come forward to reveal what really happened when five young people run into the killer dubbed "Leatherface." With Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski, R. Lee Ermey and Lauren German. Directed by Marcus Nispel. [1:30]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A young man and a young woman kiss passionately and caress each other while in the back of a van, with others watching: the young woman climbs on the lap of the young man at one point and they kiss and moan. A man touches a dead body's breast and apparently between her legs (he makes a lewd remark). A man puts a young woman's head in his lap and caresses her hair. We see young men and women swimming (they're in bathing suits; young men are bare-chested and young women in bikinis). Young women wear outfits (low-rise pants and skirts, short tops, and a crocheted halter top) that reveal bare abdomens, cleavage and bare backs to hip throughout the movie.

VIOLENCE/GORE 10 - A young woman puts a gun in her mouth and shoots: we see blood and matter spray and splatter, we see through the hole in her head and see her mouth smoking -- people scream in horror and vomit. A young man is carried down a staircase, he scratches at the wall, he breaks off a fingernail, he screams, and he is hung on a meat hook (we hear it stab into his back); salt is pressed into a very bloody leg wound, he screams and falls unconscious. A young woman stabs a young man in the chest after he begs her to do so (blood pours down on her). A young man is hit hard on the back of the head and blood splatters across a room and onto a TV screen, and he is dragged into another room by a man wearing a mask made of human skin. A man with a chainsaw lunges at a young man and a young woman, they run away, the young man falls on the floor, gets up and runs away, still being pursued by the man who cuts off his leg at the knee (we see the bloody leg separate and land in the grass). A young man tries to free himself from a meat hook in his back, he pulls himself up, then lets go and the hook goes back into his back with a crunch. A young woman tries to free a young man from a hook in his back, he falls back onto it and we hear another crunch. A man with a chainsaw attacks two young women in a van (he cuts through windows and the roof and sparks fly), he grabs one young woman by the head, the other runs off, she is followed and slashed on the back and she falls to the ground and the man starts sawing (we only see him standing over her). A young woman is grabbed, pushed to the floor, stepped on and a chainsaw roars over her back. A young man lunges at a chainsaw-yielding attacker, he is grabbed, hung on a chandelier, and sawed between the legs (we see his body twitch and he becomes unconscious). A young woman drives a car into a man, he rolls over the top of the car (blood sprays on the windshield), she backs the car up over him, then drives forward over him. A young woman hacks at a man with a cleaver, cuts him several times and cuts his arm off (we see bloody slashes and a bloody stump at his arm). A man filming a crime scene walks into a room and is attacked (he yells and falls to the floor dead) and the man holding the camera is then attacked and we see the attacker being recorded on film. A man hits a young man in the face with a bottle and knocks out his front teeth (we see his mouth and chin covered with blood). A man cuts himself on the leg when he falls down while holding a chainsaw. A young woman hides in the carcass of a cow which is in a freezer, a man with a chainsaw cuts it from behind, and she runs. A man shoots around the head of a young woman lying on the ground. A man forces a young man to put a gun in his mouth and tells him to pull the trigger. A young man is strung up by the feet over a tub. A young man holds a gun on a man and pulls the trigger, but no bullets discharge. A man throws a young man into a puddle and kicks him a few times. A man throws a young woman down a staircase. A young man and a young woman are chased by a man with a chainsaw: he grabs the young woman's leg, she kicks him, he falls back, they run and he continues to chase them through woods until they reach a shack where they hide, and the young woman sits in a corner while rats approach her squealing. Blood pours from under a table. A very bloody dead body bobs and tips as a van drives along a road, the occupants make remarks about the odor and we see blood and matter on the upholstery surrounding the body. A man removes a mask and we see that he's missing his nose. A young woman sees a man wearing a mask made of her boyfriend's face. A young man with a hole in his back sits in a tub of water and jerks and flails in fear when a young woman touches him. A dead body covered with blood and matter is wrapped in plastic wrap, carried and dumped into the trunk of a car. A young man touches blood and brain matter on a car seat (it squishes). We see a decomposed body lying near a body of water (it isn't clear whether it is male or female and it appears to be either burned or skinned). We see a severed head lying on a table, along with severed ears, eyes and, teeth. We see a man sewing together pieces of skin to make a mask. A young man finds teeth lying in the grass. What is presented as official police crime scene footage shows a stretcher with a body on it being loaded into an ambulance, a police officer walks through a house and the camera focuses on scratch marks on the stairwell wall, a fingernail stuck in the wall and a clump of hair stuck to a broken board; we also see body parts (a spinal column, teeth, fingers, part of a skull, jars full of eyes, ears). A young man walks through a kitchen where what looks like pieces of flesh are hanging from the ceiling. A man in a wheelchair is missing his legs from the knee down, and we see stumps. A man empties his colostomy bag into a very filthy toilet. People scream when they open a locker and a possum lunges and scratches at them from inside. A young man sticks his arm in a hole in the back of a car and pretends something is grabbing him. A young woman collapses after drinking tea laced with something. A young woman has a badly bruised face and blood on her legs, and a neglected boy is found in an abandoned mill. A man with a chainsaw hits a car with it as it passes. A van swerves to miss a young woman walking along the road. A dog snarls at a young man and a young woman. We see pig's heads and other meat in a display case and they are covered with flies. We see two cow heads that appear skinned, in a barrel. Slime and mucous comes out of the noses of two young women who cry and tremble uncontrollably. Dolls are hung on trees with missing limbs that are replaced with other things, like ram's horns and bones.

LANGUAGE 8 - 37 F-words and derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 2 sexual references, 25 scatological terms (one on a bumper sticker), 6 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, 14 religious profanities, 13 religious exclamations, 1 derogatory term for homosexuals.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown smoking marijuana, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco and drinking alcohol. References are made to smuggling marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Mass murder, mental illness, drug use and trafficking, emotional trauma, commitment.

MESSAGE - Don't, ever, pick up hitchhikers.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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