Could it be that, with such acclaimed new releases as
Sadly, the answer is "Yes." In fact, Marcus Nispel's lousy, bloody re-make topped the box office this week, slashing a $28.1 million dollar gash in moviegoers' wallets.
The film is, as you probably know, a re-make of a 1974 cult classic by Tobe Hooper. We're introduced to a crowd of kids who are used to bait Leatherface, a notorious freak with a chainsaw, out of the backwoods of Texas. And, of course, one by one they are sawn to pieces because their car won't start, their truck won't start, or their brains just won't kick into gear.
David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) finds nothing to salvage from the gore. "Formulaic and without a stitch of socially redeeming value, the film not only assaults viewers with an unremitting barrage of gratuitous gore, but does so in a way that treats such dehumanizing violence as entertainment—even going so far as using suicide as an occasion for self-indulgent camerawork."
Joseph L. Kalsco (
Mainstream critics found some technical qualities of the film to praise, but most of them were similarly unimpressed by the tiresome genre piece. Roger Ebert (