Wednesday 4 January 2017



ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - January 4th
"TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D" released in 2013








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In 1974, the townspeople of Newt, Texas, led by the corrupt Mayor Burt Hartman (Paul Rae), burn down the farmhouse of the Sawyer family for their role in aiding Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer (Dan Yeager), also known as "Leatherface", in several murders. The arsonists are celebrated as heroes, and the entire Sawyer family is presumed dead. Unbeknownst to most townspeople, an infant named Edith Sawyer is found in the farmhouse by Gavin and Arlene Miller, and adopted as Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario).

Years later, Heather is notified that her estranged grandmother, Verna Carson (Marilyn Burns), has died and left everything to her. Discovering that she was adopted, Heather, her boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz), and their friends, Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez), travel to Newt to collect her inheritance. Along the way, the group pick up a hitchhiker named Darryl (Shaun Sipos). When they arrive, the Sawyer family attorney, Farnsworth (Richard Riehle), gives Heather the keys to the family house along with a letter from Verna. Excited about the property she now owns, Heather and her friends decide to stay the night and immediately set off to buy supplies and food, trusting Darryl to stay behind and look after the house. Darryl begins looting the home and as he breaks into a locked room in the cellar, Leatherface kills him.

Heather and her friends return and discover the house has been ransacked, but choose to let it slide. As Kenny prepares dinner, he finds the room where Darryl was killed. Leatherface attacks and impales him on a meat hook. While exploring upstairs, Heather finds a decomposing body and attempts to alert her friends, but is knocked unconscious by Leatherface. Heather wakes up in Leatherface's room, from which she escapes, while downstairs Leatherface slices Kenny in half with a chainsaw. Following the screams and the sound of the chainsaw, Ryan and Nikki find Leatherface, who goes after them. Heather starts their van and pick up Nikki and Ryan, until Leatherface causes the van to crash, killing Ryan. Heather escapes the van and makes her way into a carnival, where Leatherface retreats. After questioning Heather, Sheriff Hooper (Thom Barry) soon realizes that Leatherface is still alive and has Mayor Hartman send Officer Marvin (James MacDonald) to the Sawyer house to kill Leatherface. At the house, Marvin is startled by Nikki and accidentally shoots her, before being killed by Leatherface, while at the police station, Heather learns of her family's fate (as well as being Leatherface's cousin) and flees. She is soon caught by Mayor Hartman's son, Deputy Carl Hartman (Scott Eastwood), who ties her up at a slaughterhouse to lure Leatherface, where a final epic confrontation will begin!


Nikki: Welcome to Texas, motherfucker!
[Nikki then shoots at Leatherface through the barn door and the chainsawing stops]
Top:   Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) arrives in Texas to claim her inheritance;
Above:   Heather's friends Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Ryan (Trey Songz)


After the lackluster performance of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at the box office, producers Bradley Fuller and Andrew Form, from genre label Platinum Dunes, announced that the company would not be producing a third film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot franchise. It wasn't until nearly two years later that Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Entertainment stated they were attempting to purchase the rights to the franchise, with Twisted Pictures producing and Lions Gate distributing, with the contract with rights-holders Bob Kuhn and Kim Henke to include a plan for a new trilogy.

Originally, a plan for a new trilogy was pitched. Each film in the new trilogy  would be released out of chronological order, with the second film coming out first and being set almost entirely in a hospital. The next film would be a prequel explaining the events that led up to the hospital scenario, with the third film would complete the storyline. Fearing it was too ambitious and risky, the producers opted for a follow up to the original instead. The new approach was to create a contemporary film in 3-D, with Stephen Susco writing the script with John Luessenhop directing.


TRIVIA:   Has the distinction of featuring a total three different actors portraying Leatherface: Gunnar Hansen as the one from the archive footage, Sam McKinzie as a young Leatherface, and Dan Yeager as the main one.
Top:   Leatherface (Dan Yeager) makes a new mask!;
Above:   Heather is captured by Leatherface and threatened with his chainsaw


In May 2011, Lions Gate announced that it would be partnering with Nu Image to produce the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with Twisted Pictures president Carl Mazzocone producing. With the intention that the new story would pick up where Tobe Hooper's original film ends (ignoring the events of the second, third and fourth films, not including the remake films), Adam Marcus and Debra Sullivan were brought in to write the script with Kirsten Elms and Luessenhop worked on rewrites and script polishing.

The producers soon cast Alexandra Daddario (as Heather Miller), Trey Songz (as Heather's boyfriend Ryan), Tania Raymonde (as Heather's best friend Nikki), Scott Eastwood (as the corrupt Deputy Carl Hartman), Thom Barry (as Sheriff Hooper), and Paul Rae (as the main villian Mayor Burt Hartman). Bill Moseley, who played the psychotic Hitchhiker in the original 1974 film and as Chop-Top in the sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), returns to the franchise to play  Drayton Sawyer - acting in place of Jim Siedow who died in 2003. Marilyn Burns and Gunnar Hansen who also appeared in the original Chainsaw - as Sally Hardesty and Leatherface, respectively - were also cast in Chainsaw 3D; Burns as Heather's longlost grandmother Verna Carson and Hansen as Sawyer patriarch Boss Sawyer. Newcomer Dan Yeager would become the 6th actor to play the mentally impaired, chainsaw wielding cannibal, Leatherface.

With production beginning on 28 June 2011 in Shreveport, Lousiana, it was a reported 106 degrees on the day that the fire stunts were performed inside the burning Sawyer house at the beginning of the film. Although she has a rule against appearing nude in films - and will only do a nude scene for a TV series if she is paid well - Daddario offered to film the scene where she is tied up and has her shirt ripped completely topless, but filmmakers refused, thinking that it would be gratuitous (for some reason though, in the final version of the scene her character is shown to be bra-less even though it's clearly obvious that before and after the scene she still wears her black bra).


Heather Miller: So, you're a Hartman.
Burt Hartman: Yes I am.
Heather Miller: [tries to stab Carl in the neck through the glass in the police car] I'm a Sawyer!
Top:   Director John Luessenhop on set with Scott Eastwood;
Above:   Alexandra Daddario on location in Louisiana.


Interestingly, neither Twisted Pictures nor Nu Image had a credit on the finished film, which had to be re-cut before release, as it received an NC-17 rating due to excessive gore during its initial submission to the MPAA. However, critical reception for Chainsaw 3D was almost unanimously negative, with Chris Sawin of the Examiner writing, "With acting that falls way under the bar, poorly written characters, a ten year gap that everyone ignores, and a pretty laughable storyline, Texas Chainsaw is somewhat watchable thanks to the legacy its built on that it nearly pisses all over." Pete Vonder Haar from Village Voice wrote, "Try as [Luessenhop] might to honor the original -- flashbulb transitions, a skeevy (yet buff) hitchhiker, metal doors, and meat hooks -- there's little of its mounting dread." Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine was a little more positive, writing, "Texas Chainsaw 3D isn't exactly good, but despite its many clichés and generic indulgences, you want to give it some points for trying."

With Lionsgate has an option for six more films in the Chainsaw series, Deadline reported that Millennium Films is moving ahead with the film titled Texas Chainsaw 4, with production to begin in 2013 in Louisiana. This statement was later retracted by Millennium Films, who stated that while a sequel is very possible, nothing has been confirmed. It was later confirmed that the next entry in the franchise would be a prequel to the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) titled Leatherface, which would focus on Leatherface in his teenage years before he donned the chainsaw. Seth M. Sherwood was tasked to write the script for the film, with Christa Campbell, Lati Grobman, and Carl Mazzacone producing and French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo directing. Principal photography began on May 18, 2015, shooting on locations in Bulgaria, making Leatherface the first time a Chainsaw has been filmed outside the US, and the the tird film in the franchise to be shot outside of Texas ( with Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) being filmed in California and Texas Chainsaw 3D shot in Louisiana). Leatherface is set for a  2017 release.



ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   19%

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