7th Heaven? (bleep) that! Time to go to Hell
Before I begin let me just say this, I know there is little to no point to this film. I understand that there are tons of films out there that could be far more entertaining and gratifying. I understand all of these things, but understand that the film clearly knows what it is and it doesn’t stray away from that one bit.
The original movie was based off of a real serial killer named Ed Gein, who found delight in killing people and even digging them up once they were buried in the ground. He kept skin, made nipple necklaces and just did horrible things to human bodies and remains. The story takes all of these terrible things that this actual man did and applies them to a shallow, yet oddly funny at times, horror movie that will gross you out in the first 10 minutes of watching it.
The story follows a band of college-age youths who get tangled in a warped part of Texas. When they pick up a hitchhiker on the road, who promptly blows her brains out with a gun that was stuck in a place where guns simply don’t go, things get bad. Bad turns to worse when they soon discover that the gun is owned by the sheriff whom they’re meeting up with about the dead girl. The sheriff leads the kids into a place where each one ends up running for their lives from a deranged man named Leatherface. Leatherface wields a chainsaw and isn’t afraid to use it.
Do not eat prior to this film. Direct Marcus Nispel and crew have gone above and beyond to make this one of the most grotesque films of this decade. From chopping off legs to having a camera go through the newly created gun hole in a girl’s head to watching a human being (who is alive) get hung on meathooks, it’s quite enough to make your stomach turn. The movie is brutal to the last drop and doesn’t apologize for this at all. For example, the young nerd in the film named Morgan (played by Jonathan Tucker) gets hit in the face by Sheriff Hoyt (played by R. Lee Ermey) you can hear the crunch of his broken teeth as he spits them out in the small handful of blood. It literally leaves no stone unturned.
Shifting gears a bit, the story is merely an escape. These kids have run into a situation and they need to get out of it. No one in town is there friend and they must try to survive the best way they can until they can finally escape. That’s really the jest of it all. The movie tries to make this story seem real (sort of like going the Blair Witch route) by adding black and white police footage at the beginning and end of the film, but ultimately it’s just an escape film. A lot of critics didn’t like it for that reason and because the first movie was holy. For me, I think this movie certainly brought a bit more gore and realism to the classic. The biggest factor for me was the upgrade in acting talent. Outside of screaming, the original movie featured some of the worst acting on film. The lines were horrible, the delivery was horrible and because of these things the experience was not as powerful; it was hokier than anything else. This time around the film seems more solid and contains better acting. Underneath that the original film is still there, but everything else has dramatically improved.
You will hide your eyes
One of the great things about blu-ray is how much it actually improves the possibility of this genre. Horror movies, when done correctly visually/audibly, benefit so much from the format upgrade. The effects in the movie look horrifyingly grotesque in HD. For example, when one of the ‘victims’ gets their leg ripped off by Leatherface’s chainsaw, you can actually see tendons and muscle mass in the leg. It’s one of the more disgusting pleasures I’ve had with blu-ray; one I soon won’t forget.
Take that and add to it a boatload of features, which include:
– Commentaries
– Story and Technical Aspects with Michael Bay, crew and cast
– Alternate Opening and Ending
– Severed Parts: Deleted Scenes
– Making of Featurette
– Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield featurette
– Screen Tests
– Music Video
– Trailers/TV Spots
It may seem like a shallow list, but the making of featurette gives you every aspect of the filming process (it’s well over an hour long). I really enjoyed the features, especially the horrific featurette on Ed Gein. I had no idea that serial killers didn’t really exist back in the day; it’s very disturbing material and it fits perfectly on this blu-ray.
