The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

In 1939, a worker at the slaughterhouse gives birth on the job and dies. Her boy is collected up by the Hewitt family and raised as their own. They named him Thomas, but he is better known as Leatherface.

Thomas has a skin condition that causes facial deformities. But as his uncle Charlie says, you don't have to look pretty to work down at the slaughterhouse. Of course, skin disease is the least of Thomas' issues, as he is violently insane.

Fast forward thirty years to 1969. The slaughterhouse has been condemned by the Texas Board of Health and Thomas no longer has an outlet for his murderous impulses. And that's bad news for folks passing through this part of Texas.

Which brings us to brothers Dean and Eric Hill, and their girlfriends, Chrissie and Bailey. They are on their way to California to send Dean back to Vietnam along with his newly drafted brother. Only Eric has decided to burn his draft card and run away to Mexico, which infuriates Dean.

None of this matters a lot, though, as they have a car wreck and are found by Sheriff Hoyt - who is actually Thomas' uncle Charlie, and the head of the murderous, cannibalistic Hewitt family. Carnage ensues.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is, of course, a prequel to the 2003 remake of the 1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Unlike the original movie, which isn't nearly as graphic as its reputation, or the 2003 movie, which was gruesome but maintained a fast-paced slasher aesthetic, this movie is pretty rough. The influences of the torture porn sub-genre are apparent this time around, but it thankfully doesn't go whole hog into that territory.

R. Lee Ermey is again the star of the show, even moreso than in the 2003 movie. He gets all the great dialogue, recalling his famous role as the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. He exudes a sadistic menace like no other actor, knowing how to deliver a line in just the right way to make it both comical and cruel at the same time.

And then there's Leatherface. As with the 2003 film, Leatherface is a huge man. He fills the screen with his presence - a mountain of a man that you can't possibly hope to make your way around to escape. And when he fires up that chainsaw and that sound is all you can hear, the effect is very intimidating.

When I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning at the theater, I told myself I would never watch that movie again. Well, this is the second time I've watched it since I said that and I have enjoyed the movie more each time. The violent scenes, particularly when Thomas takes his first new face, are still cringe-worthy, but they're not as awful as all that.

Any unpleasantness from those violent scenes is more than made up for by the wonderful, darkly humorous performance by R. Lee Ermey and the rest of the bat-shit crazy Hewitt family. This isn't the best movie in the series - whatever the era - but it is entertaining and fits right in with the lunacy found in every installment.