The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

‘That’s the ugliest thing I ever saw!’ So says a character in reference to baby Leatherface at the start of ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning’, but they could just as easily be talking about this deeply unpleasant film by ‘Darkness Falls’ helmer Liebesman. A prequel to the 2003 remake of the Tobe Hooper classic, it purports to explore the background and mythology behind one of cinema’s greatest horror icons. Yet this plotless, pointless piece has nothing to say about the nature of the beast, choosing instead to wallow in the brutal violence and nihilism of the dysfunctional family from hell. Oppressive, mean-spirited and sadistic, ‘The Beginning’ is an unsavoury exercise in cruelty and pain that one hopes will also be the end.