The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) - Arrow Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Not every remake is a bad thing. Sure, we could debate all day long the merits of a remake of a genuine classic piece of cinema (horror, drama, comedy, or any other genre), but we wouldn’t get anywhere. Since the silent age, Hollywood has loved to remix and recycle old stories as new concepts, often changing very little. Tobe Hooper’s seminal The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is no different. But its remake was actually quite good. 

The first release under Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes imprint, Marcus Nispel delivered an effective remake effort. It mixed elements old and new to deliver something that wasn’t just a frame-for-frame reshash starring Vince Vaughn. Coupled with Hooper and co-writer Kim Henkel as producers and original cinematographer Daniel Pearl standing behind the camera, there was enough old guard blood involved to bless this new version's undertaking. 

One of my first joys of joining HDD as a writer ages back was learning that Mr. Duarte is just as fervent a fan of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise as I am. To be honest, he’s probably a bigger fan of Leatherface and the archive of sequels, remakes, legacy sequels, reboots, and requels. To that end, since he already wrote a terrific review for 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, here’s what Mr. Duarte had to say:

In the history of film, "remakes" and "reimaginings" can be traced as far back as MGM's 'Ben-Hur', Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments', and Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much' (where he remade his own film!). But it wasn't until the remake of Tobe Hooper's seminal slasher classic that something strange happened. Michael Bay's production of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' began a major trend that continues to the present day and shows no sign of ending anytime soon. Compared to the cost of making it, the updated horror movie was a success at the box office and attracted other major studios to revisit the movies and TV shows of the 70s and 80s. But unlike those which tried to imitate its success, this Marcus Nispel version of the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface is actually not half-bad.

As the film and promotional trailers have made abundantly clear, the horrifying events takes place on August 18, 1973. Five close friends, Erin (Jessica Biel), Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and new pal Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after spending some time in Mexico. Driving through Travis County, Texas, they encounter a troubled hitchhiker walking in the middle of a dirt road. After almost running her over with their van (because it's the 70s, after all), they decide to stop and help the young, distraught girl. This is where the film suddenly announces itself as a huge departure from the original concept and gives even loyal fans a sense of this horror flick being a completely different monster.

In Tobe Hooper's version, the hitchhiker, played perfectly by Edwin Neal, is a disturbed lunatic who slashes himself with a razor blade, freaking out everyone in the van and causing him to be kicked out. Here, the hysterical girl appears to have just experienced something severely traumatic and speaks incoherently about a man doing bad things. (Spoiler alert) A few minutes later, she pulls out a handgun, warns the group they will all die, and commits suicide in front of them. The entire sequence is actually clever and ingenious not only for broadcasting a different approach to Hooper's vision, but it's also one of the best uses of the foreshadowing around. Audiences are made aware of what to expect for the next 98 minutes: a movie with brutal, graphic violence and blood-drenched gore.

The incident also forces the group to make contact with the local authorities, and it becomes obvious fairly soon there's something uncomfortably strange about Sheriff Hoyt, portrayed by the always-awesome R. Lee Ermey ('Full Metal Jacket'). The rest of the pic is standard genre fare as each young adult is picked off one by one and chased by a crazed maniac with a chainsaw known as Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski). While the rest of the cast are slightly above average, Ermey and Biel are standouts in their respective roles. The former marine drill sergeant is oddly hilarious in his expectedly intimidating demeanor, and Biel suits the character perfectly in an attempt to completely eliminate all traces of her "7th Heaven" origins. Other than Bryniarski's foreboding presence, they seem to be what holds our attention and the entire production together.

Besides straying from mere imitation, the only other thing which sets the film apart is Daniel Pearl's cinematography, who also served as DP in the original, and Marcus Nispel's direction. Already familiar with one another (Pearl did the photography for several of Nispel's music videos), the two have managed a terrific coalescence of stylized visuals with fast-paced movement. Although not as frightening as Hooper's version, their teamwork has resulted in a pretty slick-looking film that still captures a feeling of 70s grindhouse cinema. Nispel's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' may not be the next great thing in horror remakes, but it's sure as heck a better genre entry than all the other garbage released since.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Arrow Video sharpens their blades for the 4K UHD release of 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A single-disc release, the film and all bonus features find themselves pressed on a BD100 disc. We were issued only a check disc for this review but final retail editions should amount to the same thing, complete with reversible insert artwork, booklet, and reversible replica poster. The disc loads to an animated main menu with Arrow’s standard menu structure. 

Love it or hate it, the 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre looks amazing on 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR (and HDR10, of course). Daniel Pearl did everything he could to distinguish this film from his work on Hooper’s original, and that dynamic change in clarity and color looks fabulous and easily outperforms the old VC-1 Blu-ray from Warner Bros. That old disc was actually pretty solid in its day, but there’s no comparison here. Encode is strong with nice high and consistent bitrate. From the start with that hyper-grainy crime scene footage, this presentation hits it out of the park. 

Now, like so many horror films of the early 2000s, TCM 2003 isn’t exactly colorful. We mostly get shades of yellow, brown, dark reds, silvers, and deep inky blacks. Occasionally, we get some splashes of blue in the sky and various pairs of distressingly tight denim, but little else. Regardless, facial features, production details, costumes, and the ample practical effects gore look terrific with a nice veneer of unassuming cinematic film grain. Outside of the purposefully gritty opening and closing bookend footage, grain is rarely intrusive or out of place.

The Dolby Vision grade is judiciously applied. It doesn’t alter that unique desaturated color scheme, but heightens its best qualities. Black levels and shadows are striking, giving the image a nice sense of three-dimensional depth. Skin tones, such as they are for this one, are healthy and “normal” with a nice pinkish hue. Whites, namely one character’s overly tight shirt, are bright and crisp. 

For this edition of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we get three audio options: an impressive DTS-HD MA 7.1 track, a strong and sturdy 5.1 track, and an alright if unnecessary 2.0 track. Of the three, I spent the most time with the DTS-HD MA 7.1, and I give that one the edge of the saw. I sampled through a number of key moments between the tracks, and while the 5.1 is very strong and balanced, similar to the old Dolby TrueHD track, I felt the 7.1 had the most impact, spread, and was overall the most immersive experience. From the dialog, the moody, ominous Jablonsky score, and the gas-powered sound effects and squishy gore, that 7.1 mix delivered the goods. I did play through the 2.0 track a bit, and it’s good in its own way. I imagine it’s best suited for soundbar setups, but it just doesn’t stand against the 5.1 or 7.1 tracks.

Not leaving things to a new transfer and great audio, Arrow Video sweetens this release with an excellent selection of new and archival extras. We get a new audio commentary with Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and Chris MacGibbon on top of the three archival commentary tracks. Adding to the mix, we get five new interviews with various players, including Nispel, Pearl, original Leatherface actor Brett Wagner, and others, totalling nearly an hour of new content. Then we get the hours of archival making-of documentary, screen tests, and featurette materials. Perhaps the coolest extra, the 9.5 minutes of deleted scenes have been upgraded to full UHD in HDR! Shame they couldn’t do some kind of seamless branching to get those alternate opening, closing, and extended takes in the main film, but it’s cool to see them finished up and looking so good! 

• NEW Audio Commentary featuring Steve Uncle Creepy Barton and Chris MacGibbon
• Audio Commentary featuring Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, and Robert Shaye
• Audio Commentary featuring Marcus Nispel, Daniel Pearl, Greg Blair, Scott Gallagher, Trevor Jolly, and Steve Jablonsky
• Audio Commentary featuring Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Scot Kosar, Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel, and Andrew Bryniarski
• NEW Reimagining a Classic with Marcus Nispel (HD 16:25)
• NEW Shadows of Yesteryear with Daniel C. Pearl (HD 16:54)
• NEW The Lost Leatherface with Brett Wagner (HD 15:17)
• NEW Masks and Massacres with Scott Stoddard (HD 19:09)
• NEW Chainsaw Symphony with Steve Jabolonsky (HD 19:01)
• Chainsaw Redux: Making a Massacre (SD 1:16:09)
• Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield (SD 24:07)
• Severed Parts (SD 16:42)
• Screen Tests:
• Jessica Biel (SD 3:24)
• Eric Balfour (SD 3:06)
• Erica Leerhsen (SD 00:47)
• Cast & Crew Interviews: (HD 17:50 Total)
• Jessica Biel
• Eric Balfour
• Jonathan Tucker
• Erica Leerhsen
• Mike Vogel
• R. Lee Ermey
• Marcus Nispel
• Brad Fuller & Andrew Form
• Behind the Scenes (SD 9:22)
• Trailers TV Spots 
• Concept Art
• Deleted Scenes: (UHD/HDR 9:33)
• Alternate Opening - Asylum
• Alternate Suicide
• Erin’s News
• More Erin and Kemper
• Jedidah’s Drawings
• Alternate Morgan Death
• Alternate Ending - Asylum
• Image Gallery

Remakes have always been a part of the game. Now, you can certainly argue that Hollywood’s love for IP exploitation has reached a fever pitch. I won’t deny that, point. But I will argue against the idea that remakes are inherently bad or should be shunned at a conceptual level. Not all of them are great; some certainly suck pants, but there are a few that work. In the realm of horror, Marcus Nispel's Michael Bay-produced 2003 remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre turned out to be one of the few that worked. Similar to something like Tom Savini’s 1990 Night of the Living Dead, this version plays similarly to the original, but gives enough fresh new material that it can stand separate from Hooper’s classic. Sadly, the success of this film spawned a wave of genuinely terrible remakes, a number of them produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes.

As it stands, this 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a solid, gritty, gory, modern update worth the attention. And it looks terrific on 4K UHD. The new Dolby Vision transfer is excellent, complete with equally impressive audio options. Not leaving anything behind, Arrow packs this release with a trove of new and archival extras, giving you hours of material to cut through once the show’s over. Highly Recommended