‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (2003) a remake done right

In the early Aughts, “young people lost in the backwoods” scare flicks enjoyed a resurgence with “Jeepers Creepers” and “Wrong Turn,” both of which became franchises. So the progenitor of this subgenre, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” was due for a freshening up, especially since the three sequels to the 1974 classic were generally disliked.

Winning debuts for Nispel, Kosar

Music video director Marcus Nispel smoothly slides into his film debut. Six years later, he’d misfire on the “Friday the 13^th” remake, but “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003) is what a remake of a classic should be.

Following the outline of the Tobe Hooper/Kim Henkel original, screenwriter Scott Kosar – also in his film debut — devises an alternate narrative. Again, it’s set in 1974 and starts with narration by John Larroquette about a shocking “real-life” scene of slaughter.

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Kosar appeals to both old and new fans. The foreboding is the same (for new viewers), but the story points are different (for fans of the original). For starters, the hitchhiker (Lauren German) is female, and she commits suicide in the quintet’s van.

The action, horror and gore are relentless yet also harmlessly entertaining for those of us who are desensitized to this stuff. “TCSM ’03” not only joins the “backwoods” subgenre but to a lesser degree the new wave of so-called “torture porn,” which goes to greater extremes in Eli Roth’s work, the “Saw” films and the next “Chainsaw” picture, 2006’s “The Beginning.”

Fatalistic tone

Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski) and his clan – called the Hewitts in this incarnation – view people as meat. He pays as much attention to the human squirming and screaming on a hook as he would to a pig.

The sense that this clan dominates a large geographic swath is more prominent than in the original, as even Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) seems to be in on it. The quintet’s helplessness borders on fatalism after a while, as no one can be trusted.

Thematically, the film taps into the fear of unfamiliar authority figures, highlighted by an uncomfortable yet masterful sequence where the sheriff makes Jonathan Tucker’s Morgan re-enact the girl’s suicide.

Sheriff Hoyt has become a starker figure as the media has more robustly covered civil-rights abuses in this century.

A game cast

The cast throws themselves into this, with Nispel directing them to play their fear to the max.

In a relative breather, Erin (Jessica Biel, aggressively breaking free from her “7^th Heaven” persona) aims to hotwire the van. But even here, Pepper (Erica Leerhsen, “Blair Witch 2”) can’t hold the flashlight steady, such is her residual fear adrenaline.

As everyone drips with sweat and grime, “TCSM ’03” tries to be as dirty as the original. It’s inevitably slicker thanks to a bigger budget and a fresh-faced cast (Mike Vogel and the ubiquitous Eric Balfour round out the group).

And while it’s as gory, it’s not quite as weird. Kosar front-loads the idea of Leatherface as a sympathetic figure due to his skin deformities, but the Hewitts are collectively more like a gang of evil tricksters than they are simply backwoods people with different (amoral) values.

Fighting back

Kosar favors a last-stand action sequence where Biel gets to play heroine rather than victim, and it’s the right call for the 2003 version. Partly because Biel is a star, not a novice actress.

And partly because that humans-as-meat theme gets nicely emphasized with a chase through a meat plant (even though it doesn’t make much sense that the plant is still operating, and that there are pigs running around loose).

I’m glad we get the pitch-dark comedy about meat out of the way here. No one wants to see a 21^st century take on “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.”

As for this one; well, the 1974 classic did not need a remake. But once it got one, it couldn’t have turned out much better than this.

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