Fantastic Fest brings the MASSACRE back home
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning appropriately kicked off the second annual Fantastic Fest last night at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) and old Leatherface himself (Andrew Bryniarski) were on hand, along with director Jonathan Liebesman and actress Jordana Brewster who plays the beautiful, young Chrissie who, along with her friends, is forcefully invited for dinner at the Hewitt family home--"for dinner" being the key phrase. You remember the Hewitts, don't you? Those lovable cut-ups from Texas who cut up their guests? Before the film's premiere I had a chance to talk with R. Lee, Jordana and Jonathan about the film which opens throughout the country on October 6th. R. Lee, famous for his role as Gunnery Sargeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, told me how they left out one of his favorite lines from TX Chainsaw when Sheriff Hoyt is in the kitchen with Mama as they're butchering a biker:
"You know, Mama, since Tommy (Leatherface) got that chainsaw it's done wonders for his self esteem."
Fortunately, Ermey has several occasions to use that humor throughout the film, which gives him a much larger and more entertaining role than in 2003's Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
"They kind of let me go crazy with him. Let's face it. He's a sexually perverted, homicidal maniac. The beautiful thing about this character is there's no 'over the top'." How he becomes sheriff is especially interesting.
Jordana Brewster's role had few opportunities for humor, but she sells her part well as the panic'd girlfriend who, through a twist of fate, escapes capture when her friends are first abducted.
"I get to sneak around," she says. "The only thing that was really hard for me was when we were shooting close to raw meat. It was just gross -- the smell. Physically, it was fun. The running around was fun; running away from Leatherface isn't that hard. You're pretty motivated when he's got the chainsaw."
For director Jonathan Liebesman it was a chance to return to Austin where last year he spent two months shooting the film around central Texas.
"It's kind of cool to bring the movie back to its home so that the people who were hospitable to us get to see it first." Contrary to some reports, Jonathan says he did see the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre before he was asked to direct this one. "It was an extremely visceral experience, even today. I always had these images in my head, even when I was a teenager in South Africa...I had these images of dismembered bodies and blood everywhere." He finally saw the movie after he went to NYU and people would bring it up. He was also impressed by the fact that some of his favorite directors, like Ridley Scott of Alien, would speak of the film's influence on them. "I think the idea of making murder seem real, like a snuff movie, was really the strength. And that was what was terrifying about it."
Regarding the origin of Leatherface Jonathan says the film "shows you the path he took to becoming Leatherface. It's like watching Anakin become Darth Vader. It's that journey of someone who could go either way but goes to the dark side. It's not something you want to over-explain. Because that's part of the beauty of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that there is a mystique and a mystery surrounding who these people are." Judging from its reception last night, the explanation and the mystique both served their purpose.
Fantastic Fest is an 8-day horror-scifi-fantasy film festival showing everything from big premieres to classics to ground-breaking shorts and runs through September 28th.
More films to come...
