Well said, Rothman. Whatever this movie is supposed to be, it fails on every level. It's not scary, it's not disturbing, it's not entertaining, it's only funny periodically when you can't believe how stupid it is, and it essentially killed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise until it was rebooted a decade later.
The only reason anyone would have any inclination to watch this is because of its leads - Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey - who were young and naive back then, but they did they best they could with the material they had. Renee played a fine damsel in distress and McConaughey was perfect as an insane cannibalistic psychopath. You can tell he was having fun with the part, and the fun he has is contagious sometimes especially knowing how huge he has become since.
The movie itself is downright horrendous. It starts off as a typical slasher: a few teens leaving prom get stranded in the woods, then they encounter strange characters, and from then it devolves into a nonsensical screaming battle between everyone. Literally there are scenes in this movie where the only lines are "AHHHH!" Leatherface has gone full transvestite for this installment. They also end the movie with some sort of conspiracy that these cannibals have been around for thousands of years and there are men in suits that check up on them or something. It makes absolutely no sense and trying to piece it together will ensure a loss of brain cells.
This is the worst of the pre-millennial TCMs by a long shot. Only watch if you're a die-hard TCM completist or you want to watch McConaughey yell like crazy for a while. Either way, you're bound to be disappointed.
The only reason anyone would have any inclination to watch this is because of its leads - Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey - who were young and naive back then, but they did they best they could with the material they had. Renee played a fine damsel in distress and McConaughey was perfect as an insane cannibalistic psychopath. You can tell he was having fun with the part, and the fun he has is contagious sometimes especially knowing how huge he has become since.
The movie itself is downright horrendous. It starts off as a typical slasher: a few teens leaving prom get stranded in the woods, then they encounter strange characters, and from then it devolves into a nonsensical screaming battle between everyone. Literally there are scenes in this movie where the only lines are "AHHHH!" Leatherface has gone full transvestite for this installment. They also end the movie with some sort of conspiracy that these cannibals have been around for thousands of years and there are men in suits that check up on them or something. It makes absolutely no sense and trying to piece it together will ensure a loss of brain cells.
This is the worst of the pre-millennial TCMs by a long shot. Only watch if you're a die-hard TCM completist or you want to watch McConaughey yell like crazy for a while. Either way, you're bound to be disappointed.