Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
64
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 77 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Scott Kosar
Kim Henkel (1974 screenplay)
Tobe Hooper (1974 screenplay)
Directed by: Marcus Nispel
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 17, 2003
DVD: March 30, 2004
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong horror violence/gore, language and drug content
Starring Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski, R. Lee Ermey, and David Dorfman
This thriller recounts the true story of five teenage travelers stranded in a rural Texas town, fighting for their lives against a chainsaw wielding madman and his bizarre extended family. (New Line Productions)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
What a superb job director Marcus Nispel has done re-creating, yet also revising, 1974's grisly, gristly, protein-centric masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Has no pretensions about sneaking up on you -- it simply charges, motor humming and blades flying, carving the spot where masochism and entertainment meet.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Adding R. Lee Ermey to the Leatherface clan was a masterful move.
Read Full Review >Premiere Addison MacDonald
Manages to pull off an adequate amount of scares, when compared to most horror flicks in theaters this Halloween season.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film delivers with enough consistency to warrant a qualified recommendation for those seeking a few extra scares at this time of the year.
Read Full Review >Empire Kim Newman
The look, created by Hoopers cinematographer Daniel Pearl, and expert art direction is persuasively nasty but somehow that buzzing saw doesnt sound as scary as it used to.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
This particular reconceptualization actually does an impressive job of capturing the nasty dread of the original. It certainly is a vast improvement over those previous remakes/sequels.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The gruesomely unnecessary remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is such a smorgasbord of slimy grunge that to call the movie gross wouldn't do it justice -- it's downright sticky.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A lot more violent and a tad less creepy than the 1974 original, the much-changed remake delivers enough gory, belligerent mayhem to keep horror fans screaming.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The new version has a few jolts, some occasionally effective smoke-and-mirrors photography and a lead (7th Heaven's Jessica Biel) who could teach a grad course on walking provocatively in blue jeans.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Director Marcus Nispel, a rock video vet making his feature debut, knows how to ratchet up the tension. His remake is a far, far better-looking thing than the original. There's also more humor, especially in the over-the-top performance of drill sergeant-turned-actor R. Lee Ermey as the loudest of the inbreds.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
While its far from bad, it also falls far short of the icy frissons produced by the original.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As the eviscerations ensue, the truth becomes undeniable: This is easily the most gruesome, most pointless, episode of "Scooby Doo" ever.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Gruesome enough; what it lacks is a distinctive revolting personality of its own.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
The remaining twisted population that likes this kind of movie will enjoy a horror film that is surprisingly stylish.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Chainsaw is produced by Michael Bay (Bad Boys I and II), which explains its soullessness. But nothing explains the flaw in this bad boy: How can a movie scare you when youve seen it all before?
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Seems to understand its source material, but has no idea how to improve on it.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ron Stringer
Still and all, the makeup special effects are as over the top as anything in Hooper and L.M. Kit Carson's 1986 Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and -- for those of us without the sense to steer clear of this sort of thing -- that's saying something.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Kevin Carr
Everything that made the original Chainsaw a classic is ground into the dirt in this new version.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
There's nothing wrong with remakes, but as this movie amply proves, there's often nothing right about them, either
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Simply go out and rent the original. In the thin ranks of killer-power-tool flicks, it's still the standard to beat.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
This new, presumably improved Chainsaw is just as humorless as the original, but it's also slicker, glossier and resoundingly artificial.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
For those who've seen the original, no surprises will be unearthed other than an altered story (not for the better) and more gore.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Richard Harrington
Weakens, dilutes, disinfects and otherwise undermines the legacy of Tobe Hooper's 1974 original.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
An overproduced, video-director remake, slick and grue-marinated and loud as a sonic boom.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
Rather than exhilaration, this bilious film offers only entrapment and despair. It's about as much fun as sitting in on an autopsy.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Efforts to expand the envelope of grotesquery make the film repulsive and suspenseless, and it sorely misses original director Tobe Hooper's grisly, wily sense of humor.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
I don't know if Nispel and Scott Kosar, who make their feature film debuts here, are the worst director and writer in the world, though they might well represent the United States if anyone holds a competition. I do know they deliver a total of zero laughs, scares or surprises in this remake of the infamously creepy 1974 picture.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Significantly more gruesome and noisy than its predecessor, and boasting more nasty-looking fluids than all the works of David Fincher combined, this version leaves few corpses unturned in its unstinting campaign to please gorehounds.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This new SAW film is so utterly unimaginative it doesn't even count as hommage; it's just a smudgy copy of a still chilling original.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Offers the same crudely effective variation on the hatred and fear of hillbillies in "Deliverance."
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A contemptible film: Vile, ugly and brutal. There is not a shred of a reason to see it.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 77 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew G gave it a2:
Hardly produces a scare, or even a minute thrill. Poorly acted, poorly directed, and on a whole, very poor.
antwian f gave it a9:
Superbly gruesome and shockingly suspenseful with a touch of humor.
Jay H. gave it a6:
Vaguely similar to the original, but it's a decent horror flick. The acting is fine, it does have some scary scenes. Good score and reasonably suspenseful. Creepy and very gory.
[Anonymous] gave it a0:
Just another stupid "teen horror" movie, they got to stop making this shit, pisses me off.
Steven R. gave it a10:
Fantastic! The way a good horror remake should be. The different approach to the story makes helps this film stand on its own. Performances were great as was the tension. Fantastic direction and camera work make it an enjoyable watch.
R D. gave it a5:
Not scary. But R Lee Ermey's performance as the Sheriff bangs you. [***SPOILERS***] Also, the slaughter-house scene where Jessica Biel cuts Leatherface's hand with a meat cleaver is good. Just the movie is too violent at times.
poker gave it an8:
A pretty solid film that is,at the same time revolting. I was on edge multiple times waiting for the next gruesome surprise. Don't get me wrong,alot of this IS uneccesery, I just thought at the same time it was well put together. Could I go without the young mental woman in the beginning of the movie pulling a hidden gun out of...(like I said "uneccesery")and blowing her skull computer to smithereens?The answer would be yes BUT at the same time I Would not have been treated to cult anti - hero,Leatherface unmercifully instinctively and,almost gleefully destroying smug,spoiled,oversexed,potheaded brats(that I am shamefully jealous of,which,coincidentally fuels a fair amount of my affinity for this film). Watch it at night, with the lights out and the volume up. I guarantee if you like horror(not the most intelligent type but horror all the same)you'll like this movie.
