Hey folks, Harry here... For the opening night of Fantastic Fest - the screening of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING roared to life with a bloody fury that delighted the audience. Starting with the shy and nervous director, Jonathan Liebesman - who finally has his first balls out horror film, there in the audience with the two guiding producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller - there to give him support as they did throughout production. Then we had Jordana Brewster (radiant as ever) and R. Lee Ermey, who is just a beaming presence that I'm constantly in awe of meeting. The real surprise came when Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface) showed up, as well as the "N" in KNB - Greg Nicotero - with, key makeup effects artist from KNB... Jake Garber (I believe was his name) there as well. The film was a roaring success! And fresh from the screening, here's Darla Hood - a long time AICNer with her take on the experience and the film!!!

Rascally Darla Hood here just back in from the opening night of Fantastic Fest 2006. And I have to say that I think that I had the perfect opening night/first film of the fest experience: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING.

First of all, I did not have the highest hopes for this film going in to it. I am a full-on dedicated girl when it comes to the original Chainsaw flick. I love it. It's one of my all-time favorites. It is the beginning of all that is good in slasher horror movies. I was disappointed by the remake because of my dedication to the original and due to the fact that no real gore is shown. It's a modern Chainsaw flick, for fuck's sake! Where's my frickin' gore? (Sure, there's some, but it cuts away far more often than it should before anything is really shown.) That's how I went in to the newest addition to the franchise...curious but somewhat aloof.

And then I ended up sitting next to the director and the two producers. I just prayed that the film was better than I expected because I usually can't keep my snide comments to myself...especially when a film is trying to live up to its predecessor.

Imagine my surprise and shock and utter amazement when this film ended up being so terrifically fun and gory. Gore, people!! Real bloody gore! And it all needs to be there! Every drop of blood and hunk of flesh! HUNKS OF FLESH!!!

And, I suppose more importantly, the story made complete sense as well. I loved the explanation of how Leatherface became so adept at chopping bodies and how the family came to run the town (and thus get away with killing random tourists). It's a pure delight when R. Lee kills the entire sheriff's department. Hilarious.

Speaking of R. Lee, the cast is perfect. The victims are each ideal in their roles as are the members of the Hewitt family. The acting is spot on in each case. There's no camping it up or coasting through. The reactions of everyone are as perfect as they could be in the situations in which they find themselves. And the pure, nasty evil of the attackers are as varied and perfect as they could be as well.

As an aside, there's nothing like that first time that Leatherface starts up his chainsaw in any of his movies. But this one is even better. It is THE first time. Hell, I was ecstatic when he first found the damn thing. (It's almost touching when he walks with it down the road...his own found baby.) But when he starts it - and the under circumstances in which he starts it - holy crap. The artist has found his medium. Heh.

So go see this film! Have a frickin' blast! Cheer on the anti-hero! And begin, once again, to second guess that delicious barbecue you eat in a small town out in the middle of nowhere.