Texas Chainsaw IV (cuz 3 wasn’t enough!)

Back in 1994 a couple of no name actors decided to hook up with an equally no name low budget writer (Kim Henkel) who decided to make his directorial debut with yet another installment in the Chainsaw series. I might also add that this debut was his ONLY directorial effort.

Never heard of him? Neither have I. But I have heard of the two no name actors in this installment: Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger. Talk about an odd combination!

So the movie starts out with some kids at prom: geeky Jenny (played by Renee), her boyfriend Sean, not geeky Heather, and Heather's boyfriend Barry. When Heather catches Barry cheating on her, she grabs Jenny and Sean and together they take off in Barry's car. Well Barry goes running after them, ends up getting in the car, argues with Heather, and collectively they manage to get into two separate car accidents. The second of which leaves them stranded late at night in the Texas wilderness.

Talk about a set up! Wrecked car, sex starved kids, woods, night.... hhhmmm.... the only thing missing is a psychopath!

Enter psychopath tow truck driver Vilmer, played by none other than Matthew McConaughey. Naturally I was gaa-gaa when I saw him, even though they had equipped him with a gimp leg that had some type of mechanical contraption thingy attached to it - he still looked hot! (At least, up until he killed his first victim!)

So in keeping with the required criteria, the kids split up. Sean stays with the car, Heather and Barry end up running after another car, and Jenny kind of stands around looking for some sort of portal that will take her back to Kansas.

Problem is, Kansas can't be seen from Texas, and poor little wandering Jenny finally gets picked up by Vilmer. His sparkling (I use that term loosely) personality does nothing to dissuade her from getting into his truck where she soon finds out the dead body of her boyfriend is being temporarily stored!

YIKES!

There's not a whole lot of deep dialog in this movie (it's not a B-movie requirement, ya' know) but there is a hell of alot of yelling. Mostly by Jenny, Vilmer, and the chainsaw wielding Leatherface. There is also some really classic B-moves that I feel need to be pointed out:

• Jenny climbs UP to get away from Leatherface. And by "up" I mean to the top of the antennae on the roof! DUH! Am I the only one who sees this as being a potentially bad move??

• After being almost filleted by Leatherface, tortured by Vilmer, and witness to some really twisted shit, Jenny gets into a limo with the first guy that asks her to. Hmmmm..... wonder if there is another psycho in that there car??

• When Vilmer goes extra wacko and starts cutting various parts of his body open, he doesn't gush blood. As a matter of fact, in a matter of a minute, he wounds are nothing more than mere scratches. Super human healing powers! Cool!

• When Jenny hooks up with some grandma and grandpa in an RV towards the end of the movie, they wreck, and no one bothers to see if they lived, died, or decided to go out for a bite to eat.....

I am sure there are more but these are what stick out in my mind at the moment. That, and the fact that nobody gets eaten in this movie. As a matter of fact, dinner was take out pizza! WTF??? It's supposed to be a family of redneck cannibals, and what we get instead is some guy who is convinced people from another planet are spying on him. LAME! (But in a very entertainingly cheesy sort of way.)

Anyway, almost everybody gets diced up, as they should in movies such as this, so be sure not to form any special "you had me at hello" attachment to any of the key players. Though there isn't a tremendous amount of bloodshed or gore, there is certainly enough mayhem to keep you entertained throughout. The movie starts up with a bang, and continues to hold it til the last breath is drawn.

This was the first real role in film for both actors, and it's obvious their careers did not suffer because of it. Not everyone enjoys really cool movies such as this (not like I do, anyway) so both Matt and Renee opted for a movie career path with more substance. Luckily there are a bunch more no name, no talent actors where they came from!

Unfortunately this was the last of the Chainsaw installments, though a couple of them were remade. This movie makes it official that I basically like them all. What about you? Have you seen it?