The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a prequel to the recent remake of Tobe Hooper's classic 1974 splatter film, with an emphasis on the vogue for torture and bottomless depravity that characterize contemporary horror. As one might expect, The Beginning is just that, an origins tale about the Hewitt family of backwoods Texas. Step by step, we discover the source of their taste for human flesh, penchant for snaring young people passing through, and, most of all, how young Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski) came to choose his favorite power tool and wear a mask made of someone else's flesh. R. Lee Ermey is very effective in his perverse authority figure mode as Hoyt, the lawman who earned his badge through unorthodox means and now supplies specialized food to the Lone Star cannibals. Much less interesting than Hooper's two Massacre films, The Beginning (on which Hooper has a production credit) is not so much a tribute to the films he directed but a more sadistic continuation of the franchise. --Tom Keogh