“Ah,” you say, “but you told us it was a double feature, and now a day later there’s still only one movie mentioned.” (See how I pretend I have daily readers? It’s downright adorable is what it is.) Well, you’re right about that. As it happens, I saw a second movie, which had not quite as much irritating pun potential, but still more than is preferable. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is, on the face of it, a seriously pointless movie. It’s a prequel to the remake of a movie that itself had two sequels. Mind you, the remake was very good as remakes go, though it simply couldn’t live up to that original film, which was filled with non-stop tension that only old-school grainy filmstock can provide, as well as (I’m pretty sure) the single most annoying wheelchaired character in the history of film. It’s possible the latter part isn’t a selling point for everyone, but I like it when my movies are superlative in some way. Of course, Chainsaw is superlative in more than one way, so that’s good too.

Anyhow, that was the face of it. The reality of it is… well, there’s a 15 or 20 minute short subject film in which most of the beginning is explored, true to their words. Then it turns into ‘Let’s kill some pretty hippies and/or bikers!’ for the next hour; while that’s what one should expect from a movie in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, it does seem like a pretty thin premise on which to hang a prequel. And they’re not even naked hippies. What is the Vietnam era coming to, these days? Anyhow, after the hour, there’s a little bit more with the prequel bait, and I’m have to say that they finally managed to get an iconic moment in there. Although I’ll admit to watching anything with the word ‘chainsaw’ in the title, I’m still willing to say with authority that as sequels and prequels go, this one at least falls above the 50 percent mark, and if you’re only including horror movies, it easily gets a passing grade after the curve. After all, it was merely not very pointful; it was still competently plotted and filmed.