Critics Scoreboard
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...
Average Critic Score:
29
(18 sources)
29
(18 sources)
-
50
LA Weekly
Few surprises lie in store for connoisseurs of torture cinema, though unlike its 2003 predecessor, this Massacre owes less to Bay's attention-deficient aesthetics than to the measured, Georgia O'Keefe-on-acid sensibility that guided Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's much-cannibalized original. Read Full Review » -
50
-
50
The Hollywood Reporter
The whole fear-of-obese-hillbillies device is starting to smell as stale as Leatherface's playroom. Does this horror trend simply reflect a national fear, as giant radioactive ants personified the Bomb in the 1950s? If so, maybe it's time for us all to go on a diet; America needs fresh fodder for its boogeymen. Read Full Review » -
50
Film Threat
"The Beginning" is a better movie than the 2003 remake, even if the plot is understandably similar. There are only so many ways hapless teens can get brutally slaughtered, after all, but Liebesman and company keep things appropriately creepy, right down to aping the look of the 1974 original. Read Full Review » -
50
Los Angeles Times
This is not a slick, jokey horror movie in the post-"Scream" mold, but a genuine attempt to strip the coating from the audience's nerves. It's nasty and brutish, if not particularly short. Read Full Review » -
50
San Francisco Chronicle
A lot more enjoyable if you can leave your cognitive skills at the door. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Reader
More or less restages Tobe Hooper's 1974 original, including its much-loved family dinner scene. Read Full Review » -
38
TV Guide
Who will survive and what will be left of them? If you don't have a pretty good idea, this is not the movie for you. If you do, rest assured you've seen it all before. Read Full Review » -
38
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38
New York Post
Misses everything that made the first one eat into your spine like meningitis. Read Full Review » -
30
Washington Post
Sadly, this movie is a far cry from the atmospheric, even thoughtfully crafted original, which made you truly scared for the unkempt, everyman victims. But this latest version, though just as grisly, is literally hackwork, and stars a forgettable, airbrushed cast of slaughterees. Read Full Review » -
30
Austin Chronicle
Only good old Leatherface literally mirrors the festering cultural and political corruption of the era, and to the film's vast discredit, this hideous echo is never even noted. Read Full Review » -
25
-
25
Boston Globe
The new prequel isn't really a slasher movie at all. It's a mess, with too much to say, and an odd genre in which to preach. Read Full Review » -
25
Miami Herald
If watching people having their faces cut off, getting their legs amputated and having their throats tenderly slit is your idea of a horrific good time, you'll certainly get your money's worth here. Read Full Review » -
25
Entertainment Weekly
Unlike "Hostel" or "Wolf Creek," TCM:B is rank and depressing. Read Full Review » -
20
-
0
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