The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Five friends on a road trip pick up a scarred hitchhiker who seems haunted by a terrible past. The moment they try to help her, their carefree ride turns tense and claustrophobic as danger closes in. When their wheels sputter across a desolate back road, they stumble into a ramshackle compound run by a violent clan with a chainsaw ready to strike. What begins as a tense encounter quickly spirals into a brutal chase as the group realizes the danger is not just one man but a family whose appetite for blood seems unending. With the clock ticking and every door a potential trap, the survivors scramble across open land and cramped interiors in a desperate bid to stay ahead.

Directed by Marcus Nispel, this 2003 remake featuring Jessica Biel reimagines the 1974 classic, drawing on Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's origin while Scott Kosar crafts a screenplay. It aimed for a visceral experience suited to modern audiences, reaching audiences.

The film opened strong at the box office, grossing 107,967,319 dollars worldwide on a modest 9.5 million budget, underscoring the franchise's enduring appeal to horror fans across borders. Its commercial success helped spur subsequent remakes and franchise entries over time.

Among early 2000s horror remakes this film helped refine a blunt brutal mode that favors immediacy over subtext. The imagery of a masked figure and his cannibalistic clan became instantly recognizable, fueling parodies, homages, and a renewed appetite for ruthless thrillers in mainstream pop culture across films, games, and television.

Critical response was mixed, with praise for intensity and Biel's commitment, while some critics argued the remake mirrors the original too closely. The story centers on survival under relentless threat and probes how violence corrodes trust, reshapes communities, and places a brutal spotlight on moral boundaries in intimate, everyday settings.