Mindblowingly gruesome and gory and thoroughly entertaining roller-coaster ride  takes the updated atmosphere of the 2003 remake and notches it even further in a prequel that effectively delineates the origin of Leatherface and his cannibalistic family. R Lee Ermey returns as the "sheriff" we met in the 2003 remake, realistically caring for his family in his own misguided and brutal way. Especially of note in the cast is Jordana Brewster, who beyond being devastatingly beautiful, is really outstanding in the role of the major female heroine  convincingly and movingly portraying the terror and the resilience of an innocent girl struggling to survive while confronted with unimaginable horrors and witnessing the brutality done to her closest friends. Probably her best moment  beyond the scene where she hides under the table as Leatherface has his way with her boyfriend, is the quiet moment where she stands at the door to the Hewitt home, staring at freedom, inches away, and then reluctantly does the right thing and turns to proceed haltingly upstairs to help her friend. And as her friend, Diora Baird was also quite convincing - and a dynamite screamer. The two young male leads were effective and likable, and sympathetic in their own back story.<br /><br />The effectswork is terrific yet not overdone, fitting seamlessly into the storyline to visually tell the story of the horrors committed by this family, and the film is very well supported by the music score of Steve Jablonsky, who develops the atmospheric tonality developed for the 2003 remake and crafts a musical design that maintains a constancy of dread and a rhythmic, panic-inducing pulse during the action scenes. The main theme, a horn melody intoned over a rhythmic underworking of fast-moving violins, really drives the film's excitement when it's not creating haunting tonalities during the suspenseful moments. Jablonsky's reprisal of Leatherface's theme is especially moving when he puts on the face of one of his victims, wearing the human mask (the "leather face") for the first time  the score crescendos in a slow ascent of triumph, yet tinged with the horror relevant in that triumph. John Larroquette's narration at the end neatly tied into his opening monologue for the 2003 remake  not to mention the original 1974 film.<br /><br />As the latest take on the TCM franchise, the film, beyond being a terrific and not-for-the-squeamish horror picture, adds to the TCM mythology and illuminates the dementia behind America's most ghoulish family, although it fails to provide an truly adequate psychological explanation or rationale to the events of the family's cannibalistic origin beyond suggestion that they were a survivalist reaction to circumstances. THE BEGINNING covers the events that started the family's rural rampage of murder; real insight into what makes the family, and the character tick, wasn't really what this film was about.