10 Awful Horror Movies With One Brilliant Kill

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers John Strode
New Line Cinema

In a franchise that currently consists of eight movies - with a ninth on the way later this year - it's fair to say that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a property that only has maybe three genuinely good movies to its name. And for 2006's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, this picture is one of the true duds of the series.

Sure, there's plenty of choppy-choppy chainsaw action throughout this prequel picture, but the vast majority of the film's kills are dragged down by the stench of the overall awfulness of The Beginning.

There's a pretty solid death for a biker earlier in the movie, but the sole excellent demise of Jonathan Liebesman's TCM effort is the murder of final girl Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) by Leatherface during the final seconds of the film.

What's most fun about Chrissie's slaughter, is that horror hounds have long been conditioned to presume that this final girl will evade Leatherface's clutches and make it out alive. Not only is that what we've been conditioned to presume, but The Beginning actually puts that plan in motion by having Chrissie escape from the franchise's famed killer and drive off to safety.

That safety didn't come to be, of course, with Chrissie's break for freedom brought to a crushing halt when Leatherface appears in the backseat of her car and runs a chainsaw through her torso.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.