10 Smartest Decisions In Slasher Horror Movie History

7. Head For The Slaughterhouse - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Remakes, eh? Most people baulk at the idea of putting a new spin on an old classic, with the rehashing of old ideas being one of Hollywood's greatest cruxes in recent times. Originality and new ideas are out of the window, they say, and what was once old is now new again.

Despite a large portion of remakes being admittedly either a) pointless, or b) goddamn awful, one of the better remakes out there is Marcus Nispel's 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

On the smarts front, it's Jessica Biel's Erin that gets kudos here.

After being put through the usual torture and torment associated with the Sawyer family, Erin is running for her life as the bounding figure of Leatherface closes in on her. In a move that proved to be the game-changing moment in Erin's battle for her life, she decides to take up residence in a locker in the Sawyer clan's slaughterhouse.

Presumably, this resting place was simply chosen because it was the nearest place available when a chainsaw-wielding maniac is on your tail, but the happenstance of this safeguard locale was that Leatherface was unable to find Erin - especially thanks to a timely pig that happened to get in Leatherface's viewpoint.

Thanks to that pig distracting ol' Leatherface, it gave Erin the chance to launch a surprise meat cleaver attack on her hulking opponent and lop-off one of his arms before making her big fist-pumping escape to freedom.

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 day job, 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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.