10 Worst Horror Prequels Ever Made

8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Red Dragon Anthony Hopkins
New Line Cinema

If Platinum Dunes' Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake felt pointless, then this prequel is even doubly so - tacking on a half-baked Leatherface origin story to the thing the filmmakers actually wanted: more screentime for R. Lee Ermey's Sheriff Hoyt.

Hoyt and the Hewitt family 'return' in a story which explains elements of the family legacy nobody ever really cared about in the first place: how Hoyt came by his Sheriff's badge, why Leatherface wears the leather, um, face, and what's with the whole cannibalism deal. Like its predecessor, it's gory, cruel and slickly produced (too slick to be a Texas Chain Saw fick, perhaps), but its narrative dead end makes it impossible for the audience to care.

Still, at least it's not as bad as Texas Chainsaw 3D or - shudders - The Next Generation.

Contributor
Contributor

A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.