HogMaul

I saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre at a repertory cinema in Toronto many years ago.  It was a big mistake.  It completely messed with my mind.  It seemed so real, so brutal and it was filmed in what was kind of like "found footage" long before "found footage" was a technique.  I still have nightmares.

Years later I was driving home from Pittsburgh during a blinding snow storm.  It was late afternoon and as the snow began to let up, I felt tired and thought it best to find a motel, watch some Monday Night Football, and get a good night's rest.  As dusk began to settle in, I saw a sign for a motel five miles off the next exit.  I wasn't sure exactly where I was but I knew I was somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I pulled up to a roadside motel that looked like a row of trailers (mobile homes).  It looked a bit sketchy, but I was tired.  The first thing that struck me was that there where no cars parked in front of any of the six doors that led into the rooms.  As I closed the car door, one of the guest room screen doors was caught by a gust of wind and slammed hard.  I nearly jumped.

The office, situated on the extreme left had a simple sign, "office" on the door. I walked into a very simple room with cheap wood panelling and a counter.  On the counter there was only a bell and beyond the counter was a door.  I heard a television beyond that door.  I assessed the situation and decided I wasn't going to stay, but for some reason I rang the bell.  After a minute or so a young, large, formless women with slightly crossed eyes emerged from behind the door and said with a slight southern drawl, "can ah... help you?"

I stared at her blankly staring blankly at me and said, "no thank you.  have a good evening."  I was in the car and back on the interstate before my heart rate had a chance to normalize.

The whole inbred, generations of cousins marrying cousins etc. freaks the hell out me.

Oh yeah, HogMaul, The Legend of Abrams County.

There was a dark simplicity to the trailer.  A voice over tells us of the legend of Abrams County and disappearances in the woods as the camera follows a large man with a sledge hammer.  Very little else is given away - that is to say, not a spoiler trailer.

The trailer accomplished a few things.  It implied that this "legend" is based on truth, it showed someone with a sledgehammer who may have been the killer or maybe someone hunting the killer and it showed no other characters nor gave clues to the story - it just told the legend.

As a teaser trailer, it was simple, creepy in a Texas Chainsaw sort of way (and creepy because it takes place in Pennsylvania) and most importantly, it didn't give away anything.   So as a teaser trailer it worked.

The HogMaul.website says that it will be released in 2013.  Maybe this review is premature but I hope it gets made and I look forward to seeing it.

Check out the trailer at   http://www.hogmaulmovie.com