In 1974, director Tobe Hooper instilled fear into the hearts of moviegoers everywhere with his chilling portrayal of the murder of a group of teenagers by a neurotic Texas family.

Very loosely inspired by a true story, the 2003 version of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is more a reinterpretation of the events which transpired than simply a remake of the original film.

In a direct comparison of the two films, the modern version strays drastically from the major components of the 1974 cult classic. The film lacks much of the cheesy dialogue and stupid antics of the original, excludes the perverse dinner scene and explores the characters a little more in depth, at least before they start dying.

Standing alone, however, the update deserves serious credit.

In truth, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” only maintains the basic framework of its original conception; most of the details are changed.

The film opens “Blair Witch” style with some scratchy crime scene footage from the site of the 1973 murders and a narrative voice-over by John Laroquette.

A group of teenagers are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas after a mini-vacation in Mexico. Along the way they almost run over a young girl wandering in the middle of the road.

Erin (Jessica Biel) persuades her boyfriend Kemper (Eric Balfour) to pick her up. Unresponsive at first, the girl starts muttering random things about people being dead and then pulls a gun out from her blood-soaked dress and puts a bullet through the back of her skull.

Needing to dispose of the body, the group, which also includes Andy (Mike Vogel), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker) and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), stops at a local gas station to phone the police. They are directed to the Old Crawford Mill, where they are supposed to find the sheriff, but instead find the Hewitt family and their disgustingly decrepit home.

The sadistic sheriff, played by “Full Metal Jacket” drill sergeant R. Lee Ermy, comes only after Erin and Kemper have gone to call him again. Ermy oozes terror in the movie and his presence commands both attention and fear.

In the house, Kemper is the first to encounter Leatherface, a chainsaw-wielding murderer who gets off on sewing his victims’ faces together and then wearing them to cover his own deformities.

After Kemper dies, it’s all downhill as Leatherface pursues the remaining characters through a maze of hanging sheets, the woods, his family’s home and the town slaughterhouse, never laying down his weapon of choice.

Though the remainder of the film is primarily spent in the chase sequence format, it never lets go of the element of suspense. Surprisingly, given the subject matter, the film is deficient in gore. What it lacks in splatter, however, it makes up for with sheer psychological terror.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is gripping, nailbiting and edge-of-the-seat frightening. Owing much to the realism that it portrays, the movie is guaranteed to make viewers gasp, cringe and think twice before driving in Texas.

One thing that needs clarification, though, is the crime scene footage in the film. Despite how real this footage appears, it’s fictional – completely.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has capitalized for three decades on the words “inspired by a true story,” but it is worthwhile to note here that the “true story” was of serial killer Ed Gein, on whom Leatherface is largely based, not on the embellishment of a family of Texas cannibals.

However, this is also part of the genius behind the film. These words make the events feel real and generate the bone-chilling fear that no run-of-the-mill horror film without this tagline can create.

Grade: A-