Franchises: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

While I never saw the VHS for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre at Harold's video rental store (although I would later learn it was there), and I don't know if they ever had the one for Chainsaw 2, I do have a vivid memory of seeing the VHS for this one. Unlike most of the other memories I have of the store's horror section, this one occurred when I was in early high school, but I still found the box cover artwork (which you see here on the poster) to be really unsettling. Coupled with everything I'd heard and knew about the franchise at that point, it seemed to confirm my feeling that this was probably not a series I wanted to subject myself to. Fast forward to the summer of 2005, when I bought this, along with Chainsaw 2, on DVD and more or less watched them back to back, perhaps with a day in-between them. After not knowing what to make of the insanity that is Chainsaw 2 at the time, and finding its black comedy and satire really off-putting, especially after I had seen both the original and the remake many times before, this seemed like it would be more my cup of tea. For one, everything I'd read at the time made it feel like it was more in line with the original, at least in terms of tone. For another, because of the high opinion of it that those two classmates I mentioned before had, coupled with a few other reviews I'd read, I got the impression that it was generally more well thought of than its predecessor and seen as something of a course-correction (boy, was I wrong). And finally, the trailer, which I'd seen at FYE, like the others, was freaking awesome. So, I went into this feeling it would probably deliver the goods in terms of what I wanted, and I came out of it feeling quite satisfied. It was no masterpiece or anything, but I really liked the direction it decided to take after the second film and I enjoyed it a lot more. Granted, I now hold the second film in just as much regard as this one, but I thought and I still do think that, among the original four films, this is the one that came the closest to being like the original, even if it didn't quite hit the mark there. 

However, it seems like I'm definitely on an island with that opinion because, among the original four movies in the series, Leatherface (regardless of the 2017 movie that is just called that, I'm going to continue to refer to this one as such) isn't talked about that much. Part of that has to be do with Chainsaw 2's growth in popularity over the years but it's mostly because this movie is generally viewed as quite generic and run-of-the-mill. While everyone talks about the original because of its iconic status and importance in the history of horror, Chainsaw 2 because of its insane tone, dark humor, and satire, and the next film because of how utterly awful it is, Leatherface is typically seen as a rather toothless attempt by a studio to make a mainstream franchise out of something that isn't mainstream. There is a bit of truth in that, at least in how the movie came to be in the first place and, as we'll get into, it definitely didn't reach its full potential due to all of the studio interference in the script and how it was utterly butchered before release. Also, I won't deny that it's hardly the most ambitious movie, and it does trod over well-worn ground but, own personal connection to it aside, I still feel that it has merit in its own right and does work for what it is.

Michelle and Ryan, a couple from Los Angeles, are traveling through Texas on their way to Florida in order to drop off the car, which belongs to Michelle's father, and to then go their separate ways. That night, their trip turns macabre when they pass through a security checkpoint at a spot where the police are supervising the excavation of a horrific mass grave. The next day, after hitting and then being forced to euthanize an armadillo, they stop at the Last Chance Gas Station, run by a very disturbed and perverted man named Alfredo. They also meet Tex, a handsome, hitchhiking cowboy who asks for a ride but, while Michelle is up for it, Ryan insists they can't due to their being on a tight schedule. After a fight breaks out between Tex and Alfredo when the former catches him peeping on Michelle while she's in the restroom, Alfredo grabs a shotgun and threatens them. Tex implores the others to get out of there, and when they do, Alfredo seemingly shoots him. In a panic, Ryan tells Michelle to take a route that Tex showed him earlier and said would be a lot quicker. However, come nightfall, they find themselves lost in the backwoods and chased by someone driving a huge truck. The truck passes them, but the driver throws a coyote's carcass onyo their hood, causing Michelle to lose control and blow out one of the tires. As Ryan tries to change the tire, Leatherface appears and attacks them with his chainsaw. They manage to escape, and even accidentally knock him off his feet, but down the road, Michelle swerves to avoid hitting Tex, who suddenly stumbles out in front of them. They side-swipe a jeep coming from the other direction, wrecking both vehicles, and the jeep's driver, a survivalist named Benny, opts to help them. Initially, he doesn't believe their story about being hunted, but they quickly show him evidence that convinces him. He then goes to look for Tex, after giving Michelle and Ryan some painkillers. However, both he and the couple soon run afoul of both Leatherface and his cannibalistic family, and it's ultimately up to Benny to prevent them from becoming the family's next meal. 

New Line Cinema, who'd distributed the original film in various re-releases in the late 70's and early 80's, had wanted to develop The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 but, of course, Cannon got a hold of it first. But, after Chainsaw 2's release and the conclusion of Tobe Hooper's deal with Cannon, New Line picked up the rights, intending to turn Leatherface into a full-blown franchise character, the same way they'd done with Freddy Krueger (which is likely why his name is emphasized in the title). Though he was likely done as far as directing went, Hooper was very briefly involved, submitting a story treatment to the executives at New Line, which they ultimately didn't use, but left the project altogether to direct Spontaneous Combustion, which, as we all know, was the better choice on his part (if you couldn't tell, I'm being sarcastic in every sense of the word). Regardless, New Line, particularly Bob Shaye, were keen on steering the tone away from the comedic direction that the second film had taken. To that end, they hired David J. Schow, a popular horror novelist at the time, to write the screenplay. Other than to make it as tough, violent, and scary as possible (which the studio ultimately backed away from during the revisions), Schow also decided to make references to the original film, as well as give Leatherface a completely new family, something I know Jeff Burr had a problem with, as well as how close it sometimes gets to the original movie.

New Line were no strangers to fast-tracking a movie before everything, including the script and/or the director, was completely set, having done that with a couple of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. When it came to Leatherface, they were so intent upon creating hype for it that they came up with a teaser trailer before they'd hired a director. This trailer, as I said in the introduction, is freaking awesome. It starts off all serene at this lakeside, with lovely music and a figure standing by it, as a narrator tells us, "Some tales are told, then soon forgotten. But a legend is

forever." Then, in an awesome take on King Arthur, a chainsaw emerges from the lake, head by a woman's hand, it tumbles through the air, the figure catches it, lightning strikes it, and it charges up. The figure then turns around, is revealed to be Leatherface (supposedly played by Kane Hodder, who'd go on to be a stunt coordinator and double on the actual film, although he himself disputes this), and the camera zooms in on the mask. As the title comes up, and a saw blade with "The Saw is Family" engraved on it comes across the screen, the narrator tells us, "Now, from the producers of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the real terror begins." Whatever you may think of the movie itself, you have to admit that's a great way to build up hype.

The studio went through a good number of directors, including Peter Jackson, whom they would also try to get for the sixth Nightmare on Elm Street, and Tom Savini, who chose instead to direct the remake of Night of the Living Dead (which makes sense, given his close connection with George Romero). They actually hired a prospective director, Jonathan Betuel, who'd written The Last Starfighter and directed a couple of episodes of Freddy's Nightmares, but he quit at the last minute (I was about to say that, considering he went on to writer and direct Theodore Rex, his only theatrical directing credit, New Line may have dodged a bullet, but then I learned that they produced that film as well). Eventually, they went with Jeff Burr, who'd done From a Whisper to a Scream, with Vincent Price, and had just finished Stepfather II. And this is where we come to a very personal and solemn attachment I have to this film, as Jeff Burr was a very good friend of mine. I met him at a convention in Pikeville, Kentucky in 2010 and, due to our common interests in films, we remained close friends, often communicating through e-mails and getting together in Chattanooga, up until his death in October of 2023. I wrote a tribute to him when he passed away, so go there if you want to know more, but he was a very good guy, as modest as you can get, often feeling he'd made more mistakes in his career than actual successes (which I, personally, don't agree with), and it hit me hard when he died. I will try to be objective towards this film, which I genuinely liked even before I met Jeff (whom I will also continue to refer to by just his first name) but doing this update is going to be rather difficult. 

Thanks to the documentaries The Saw Is Family: Making Leatherface and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth, I knew before I met him that Jeff had mixed feelings about the film. The experience he had filming it was quite frustrating and difficult, mainly because he had to crank it out on a low budget of around $3 million on a tight schedule of 30 or so days. He also had the disadvantage of not only working on a ranch near Magic Mountain but also having to shoot a movie that is almost entirely set at night during a time of year where the evenings are quite short. And, akin to what Tobe Hooper went through with Cannon, Jeff had to contend with the studio, who were constantly on his back about getting the film done in the time allotted and without going over budget by a cent. Members of the cast and crew have said that they heard the producers and execs saying not so nice things about him, saying he wasn't qualified to make this kind of movie, that he didn't know what he was doing, etc. And again, the studio was banking on this to be the first in a franchise, so he was under a lot of pressure to really deliver on it (in fact, they fired him at one point, but rehired him within just a few days because they couldn't find a replacement). Then, after filming was completed, he had to deal with the headache of making the film "acceptable" to both New Line's head of foreign distribution and the ratings board, which resulted in a theatrical version that he felt made him look incompetent (the theatrical version isn't the best, I'll give him that, but that's the version I first watched and I still liked it, so there's that as well). And before the film was released, he had an angry phone conversation with executive producer Michael De Luca where he told him, "I want my name taken off the fucking movie!" Now, I'm not telling you all of this to make you pity Jeff or to say that, because you now know this, you must like the movie if you didn't already; I just want you to understand before we get into it that he was put into a very frustrating situation and always admitted that the movie was far from perfect and that he had to make a lot of damaging compromises from what he initially intended for it. (It's kind of akin to what happened to David Fincher on Alien 3, although far less embittering, since Jeff would, at least, talk about Leatherface!)

One of Leatherface's weak points for me is the young couple, Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler). They're not loathsome or annoying, and Hodge and Butler give decent enough performances, but I don't find them to be that compelling, either. For one, it's weird that they're meant to be a couple because, for the longest time, I thought they were brother and sister. I guess it's because they don't have the chemistry of a couple (probably because Butler is gay in real life), as they never so much as kiss, and the only bit of intimate affection they show is when Ryan occasionally puts his arm around Michelle. But, after another re-watch, I realized they're talking about being over once they reach Florida and go their separate ways, with Michelle adding she needs some time on her. You don't get a sense of why they're on the outs, but it's not important to the overall plot and, fortunately, they don't bicker about it to the point where you wish they'd shut up. 

Both characters have their good points. Michelle comes off as the type who likes to avoid trouble, like when she encourages Ryan not to press the issue when, at the security checkpoint at the mass grave, a police officer tells him that what happened is none of his business. She also has a sympathetic side that we see, like when, after they accidentally hit an armadillo, she doesn't want to leave it there to suffer and tries to put it out of its misery. But she can't bring herself to do it and so, Ryan has to. Later, when they get to the gas station, she's still upset about it, only for Tex to tell her, "There's roadkill all over Texas. It's the natural order of things." When Tex asks for a ride, Michelle says, "We could discuss it," going against Ryan's insistence that they don't have the time, mostly because she's clearly attracted to the handsome Tex. But when he's supposedly killed by Alfredo, Michelle is desperate to find a cop to report it to, and when they later see him in the road when they're first escaping from Leatherface and then meet Benny, she asks Benny to help find him. And when she's looking for help after Ryan gets caught in a bear trap and Leatherface puts the saw to him, she wanders into a house she finds in the middle of the woods and tries to comfort a sobbing little girl whom she finds inside. Granted, she's not nearly as frantic as she should be, given what just happened, but she stills prove sympathetic here, regardless. However, this time, her sympathy gets her in trouble when the girl is revealed to be a member of the family, and Michelle is then captured and incapacitated by Tex. 

Like Sally in the original film, Michelle has to endure being held captive and mentally tortured by the family. It's much more physically painful for her than it was for Sally, though, as her hands are actually nailed to the arms of a chair and she's later gagged. She also tries to reason with the mother of the family, just as Sally did with Drayton, but to no avail. Worst of all, she has to endure Ryan being dragged in, hung upside down, and later finished off, before they family decides to keep her around for a while and, "Let Junior play some." Moreover, they intend on

removing her private parts at some point. Fortunately for her, before the torture can go any further, Benny intervenes and kills most of the family, allowing Michelle to get herself out of there, painfully pulling her hands up through the nails. Tex tries to stop her, but she manages to grab a knife and stab him in the shoulder, before running out the door. And while I do wish she'd done something to help Benny in his fight with Leatherface in the marsh, like throwing a rock at his head, as she does a few minutes later, she makes up for it when she and Benny are ambushed by

Alfredo at the end. She bites and kicks at him, and eventually blows him away with his own shotgun. Before she does, Alfredo calls her bluff, asking, "What are the chances of a brainless bitch like you knowin' how to use that thing? Hmm?!", and she cocks the gun and answers, "Pretty goddamn good, you backwoods motherfucker." That's awesome. My only real complaint about Michelle is that she tends not to listen to Ryan, even when he's making a good point, like when he's telling her that he needs the

flashlight so he can properly change their car's tire but she keeps shining it out into the desert because she hears something. Also, after they're then ambushed by Leatherface and drive away, Ryan tells her to stop so he can finish attaching the tire but she refuses. I know she's scared but still, he has a really good point. And she calls out for Benny at one point when she knows that Leatherface is out there, which is really stupid on her part.

I would have to say, though, that Ryan is my favorite of the two, mainly because William Butler always has a very likable presence to him. He's a bit of a sarcastic smartass, calling the police officer at the security checkpoint "Deputy Dawg," and commenting, "Okay. I didn't want to be on TV anyway," after he tells him that what happened at the crime scene is none of his business, but he's mainly just a likable jokester. At one point, he says, "Looks like we're about here," and when Michelle asks, "Where?", he responds, "The middle of nowhere." And after he uses the Last Chance Gas Station's restroom, he tells her when she goes to use it, "It'll change your life." I also feel that Ryan is more practical, as he has no problem doing what has to be done and putting the injured armadillo out of its misery when Michelle is unable to. And when Tex keeps trying to get a ride from the two of them, he says, "Yeah, I understand you're trying to get home. But listen to me. We can't help you, okay? I'm sorry." Some might see that as dickish on Ryan's part, and it's clear he's jealous over Michelle's interest in Tex, but he'd already fairly politely told him they don't have time to take him where he needs to go and when he keeps pushing, Ryan feels he has to be a little more stern to get the message across. Also, while he does temporarily lose it after they're first attacked by Leatherface, you also have to like Ryan for keeping a relatively cool head for the most part and helping Michelle when they're being hunted, getting her up and moving in order to metabolize the painkillers Benny gave them out of their systems. And when they're attacked again by Leatherface and Ryan gets his foot caught in a bear trap, he tells Michelle to run so she won't get killed too. Unfortunately for Ryan, despite Leatherface sawing into him, he doesn't die right away. He's brought to the family's house, where he's hung upside down like a slab of meat, and is eventually killed by a Rube Goldberg-like apparatus that ends in a sledgehammer to the head. Most of the family is killed by Benny and Michelle before he can be turned into barbecue, and at least Ryan went out as an attempted hero, but man, as he himself notes, poor William Butler never survives these movies.

While Michelle and Ryan may not be the strongest leads, Ken Foree's Benny more than picks up the slack. By far my favorite character in the film, he's a well-prepared survivalist who gets caught up in the madness purely by accident, as he and the other two almost crash into each other while he's coming back from a survival retreat. While obviously not happy about his jeep being totaled, he doesn't hesitate to help Michelle and Ryan after they end up in a ravine. He's first skeptical about Ryan's claims that they're being stalked by crazy people, one of whom is wielding a chainsaw, feeling it's either just a delusion caused by his dazed condition or possibly drug-fueled, but when he sees evidence that they're telling the truth, he immediately takes it seriously and opts to go back to his jeep to get some weapons, as well as look for Tex, as Michelle asks. Up on the road, he comes across the family member named Tinker, and granted, he should've been a little more suspicious about this odd man with a hooked hand and a pit of an attitude who shows up out of nowhere, but it doesn't take him long to realize he's part of it. He then goes back to his jeep and tries to load up his assault rifle, only for Tinker to nearly run him down. He's next attacked by Leatherface but actually manages to hold his own and put up a fight against him. Leatherface does overpower and almost kill him, but he's saved by the intervention of Sara, a victim who escaped. After the two of them manage to evade him, Benny learns from her how the family operates and hunts people. Feeling bad for her, he thanks her for helping him, and shares a cigarette with her, before going to help Michelle and Benny. He then proves to be a real badass, as he walks around the woods and manages to avoid the traps the family has set up, punches out Alfredo, saves Michelle in the nick of time by blowing most of the family away with his assault rifle, lays down flat to avoid getting run over, beats up Tex and sets him on fire, and has a scuffle with Leatherface in the marsh. And he has some great lines that Foree often delivers in both a cool and awesome manner, like when he sees Leatherface sitting in his room in the house and, seeing the bones and stuff lying around, asks, "What kind of sick shit is this?" When he's fighting with Tex, he yells, "The fuck is wrong with you people?! Why don't you leave us alone?!", and when he answers, "We're hungry," Benny yells, "You ever heard of pizza?!" Not to mention how he yells, "Motherfucker!", right before he opens fire on the family and, before lighting Tex on fire, "You're toast, fuck!" 

But, no matter how much you may like Benny or appreciate that he does live in the end, you can't help but go, "That makes no sense." As dark as the nighttime cinematography is, you can see Leatherface put Benny's head right into the running chainsaw's blade, followed by him screaming and his arms going limp, but then, he suddenly shows up at the end with barely a cut on his forehead! The reason for this, which was one of several endings shot, was because the executives at New Line, specifically Bob Shaye, asked for the much bleaker original ending to be

changed and Benny's life spared since test audiences really liked him (and rightfully so), as well as because they intended to use him for further sequels. I don't even think Jeff shot the ending where Benny shows up, and he always agreed with the consensus that it makes no sense. I myself do like that he lives but I also agree that it feels like a very tacked on, studio-mandated happy ending.

Given how many felt that he was a pussy in the second movie, and that this was supposed to be the start of a new franchise centering around him, the filmmakers clearly felt they'd better make Leatherface into a more threatening character and thus, R.A. Mihailoff plays him with a lot more anger and rage than Gunnar Hansen and Bill Johnson. This isn't the whimpering, cowering man-child who, while dangerous to the family's prey, was terrified of his older siblings and let them beat on him and order him around; rather, this Leatherface isn't scared of anything, is much more intentionally fierce when on the attack, and, as Tinker alludes to, can be hard to keep in line. He also doesn't take any crap from his brothers. While he initially slinks down in shame when Tinker admonishes him for not catching Benny, when he then throws the walkman he took from Ryan into the oven, Leatherface grabs him and forces him to stick his good hand inside and pull it out. And he now knows how to drive a truck, actively using it to chase after and hunt down his prey, something it's hard to see the Leatherface in the first two movies doing... which can make it difficult to accept that this is the same character. Jeff and the other filmmakers justified it by saying that, if Leatherface had the mindset of a frightened child in the first two movies, here he's developed into more of a rebellious, out of control teenager. And when you take that piece of information and juxtapose it with what happened to the character in the previous film, you could say that the sexual awakening he had over Stretch eventually stirred something up in his handicapped, child-like mind and led to him becoming what he is now (though, that brings up the issue of whether or not Chainsaw 2 is even in canon with this film, as we'll get into).

Leatherface is also more sadistic here. When he kills Sara, he doesn't just simply gut her with the chainsaw; he lures her to a secluded spot, grabs her, slams her up against a tree, and then takes the chainsaw to her. Later on, when he's about to kill Michelle with his new saw, he revs and holds it up in front of her for a little bit before finally lunging towards her, as if he really wanted her to know that she was about die and how. There's also a sick perversion to him that's much different from the innocent, curious mindset of the man-child who just discovered sexual arousal in the

previous film. It's first hinted at in how, before he kills her, he creepily strokes Sara's face, as well as in how he apparently raped someone and sired a daughter. As if that isn't disgusting enough, he also seems to be a real deviant, with the way he looks at Michelle when Tex suggests they let him "play" with her You can't see his facial expressions or eyes behind the mask at that angle, but that stare says it all. Even worse is when we're told that he loves the private parts and Mama adds, "We knows what to do with them parts." Taking into account that he was about to

kill Michelle right after we've heard all this nasty stuff, marking her face with lipstick, it's not too difficult to think he may have intended to engage in necrophilia, as well as other "things" with her private parts. (God, does anybody else feel like they need to take a shower after reading that sick stuff I just wrote, because I do. I may need to scrub my brain as well.) And yet, there are still hints of that childlike mindset, like how he whimpers to Mama after he makes Tinker give him back his now melted walkman, or how, in

one of my favorite scenes, he plays a word game on this little device and keeps typing that a displayed image of a clown is food, even though it repeatedly tells him that he's wrong. He becomes more and more frustrated each time, eventually banging the table with his fist in anger.

While I still say the Leatherface masks in the original film were the creepiest, there's a really sick, twisted quality to the one he wears here that I like enough to say it might be my second favorite. Created by KNB, it has a gnarly, nasty look and feel, as well as a sense of crudeness to where I can buy it's sewn together from various different faces. It also helps that the closeups of his face, and there are a lot of them, are really unsettling, particularly when you can see his ugly teeth and chapped, diseased lips, and R.A. Mihailoff's facial expressions behind the mask are

very effective there as well. At the beginning of this film, we see something we hadn't yet: a montage of Leatherface making a mask. We see him kill a girl with a sledgehammer and then, after flaying off her face offscreen, cut it up with scissors and a straight razor, get rid of some of the excess moisture by dabbing it with a towel, and then sew it together. Given how small the face is, as well as some of the individual bits he cut up and sewed, we can safely assume it was one of several faces that make

up one whole mask. Finally, I have to comment on the new huge, silver and gold chainsaw that Tinker makes for Leatherface to replace the regular one he uses before. It's pretty damn cool, with its very long, shiny, chrome blade, with "The Saw is Family" engraved on it, and gold body and handle, with the sharp points on either side of the blade. It's something any chainsaw-wielding maniac would love to have, and it's a shame it isn't used in any kills except Benny's supposed death, which you barely seen anything of, and never appears again in any future films.

Since Peter Jackson was one of those considered to direct, it makes it ironic in retrospect that Viggo Mortensen appears here as Tex. The most normal-looking, as well as handsomest, Sawyer we've seen yet, he's sort of a cross between the Hitchhiker and Drayton. When Michelle and Ryan first meet him at the Last Chance Gas Station, he comes across as kindly, charming, and even apparently helpful, telling Ryan that a route that isn't on their map is a lot faster than the one that is; he's also desperate to get a ride home. He even seemingly gets shot by Alfredo, only to briefly show up in the middle of the road when Michelle and Ryan first escape from Leatherface. But when he appears at the Sawyer house and grabs Michelle, he proves how sadistic and cruel he really is. In fact, he may be the cruelest member of this particular clan, nailing Michelle's hands to the arms of a chair and threatening to put one in her head if she doesn't shut up; later putting a gag in her mouth and taping it up; telling Ryan, while he's barely alive and hanging upside down, that if he needs anything, "Just twitch,"; and while fighting with Benny, continuously taunting him. That's another thing: Tex loves to dish out verbal torture, which also makes him akin to Drayton, except he does it to his victims instead of his siblings. When he first grabs Michelle at the house, he tells the little girl, "They just get dumber and dumber," and while nailing her hands, asks, "So, how you like Texas?" While stripping Ryan down, both Tex and Tinker make fun of his under-shorts; and when they figure he'll supply them with enough meat to for a while, Tex tells Michelle, "Seems we get to wait a spell on you," then adds, "Maybe we should let Junior play some. He always does make the prettiest damn babies." And even though he's eerily calm for much of the movie, you do see just how unstable Tex really is when Tinker calls him Eddie, his clear real name, and he angrily slams a cleaver down on the table and emotionally exclaims, "I wish you'd call me Tex. I told you." It suggests that the "Tex" facade is who he'd rather be, as he's actually quite effeminate when they're at the house, wearing an apron and having painted his nails. Finally, he has genuine affection for his family, especially in how he consoles Tinker after Leatherface makes him burn his hand and how he lets the little girl finish Ryan off.

The same time we meet Tex, we also meet the most out there member of the clan, Alfredo (Tom Everett). In his own way, Alfredo is also a combination of Drayton and the Hitchhiker: he runs the gas station but, unlike Drayton, who managed to put on a sympathetic public face, he acts unstable and crazy all the time. He has sort of the same weird speech pattern as the Hitchhiker, tending to ramble on like both him and Chop Top (only much worse) and, in his first appearance, suddenly takes a picture of Michelle and demands money for it, insisting, "It's a good picture." Notably, he's the most sexually depraved Sawyer so far. He runs the entire gambit, from cutting up dirty pictures and pasting them on the restroom walls, making off-color remarks to and about Michelle when he's filling the car's tank up ("I'm gonna service you real good, babe. Don't you worry about it,"), and peeping at her while she's in the restroom, to more hideous stuff like kissing a woman's decapitated head and saying, "We had some good times, didn't we?" Thus, it's quite satisfying when Michelle kills him at the end of the movie. 

Alfredo comes off as something of an outcast among the family, in that they keep him at the gas station all the time to act as something of an early warning system for any fresh meat that enters the area. They also make him dispose of the remains of their victims, a task he complains about endlessly, and he never shows up for dinner (although one could argue that he was on his way after throwing the body parts into the marsh and Benny interrupted him). In fact, the only family member he directly interacts with is Tex at the gas station, and it's hard to tell whether or not

their fight is 100% a ruse. More than anything else, Alfredo just seems like he's full of bitterness and contempt for the rest of the family, talking a lot of trash about them when they're not around. He even goes as far as to make up a song on the spot about how much he hates being ordered around by them: "Clean that trap, Alfred/Clean it good/All you motherfuckers/Don't tell me what I should do," then adds, with a laugh, "Take your motherfucking face, Tex, and ram it up your butt. That's what I'm gonna

do!" And yet, despite all of this, he gleefully takes part in their trapping and stalking victims, like how, when Leatherface and Tinker drive off to hunt Michelle and Ryan down, he excitedly runs around in front of the gas station, shooting his shotgun in the air, and yelling, "It's Armageddon, bitch! It's Armageddon, you bitch! Goddammit! The trap is sprung now, honey!" And finally, there's no denying that Alfredo can be rather funny. When Benny shows up and confronts him in the marsh, pointing his

assault rifle at him, he's more confused and annoyed than intimidated, asking, "Do I know you?" (He also calls Benny O.J. at one point; boy, did that not age well.) And when Benny demands to know how many Sawyers there are, Alfredo just says, "Hey, baby, I only got one thing to say to you. You know what that is? I don't like the tone of your voice," then adds, "Fuck you, Mister!", and spits. That gets him punched into the marsh, though he shows up again at the end to briefly menace Michelle and Benny, before the former blows him away.

Tinker (Joe Unger) is, more than likely, the one who got the Sawyers into using more advanced methods to catch and kill their prey, as he has a real affinity for technology and machines, saying, "That's progress, boy. Technology is our friend," and, "We got the means, we got the machines." He loves technology so much, in fact, that he made it part of his body, putting a big metal hook in place of his right hand when he lost it (whether it was by accident or he did it on purpose is never made clear). Other than his role as the brains of the outfit, however, Tinker doesn't do anything that significant in the story. He almost runs over Benny when he first meets him, helps Tex hang Ryan upside down, gives Leatherface his new chainsaw, and tries to teach him a lesson in discipline that goes very badly for him (the latter are probably his most notable moments). Like Tex, it's clear he has real affection for his family, to the point where, when Tex gets upset when he calls him Eddie, Tinker pats his brother on the back and says, "I'm sorry, boy. Goddammit, I'm sorry." And we learn from the not so PC stuff that he calls Benny that he's most definitely a racist. At the end of the movie, it's unclear whether Tinker died or not. He gets shot up by Benny but the only injuries we see him suffer are two fingers on his left hand getting shot off, along with one of his ears. The last we see of him, he's lying on the floor, telling Tex, "Go get the meat!", and, "I'll be in Hell for breakfast," and we don't see him again after that, so I'm guessing he bled out.

The idea of there being a 9-to-10 year-old girl (Jennifer Banko) among the family, one who's as sadistic and twisted as the rest of them, is disturbing enough, but the idea that she's supposedly Leatherface's daughter, possibly conceived from the rape of a past female captive, makes it all the more twisted. They never actually flat-out say she is his daughter but there are subtle hints, like when Mama tells her to go wash up for dinner and she looks at Leatherface, who nods his head and kisses her before sending her off (I always thought that just meant he's a member of the family she's particularly fond of), and when Tex tells Michelle they're thinking about letting Leatherface "play" with her and that, "He does make the sweetest damn babies." Whether or not she is Leatherface's daughter, there's no doubt that she's a very nasty little brat. When Michelle first comes across her, she acts all scared and innocent, and then, when Michelle lets her guard down, the girl stabs her with a sharp object and, while operating her doll's mouth like a hand puppet (I thought said doll just looked like a little skeleton but, apparently, it's actually meant to be the remains of an infant!), says, "Yakkity-yack, don't talk back!" in a gravely little voice. While the reason that the family has resorted to cannibalism is because they have no other way to get food, to the girl, who's been around this stuff all her life, it's simply a second nature that she doesn't question. When Michelle asks the family why they're doing this, she matter-of-factly says, "Because if you don't poke 'em, then they don't leak, and if they don't leak, we can't feed Grandpa. Silly!" She also just really takes pleasure in killing people, very much wanting to pull the rope on the contraption that makes the sledgehammer bash Ryan in the head, and she equally enjoys watching the others attempt to kill, like when she's looking out the window and going, "Whack! Whack! Whack!", while watching Tex and Benny fight. Though she appeared in the original ending, in the film as it is, she disappears after that last moment.

Finally, there's Mama Sawyer (Miriam Byrd-Nethery), an older woman who's confined to a wheelchair and has to be speak with an electronic voice box, both of which seem to be due to a severe form of cancer. While she's also akin to Drayton in that she's the actual head of this section of the family, she's infinitely more loving and affectionate towards everyone than he ever was, save for a little complaining when they're making a lot of noise in the kitchen when she first appears, as well as about how they haven't caught everyone yet, and telling

Leatherface to get his new chainsaw off her cutting board. However, she has no sympathy for those they prey on. When Michelle pleads with her to make her sons stop, Mama tells her, "You best shut up or I'll do your tongue first." Later, she tells Michelle that Leatherface loves, "Them private parts," adding, "Cut my own out years back. I did. Took care of Papa's too." Maybe that's why Grandpa quit his job at the slaughterhouse and didn't give much of a crap in the previous films, because he had nothing else to live for! And yeah, old Grandpa's here again, though it seems old age finally caught up with him, as he's definitely a corpse now. Speaking of which, I'm not sure how Mama is meant to be related to him, if she's his daughter or wife. Since the actor was sixty at the time of filming, and given how ancient he was, I would assume the former, which makes her castrating him all the more disturbing. (Of course, I definitely wouldn't rule out incest among this group, either.) And by that logic, then that mummified woman in the attic in the original film must've been her mother... probably. In any case, when Benny saves Michelle, Mama most definitely dies, as she gets repeatedly shot to pieces, and the shock of seeing it causes Tinker to get shot as well.

In many ways, Leatherface is kind of the movie I pictured when I first heard the basic concept and story of the original (mostly because Leatherface's character entry in The Horror Movie Survival Guide showed an image from this), chief among them being the depiction of the Sawyers. This fairly large, close-knit bunch is what I had in mind and is also what I think of as a family, rather than three brothers, one of whom verbally abuses his younger siblings, and their ancient Grandpa. Not only is there a mother figure, as well as a younger daughter, but Tex and Tinker come

off as really close, working brothers, which I like. And while there are little quarrels that sometimes escalate rather extremely, like when Tinker throws Leatherface's new walkman into the oven and he forces him to get it out, there's no over the top physical and verbal abuse like what Drayton dished out. The moment that brings this feeling of family home for me is when the little girl asks if she can pull the cord that will make the sledgehammer hit Ryan in the head: Tex picks her up, puts her on the counter,

shows her how to do it, and as she does, Leatherface and Mama watch on quite proudly. And everyone's overjoyed when she quite skillfully works it. It's sick, but also proves the bond these characters have. And when Benny attacks them when Leatherface is about to kill Michelle, they're very distressed and horrified about Mama getting shot, with Tex deciding to get revenge for Tinker, something you never saw at all in the previous films. In fact, up until the 2003 remake and its prequel, this is the closest the cannibal family ever came to actually feeling like one.

I also really like the notion that this part of the Sawyer clan is both more technologically efficient and proactive in their methods of trapping, stalking, and killing people. They've got traps set up in the woods and marshes around their house, such as bear-traps and one that impales victims against a tree with sharp, bladed sticks, and instead of bludgeoning people themselves, they've now got this elaborate contraption that hangs them upside down like a slab of meat in a slaughterhouse, while pulling a rope activates a sledgehammer that comes down and

whacks the victim in the head, spilling a lot of blood. Leatherface even whips out a tiny little cutting weapon to get Benny off of him when the two of them are fighting at one point, and there's an elaborate setup of radios in the house, as well as a gigantic lighting system that illuminates their entire front yard to make it easier to catch those who escape. And they also use a massive, intimidating truck to stalk and run people down, making it unsafe even if you don't get off the road. But, while this side of the family likely

had a better kill ratio, I doubt Drayton and the others, who hated the new technology that was installed in the slaughterhouse, would be too happy about it. Maybe Drayon refused to have anything to do with them when he found out about the advanced methods they were using, which is they've never been mentioned before.

Sara (Toni Hudson), whom we first see during the opening credits (though it's so briefly that you're likely to forget about her until she shows up again later on), is the sole survivor of a group attacked by the Sawyers. And I'll say right now that I'm not a great fan of her. While she does save Benny from Leatherface early on, as well as gives him the lighter he eventually uses to kill Tex, and I do get that what she's been through has left her half-crazed (her sister is the woman whom Leatherface murders at the beginning of the film and whose face he sews into a mask, which Sara watches through the window, and she's been living out in the woods ever since) but, in the small bit of the movie she's in, she does nothing but annoy me with the way she talks, gestures, and moves. Again, I understand why she's acting that way (some nasty wounds on her hand suggest she suffered the same torment that Michelle later does), but all it does is get on my nerves. The fact that she gets killed by doing the typical dumb horror movie thing of going off by herself doesn't endear her to me, either.

A few other characters I want to briefly mention include the two guys in hazmat suits, Kim (Dwayne Whitaker) and Scott (David Cloud), who are tasked with removing the bodies from the mass grave. The one guy, Scott, is really not having it, at one point saying, "Oh, man, I think I'm gonna barf," to which Kim says, "Not in front of them news assholes. Far side of those trees." Scott then says, "Should've listened to my old man and went into real estate." And finally, there's the officer (Michael Shamus Wiles) who talks with Michelle and Ryan when

they've stopped at the security checkpoint and tells Ryan to mind his business when he asks about what happened. The reason I bring him up is because he's so confrontational and sketchy in the way he looks and acts that you expect him to turn out to be one of the Sawyers but he's actually just a red herring and never shows up again.

Little did people know at the time that, after the direct, if insane, sequel that was Chainsaw 2, this franchise's timeline would go off in far more confusing and varied directions than even the Halloween series. A big question that often arises concerning this movie is where exactly it falls in the timeline. Most would assume from the subtitle of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III that it simply follows on from both of the two films that came before it, but it's not that simple. It does seem to follow the

original (to a degree), as its events are mentioned in the opening crawl, as is the eventual fate of Sally Hardesty, but whether or not it follows on from Chainsaw 2 is trickier to answer. For one, its opening crawl says that Sally died in 1977, just four years after the events of the original film, whereas Chainsaw 2 simply said she eventually sank into catatonia. For another, as we've already talked about, Leatherface is a much different character here than he was previously, especially in regards to the second

film, and he's now called "Junior" by the others, rather than "Bubba," like in the previous one. There's also no plausible way he could've survived getting a chainsaw shoved all the way through him and then getting caught up in a big explosion that apparently killed everyone else. And even if he did, how did this alternate section of the family find him, take him in, and nurse him back to health? Finally, David J. Schow has said that he was flat-out told by New Line to disregard the second film. However, all that said, there are some references to it, the most blatant being

Leatherface's new chainsaw, with the "The Saw is Family" engraved on the blade. As also mentioned, Grandpa is at the family table but is now a corpse, possibly after being killed in the aforementioned explosion in the previous film (in the making of, Schow says he has no idea how Grandpa got there and who took care of him). Finally, Stretch herself, Caroline Williams, has a blink and you'll miss it cameo at the mass grave as a reporter, and both she and Jeff said that she is indeed meant to be playing Stretch. Since it was suggested in Chainsaw 2 that Stretch aspired to be a reporter, it's possible here that she did indeed make it and has now taken it upon herself to track down the Sawyers after what they put her through.

Then again, it's also possible that Leatherface is a soft reboot that only makes passing references to both the second film and the original, with the latter being used as little more than a vague jumping off point for the story it wants to tell. This is most notable in how the opening crawl mentions the capture and execution of W.E. Sawyer, a member of the family we never met in person, unless it's meant as an alternate name for Drayton in this continuity (strangely, a character named W.E. would feature in the next film). Also, the

metal brace that Leatherface wears on his right leg may or may not be a callback to him sawing into his own leg at the end of the first movie. Personally, I've never tried to rattle my brains too hard over this thing, especially since the next film complicates matters even further, as do many of the later ones, and it's best to just view this movie as what the title says it is: the third entry in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

I've always seen the look and tone of Leatherface as something of a middle-ground between those of the original and the second. While shot in 35mm like the second film (although Jeff did consider shooting it in 16mm), it has more of the rawness and grit of the original than Chainsaw 2's glossiness, coming off like how that original might've looked had it been shot it in 35. Also, while the violence and gore were severely neutered before its release, it's still much more gruesome and, in some ways, mean-spirited than the

original, with Leatherface making his mask at the beginning, Michelle's hands getting nailed to the chair's arms, Ryan being hung upside down like a slab of meat and getting his head bashed in, Mama and Tinker getting shot up, and such. But that said, it's in line with the original's raw, realistic feel, rather than Chainsaw 2's over-the-top, cartoonish one. At the same time, Leatherface has a nastier and even sleazier quality to it than the original. While the original wasn't exactly prudish, there's some stuff here that

can make you feel positively soiled, from how sexually deviant Leatherface is and the talk about private parts, to how Alfredo is an especially disgusting individual in the way he talks about women, the pornographic pictures he has on the restroom walls, and his own allusions to necrophilia, rape, and murder. Speaking of which, there are a couple of scenes in particular that just make me go, "Ugh!", both in what they show and make me think of. The major one is the excavation of that mass grave at the beginning, which is so gross and skin-crawling,

between watching the hazmat guys sift through the mud, mushy decomposed skin, and body fat in order to remove the still intact bones and body parts, and the talk about how toxic it all is, with the one guy being told to make sure his suit is zipped up tight (Ryan's description of exactly how these corpses have decomposed doesn't help). The one guy Scott describes the whole thing perfectly: "This is fucked." The other one that gets me is the marsh where the Sawyers dump their victims' spare body parts. I find it really disgusting to that Alfredo takes this garbage

bag full of them (the idea of anything wet or moist in a garbage bag has always given me a gross feeling for some reason; it's weird, I know) up there and throws them in the water, and let's not forget that a number of characters fall into this death marsh as well. Ignoring that everybody should later be dying from all of the diseases that have to be running rampant in there, the thought of having to swim around in that nasty swamp water, with skeletons, corpses, and dismembered limbs floating about, is something else that will make you feel like you need a shower.

Direction and cinematography-wise, the film isn't too flashy, although the opening credits are edited very well, cutting back and forth to shots of Leatherface murdering someone and in the process of making his mask. Similarly, during the excavation of the mass grave, there are quick cutaways to close-ups of the decomposing body parts, illuminated by the flash of the coroner's camera, hearkening back to the original's opening, complete with that iconic, eerie sound. And when Benny is trying to load his assault rifle with Tinker waiting nearby, the tension is maximized by 

cutting back and forth between them, before going for the kill. And going back to the mass grave, at the end of that scene is a noteworthy transition, with the camera zooming in on a flashing warning light to a close-up of the sun the next day, and there are other interesting shots here and there, like one of Michelle's reflection in the gas station restroom's broken mirror; a close-up of Alfredo watching Michelle through a hole in his office's wall and some shots of his POV, both of which are right out of Psycho; a nice shot of 

the car traveling across the road, backlit by the dying light; and an upside down POV from Ryan when he's hanging up and Tex tells him, "Just twitch." Ultimately, the greatest instances of cinematography are those of the very beautiful landscapes, both during the day and at dusk, even if, as I'll get into, they make it clear than this isn't really Texas. If I have one major complaint about the movie's cinematography, it's that, as was the case with the original, the nighttime exteriors can sometimes be really hard to make out; in fact, it's an even bigger problem here, as much of the

film does take place outside, at night. I can appreciate the effort to shoot the stuff actually at night, as well as the headaches it caused them, especially during the time of year and the location where they were shooting, but that doesn't change the fact you may have to really turn up your TV's brightness levels to see what's going on.

The film's production design, setting, and overall environments nicely mirror the tone and feel it's going for, as little here is spotless (save for maybe Leatherface's new chainsaw!). Michelle and Ryan's car is okay, despite being kind of cluttered on the inside, but everything else has a real dirty or, at the very least, lived-in sort of feel, like the truck that Tinker and Leatherface drive (its hood is decorated with a coyote carcass), and especially the Last Chance Gas Station. Said station, which comes off as even

more isolated than the one in the original, is really run down, grimy, and has most definitely seen better days, with Alfredo's cramped office, with its icky and disturbing wall decorations, and the clear health hazard that is the restroom giving off the air that this is someplace you'd only stop as an absolute last resort. The Sawyer house, however, is something of a subversion. Like in the original, it looks innocuous on the outside, and the same goes for when Michelle first walks in and goes upstairs, but when she's stabbed by

the little girl and captured by Tex, it's revealed that the former's room is littered with human bones on the floor, which she even uses as part of her tea set. Ironically, the kitchen/dining room, the part of the house you see the most of, doesn't look as bad as it was depicted before. The dining room actually looks pretty normal, whereas the kitchen section is a bit dirtier, but not nearly as filthy as in the original. Leatherface's part of the house is much more in line with it, as it comes off like a ghoulish workshop, with bones strewn everywhere, as well as some sculptures

made out of them, and souvenirs he's taken from his past victims (he seems to be the only member of this clan who does that). It's also where he kills his victim and makes one of his masks during the opening, and has a sliding, metal door that leads outside. Rounding out this feeling of grit is the overall setting, from the isolated, dusty desert roads and the dark, surrounding woods, to the murky, disease-ridden death swamp and that hideous mass grave, all of which make the movie feel anything but glamorous.

One complaint that was occasionally leveled against Leatherface for a long time was that it wasn't actually filmed in Texas (it was the only one until 2013's Texas Chainsaw 3-D) and thus, didn't have the authentic feel of the others. Since then, we've had one that was filmed in Louisiana and two that weren't even shot in the U.S., but for a while, this one stood out like a sore thumb for being filmed in California for convenience and to save money, and also for being quite obvious that it was shot there, with its long, desert highways

and mountains in the background. The location actually makes me think of The Hitcher, which, interestingly, is also supposed to be set in West Texas (which does look a little like this film's main setting), but was shot mostly in California and a bit in Nevada. When they get into the backwoods for the majority of the film's latter half, it's easier to believe it's Texas, but I can't deny that the main location beforehand does make it harder to suspend your disbelief, especially if you live in or have actually been there. Still, given how far from home some of the later movies have been filmed, I think it's time to cut Leatherface some slack.

Location authenticity aside, there are two aspects of Leatherface in particular that people criticize the most. One is the plot, which has been described as not being that creative and a rehash of the original. On some level, I can't deny the latter. Not only is the basic plot the same (although, you could say that for a number of the movies in this franchise), but some specific story elements and characters do feel like they were either photo-copied or slightly tweaked from the original. In addition to how some of the

Sawyers are akin to those in the first film in various ways, as well as that they live in their own innocent-looking farmhouse and have an ancient Grandpa, there are moments like when Michelle and Ryan accidentally hit an armadillo (a scene I've never liked, because it felt drawn out, unnecessary, and mean-spirited), Alfredo takes an unwanted picture of Michelle and demands money for it, and, of course, the dinner scene, or rather the lead-up to one that never takes place, with the gruesome addition of

Michelle's hands being nailed to the chair. You could also say the excavation of the mass grave at the beginning is a spin on the grave-robbing subplot during the first film's opening, complete with the camera noise and flashes of corpses, as is how the protagonists meet someone at a gas station who seems nice and friendly, only for him to later turn out to be one of the villains, not to mention the use of a gas station in and of itself, the Sawyers chasing after Michelle when she escapes from them, and her and Benny ultimately heading off in a pickup truck, with

Leatherface watching. But, while some of it is suspect, most of it I feel is changed or played with enough to where it doesn't feel like you're watching a shot-for-shot remake. As for the notion that it's run-of-the-mill, I think it's more a case of what I mentioned at the beginning, that the movie is not very ambitious. It wasn't meant to be a frightening flick with something to say like the original, or a gruesome black comedy with some biting satire like the second, but rather, just a low budget attempt by New Line

Cinema to create a new franchise. That doesn't mean there wasn't effort behind its production, but it was a flat-out commercial venture first and foremost, and even if it failed to generate that franchise, I still think it works and is above average for its type.

The other criticism is that, even in its "unrated" version on DVD and Blu-Ray, the film is quite tame, with hardly any substantial gore and few truly gruesome moments, ironic given how it started out as a script by David J. Schow, who was a noted "splatterpunk" author at the time. As I noted earlier, that initial script was itself so horrific and gruesome (I've heard that Ryan was originally supposed to be naked when he was hung upside down, with a long split down the middle, a nod to a very gruesome

crime scene photo taken inside of Ed Gein's house) that the producers asked it to be changed before it was shot, but the real neutering began after the movie was finished. When New Line's head of foreign distribution saw the initial cut and said it would be banned in every country, Bob Shaye and the other executives took their scissors out and just gutted it. All of the really gruesome effects scenes they removed can now only be seen either on the special features or on a workprint version you can still probably find at most horror conventions. And that

was before they had to deal with the MPAA, who, by this point, had a clear vendetta towards these types of horror films and would let hardly any bloodletting pass. It's also felt that they were enraged with how Cannon skirted around them and released Chainsaw 2 unrated, something New Line couldn't afford to do, and really had it out for them, to the point where the filmmakers basically had to cut little frames, like Tinker's fingers and ear getting shot off or the sledgehammer hitting Ryan's head, to avoid an X-rating, which they got many times beforehand. And then, they had to re-shoot the ending to where Benny lives. In the end, because of all this editing, re-editing, and re-shooting, the film missed its initial release date of November of 1989 and ended up getting dumped the following January, where it died at the box-office.

The film has gone through several incarnations since its theatrical release. For a while, the 81-minute, R-rated theatrical cut was the only one you could get on video, until New Line released a version on both video and laserdisc that they called the "uncut European version," which featured previously deleted shots like blood splattering on Sara's face during her death scene, actual shots of Michelle's nailed hands, everything involving Ryan regaining consciousness while he's hung upside down, Leatherface putting lipstick on Michelle's face, and Mama dying onscreen. This is the same version they eventually put on DVD in 2003, along with the theatrical cut, except for one difference: the version on the DVD has the scene where the little girl pulls the rope that causes the sledgehammer to bash Ryan in the head, which was missing previously. This cut is known as the "Unrated Version," although it's not a true uncut version since none of the extreme stuff that was cut for the foreign markets is there. Sadly, according to Jeff and other sources, the original negatives for that stuff are likely gone forever and the only ways to see it is, again, either in the special features on the DVD and Blu-Rays or on a workprint. And none of these official releases have had the original bleaker ending, with Benny being definitely killed, a severely charred Tex briefly showing back up before dying a final, bloody death, and Michelle seeing the little girl in a police car, suggesting that the officer driving is part of the family, put back in, although you can also see it as an extra.

After looking at a lot of the deleted shots, most of the material that was cut for the foreign markets involved much more graphic details of stuff that you briefly see in the "unrated" version, like lingering shots of Ryan's body when he gets killed while being hung upside down, including a bloodier one after Benny has saved Michelle (the dummy looks rather fake in some of them, though); longer and more excruciating ones of Michelle pulling her hands through the nails; more detail on the little girl "feeding" Grandpa some blood,

as well as a deleted one of her feeding some of Tinker's blood after he's been killed to her doll; the closeup of Benny's head getting pushed into the saw blade; and, when Leatherface kills Sara, much, much more blood flying and splattering on her. Most of these deleted gore effects, courtesy of KNB, are great, but there's one very graphic one that they could never get to look right: Leatherface was supposed to bisect Sara with his chainsaw, after which she would split off in two. In the raw footage, you can see the

dummy's flailing arms and some of the spewing blood, but you never see the effect of her being cut in half (they probably couldn't get that far because the effect just wouldn't work). What you do see in either official version of the film also looks great, like the flayed face at the very beginning and the shots of Leatherface cutting it up (it was actually just baloney), the half-decomposed corpses in that mass grave and the body parts Alfredo throws into the swamp, those wince-inducing closeups of Michelle's nailed hands, Ryan's blood filling up a cup after his

head is smashed in, and Tinker's ear and fingers getting blown off (well, the fingers are a little suspect but the ear looks good). And one final deleted makeup effect that's worth mentioning is in the alternate ending where Tex shows back up. It's a shame that, even though you can see that ending as an extra, the scene is lit so darkly that you can't get a good look at the burned makeup on Viggo Mortensen because, judging from the behind the scenes footage on the documentary, it looked really good. There's a shot in that documentary where Mortensen turns to the camera and smiles with that makeup on his face and it is terrifying! 

While the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a slow beginning following its opening crawl, and Chainsaw 2 went straight into the opening credits after its crawl, Leatherface wastes no time. After the crawl, we see a mallet raised and a woman screaming, before it hits the screen and the title comes in, followed by the credits mixed in with a montage of Leatherface dragging her body across the floor, and dissecting and sewing chunks of her flayed face into a mask, while Sara watches from outside the window. She accidentally steps on a twig that snaps, alerting

him. She quickly runs off, while he opens the sliding door to the outside, then closes it behind him and runs off in pursuit of her. Following that, we're introduced to Michelle and Ryan during their drive across the country. After the scene where they pass through the security checkpoint at the mass grave, we get the one I hate, where they run over an armadillo crossing the road. Swerving to a stop afterward, and seeing that it's still there on the side of the road, squeaking in pain, Michelle opts to put it out of its misery. She grabs a large rock, says, "Sorry, little guy," but ultimately

can't bring herself to do it. She hands the rock over to Ryan, who'd agreed to do it to begin with, and he brings the rock down on it, which only see through the armadillo's point of view. I know I'm going to sound like the typical person who has no problem watching people die but hates it whenever an animal is involved, but I've always felt this scene was so cruel and unnecessary. I'm sure the armadillo was just something KNB created, and their quality standards are why it looks so real, but you could easily remove this scene from the movie and nothing would feel like it's missing.

At the Last Chance Gas Station, after Alfredo makes a not so good first impression on Michelle by startling her, taking her picture against her will, and then demanding money for it, we see just how volatile he is when he goes into his office after Tex tells him off, grumbles, "Don't you ever do that to me, bitch," and smacks and throws a towel off to the side. Then, he peeps at Michelle in the restroom through a hole in the wall, which Tex grabs him from behind and flings outside over. The two of them argue, with Alfredo saying he can do whatever he wants at his place, then

runs inside, while Tex tells Michelle and Ryan what was going on. As Alfredo grabs a double-barrel shotgun in his office, Tex gets them into their car as quickly as he can. Alfredo runs out, yelling at them and pointing his gun at Michelle, accusing her of thinking she's too good for him. Tex, again, yells for them to get out and Michelle peels the car down the road. Alfredo runs into the road after them, firing his shotgun and blasting through the back window. After ducking, Ryan looks and sees him apparently kill Tex when he tries to run for it. Panicking, he tells

Michelle to take the route that Tex told him about, and she pulls off the main road, as the sun sets and night settles in. Back at the gas station, an enormous truck emerges from its garage and heads down the road, as Alfredo excitedly runs out and fires his gun into the air. Up ahead, Michelle continues to drive as fast as she can, despite Ryan telling her that they're far enough away to where they shouldn't be in any danger. But when he turns off the radio, which they're getting no reception from, the two of them hear an

ominous sound. At first, they can't tell where it's coming from, but then, the truck, which was right behind them in the darkness, turns on its headlights. Terrified, they try to outrun it, but it easily keeps pace with them, then drives alongside them and up ahead. Suddenly, something crashes into their windshield and Michelle veers the car over and comes to a stop. Seeing that it's a dead coyote on their hood, they both get out and Michelle breaks it to Ryan that the truck driver threw it at them. Also finding that one of their tires blew out, Michelle tells Ryan they need to fix it and get out as quickly as possible.

Michelle gets the spare tire out of the trunk and Ryan tries his best to change it with his hands and with only the light of their flashlight. But then, she hears an approaching squeaking sound and points the light out into the surrounding landscape. Not seeing anything, she goes back to Ryan and, again, illuminates the tire. Hearing the sound again, Michelle shines the light back out there, again forcing Ryan to fix the tire in the dark. He gets it fixed just when she brings the light over to him again, but before they can get into the car, Leatherface appears, brandishing his chainsaw.

Michelle drops the flashlight in terror and the two of them try to get back into the car. Ryan, however, can't get in through the locked back door on the driver's side and tumbles across the trunk to avoid the saw, which smashes the back window completely. He quickly gets into the backseat on the passenger side, as Michelle tries to start the car, while Leatherface saws into the trunk. Unable to get the car into gear, Michelle fiddles with the stick, when she pops it into reverse and slams into Leatherface, knocking him off his feet and causing him to drop the saw. But, as

Michelle continues trying to get the car to work, he climbs up the back, grabs the trunk's lid, and rocks it back and forth. Finally, Michelle is able to make the car work and they pull away, with the lid coming off in Leatherface's hands. Driving along, Ryan tries to get Michelle to stop so he can finish tightening up the tire, but she refuses to do so at first. Just when he gets her to agree to stop, Tex stumbles out into the road in front of them. Michelle swerves to miss him, and ends up nearly crashing into Benny, as he's coming

the other way in his jeep, flipping him on his side, while Michelle and Ryan crash down into a ravine. After getting out of his jeep, a little banged up but otherwise unhurt, Benny heads down into the ravine, helps Ryan get Michelle out of the car, and sees to their wounds, giving them some painkillers. Once he becomes convinced of their story of being attacked, he heads back up to the road to look for Tex, when he finds some flares and comes across Tinker. Meanwhile, those painkillers prove to be ridiculously fast-acting, as Michelle and Ryan pass out almost immediately.

Though initially looking to Tinker for help, when Benny sees the chainsaw in the back of his truck, he runs back to his jeep under the pretense of needing something. As Tinker watches from the front seat, Benny goes, removes his assault rifle, and fumbles to get it loaded up. Though he can't make out exactly what he's doing because it's dark, Tinker is clearly suspicious and asks Benny if he's ready yet. Benny says he just needs fifteen seconds and continues putting in shells, but, just as he's about got the rifle fully loaded, Tinker decides, "When push comes to

shove." He flips on his headlights and drives right at Benny, who fumbles the last remaining shells and jumps out of the way, as Tinker plows into his wrecked jeep. He tumbles down the hillside and, when he comes to rest at the bottom of the ravine, he's attacked by Leatherface. This is where Benny proves to be a formidable opponent, as he quickly grabs his assault rifle and uses it to shield himself against the chainsaw. And even though that doesn't work and he drops it, he not only manages to dodge the saw when Leatherface swings at him, but kicks it out of his

hands and follows that up with some kicks to the gut, before tackling him. Sara watches from nearby as the two of them struggle on the ground, Leatherface trying to force Benny over towards the still running saw. When he's unable to, he whips out a small drill-like device and cuts into his leg. Benny loosens his grip and Leatherface flings him aside, then grabs his saw and, standing over him, prepares to finish him off. Sara then distracts him, yelling at him, "You want me, not him!" Leatherface chases after her, but not

before kicking Benny in the gut in retaliation for earlier. Back at the wreck, Ryan awakens, hearing the sound of the chainsaw in the distance. He wakes Michelle and the two of them get moving in order to stay awake, as well as to find help. Sara, meanwhile, managing to lose Leatherface, goes back to Benny, while Ryan and Michelle wander deeper into the woods.

After Benny leaves Sara to go help Michelle and Ryan, coming upon some traps near a swamp, Sara wanders around and sees the strange sight of Leatherface's chainsaw hanging from a tree. Then, when she turns around, he's right there in front of her, He grabs her, hoisting her up with one hand, walks her over to the tree, and puts her against it. As she's slightly passed out from him choking her, he takes the saw, revs it up, and guts her, with both Michelle and Ryan, as well as Benny, hearing her screams from where they are. After finishing her off, he continues

on through the woods, closing in on and finding Michelle and Ryan. Grunting, he revs the saw up, sending them running. However, Ryan steps into a bear trap and, unable to free himself, tells Michelle to run. She does so reluctantly, though she stops to see Leatherface reach Ryan, loom over him, and then bring his saw down on him. While Benny continues roaming the woods, Michelle comes across a house and runs to it, but when she gets inside and meets the little girl, she soon realizes she picked the wrong

place to seek shelter in. The girl stabs her in the leg when she least expects it, and she's grabbed from behind and taken away by Tex. Things slow down for a little bit, as Michelle is nailed to a chair down in the dining room, watches as Tinker hauls Ryan in and he and Tex hang him upside down, Ryan turns out to still be alive, Michelle is gagged with duct tape, Leatherface gets his new chainsaw, and also shows that he takes no crap when Tinker angrily throws the walkman he took from Ryan into the stove as punishment for his losing Benny. Elsewhere, Benny comes across Alfredo in the swamp and knocks him into it, before heading on towards the house.

When Leatherface goes into his room to do his "lessons," there's a moment where he looks at himself in the mirror and touches his mask. Originally, he was going to remove it, revealing what he actually looks like, but they decided to hold off on it until one of the other movies they planned to make after this. In any case, after he repeatedly fails with that little electronic toy, as Benny watches from outside the window, he takes his new chainsaw and heads back into the kitchen and dining room. There, Michelle has to watch as the little girl helps Tex kill Ryan with

Tinker's contraption, much to everyone else's delight, and she then collects his blood in a cup and brings it to Leatherface at the table. After that is when they initially decide to keep Michelle around for a while, only for Leatherface to put lipstick on her face, then rev up and come at her with the chainsaw. But then Benny, watching from outside, opens fire with his assault rifle, hitting the side of the saw and causing Leatherface to fall to the floor, along with Tex. Mama gets shot up, her blood splattering in Michelle's face, followed by Tinker getting two of his fingers and his

left ear blown off, and while Tex ducks back down, Grandpa gets shot to hell too. In the midst of this chaos, Michelle pulls her hands up through the nails and runs for the door. Even though Tex grabs her and pulls her back in, she manages to get a hold of a knife and stab him in the shoulder. She then makes it outside, where she runs into Benny, who encourages her to run. But no sooner do they head for the woods than, inside, the little girl turns on the huge outside lights that illuminate the front yard. At the same time,

Leatherface gets in the big truck and drives towards them. Benny sends Michelle out towards the woods, while he stays behind and points his rifle at the oncoming truck. However, he's out of shells and is seemingly run over. Leatherface gets out of the truck and chases Michelle off into the woods, while inside the house, Tex prepares to avenge Tinker and Mama.

Benny crawls out from underneath the truck, only to just barely avoid an axe that Tex brings down at him. When he does it again, he manages to grab it and take it away from him. Getting to his feet, the two of them face off, and Benny swings but misses, instead hitting a gas can in the back of the truck. Tex kicks and punches him, and when Benny grabs a chain at the end of the truck, Tex manages to overpower him and get it around his neck from behind. He chokes Benny, although he manages to flip Tex over his shoulder and

the two of them continue fighting, falling to the ground and grappling with each other. Benny forces Tex over to where the gas is spilling out and gets him soaked in it. He backs away, as Tex grabs the axe and threatens him with it, yelling crazily. But that's when Benny whips out the cigarette lighter that Sara gave him earlier, lights it, and tosses it at the gasoline trail on the ground. The fire quickly makes its way up to Tex and lights him up, sending him flailing around. Benny then sees that the flames are heading back towards the gas can and he runs for it, ducking down just as the truck explodes. 

Though initially pleased with himself, Benny then gets up and runs into the woods, where Leatherface is still in pursuit of Michelle. She steps in a snare and is pulled along the ground, but before she's hung upside down, the weight on the other end gets hung up on a tree branch. When she stops, she desperately tries to cut through the rope with the knife she still has on her, when the weight breaks through the branch. She's dragged further along the ground and then ends up in the marsh full of dead bodies. After getting pulled

underwater, he surfaces and, horrified when she sees the body parts floating around her, she climbs back up onto the shore. Leatherface appears and, standing over her, is about to put the saw to her, when Benny comes running in and tackles him. They both fall into the water and then, upon surfacing, struggle with each other, as the saw continues running nearby. Michelle watches from the shore, cheering Benny on, as he manages to punch and fend Leatherface off, and she gives him her knife when he gets close enough. He also uses his assault rifle as a way of attempting to

choke Leatherface out, but he manages to overpower him and shove his head into the saw. Once he stops moving, Leatherface turns his attention to Michelle, who turns to run for it. He lunges out of the water and grabs her legs, attempting to pull her back in. However, she grabs an enormous rock, turns around, and bashes him repeatedly in the head, yelling, "Sorry... little... guy!" over and over again. Finally, he stops grabbing at her and motionlessly floats backwards, slowly sinking beneath the surface, along with the saw.

Come morning, Michelle walks out onto those back-roads, sitting down in one spot, only to be horrified when the pickup truck from the Last Chance Gas Station pulls up in front of her. But when she's about to run for it, it turns out to be Benny. He gets her into the truck and heads around back to the driver's side, when he's suddenly knocked to the ground. Alfredo, who was hiding in the back, jumps down, wielding a sledgehammer, and smashes through the driver's side window to get at Michelle. He crazily smashes at the

door and the wheel, while Michelle goes for a shotgun lying on the back of the seat. He then smashes through the back window, knocking the gun down into the floorboard, and reaches in through the smashed driver's side window to unlock the door. Michelle kicks the door, knocking Alfredo out of sight, and she looks around for him as she reaches down for the gun. He leans in through the passenger window behind her and grabs her, holding her tight and acting all perverted. She manages to bite into his hand, making him let go, and when he jumps into the

back of the truck to come at her through the smashed window, he finds himself looking down the barrel of the shotgun. Despite being initially intimidated, he calls her bluff about her not even knowing how to use it, and she blows him away. With that, she helps Benny into the truck, pulls Alfredo's body out of the back and onto the ground, and gets up in the driver's seat, telling Benny, "There's roadkill all over Texas." Benny responds, "You got that right," and the two of them drive off, when Leatherface walks into the frame, watching them, while revving up his chainsaw.

I used to be kind of down on the music score by Jim Manzie and Pat Regan, mostly because, after the frightening banging and clanging sound-design score of the original, and the insane, carnival-style one for the second film, this just came off as generic horror film music. After hearing it a lot while doing this review, while I still wouldn't consider it among the franchise's best scores, it has grown on me a bit. That said, I have always liked the music that plays over the opening credits, as it's really creepy and intense, letting you know the vibe they're going for. There are other pieces that I like, such as this tense, pounding theme you first hear after Michelle and Ryan slowly realize they're being chased by the big truck, a memorable metal piece of music that plays during the fight between Benny and Tex outside the house (which I learned is an except from When Worlds Collide by Wrath), and a great piece of atmospheric music that plays during the excavation of that mass grave, made all the better by the use of the iconic camera sound from the original and how it's more in the background instead of being front and center. They also make use of some stinger sound effects from Halloween 4 and 5, which is kind of random, and was also a bit distracting when I recognized them, but whatever.

In their attempt to market the movie to the mainstream, they also put some pieces of metal and rock music on the soundtrack. Besides When Worlds Collide, Bored by Death Angel plays a minute or so before that, and during the latter part of the opening credits, you hear Spark In My Heart by Hurricane. And then, there's the actual Leatherface song by Laaz Rockit that plays over the ending credits, which absolutely screams how much the studio wanted to turn Leatherface into a more marketable character. Gotta say, not a fan of that song. I'm not a fan of metal, for one thing, and for another, this song is just really unremarkable and bland, with its lyrics, "Here's your invitation/To come join Leatherface/It's his addiction/To keep you face to face."

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is something of an odd bird of a film when put into the context of the entire franchise, but, for my money, it's an enjoyable horror sequel. While it was, first and foremost, meant to create another money-making franchise for New Line Cinema, and may come off like a generic, virtually goreless horror film, especially for someone who has just seen the first two, its look and feel is that of a middle-ground between that of the first and second films, with a nasty, sleazy tone all its own; Ken Foree makes a great hero; the members of this section of the Sawyer family are quite interesting in their own right; nearly all of the makeup effects that didn't get butchered are very effective; and there are some moments, and that will make you wince and cringe in a good way. It does definitely have problems, like the two leads not being that compelling, the setting not feeling like Texas, and the nighttime cinematography often being hard to make out, and overall, is hardly the greatest horror sequel ever made, but, my personal feelings aide, I do think it deserves a little more credit than it gets and is worth watching by fans. That said, the unrated version is definitely the one to go for. 

This review is dedicated with love and respect to the memory of Jeff Burr. I miss you terribly, my friend.