The latest prequel that no-one really wanted in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, Leatherface. We are catapulted back to the early days of the Sawyer family where Verna Sawyer (Lili Taylor) is playing happy families with her weird little children.
After murdering a Texas Rangers daughter the boys are committed to a mental home and taken away from their mother. Years later they escape and a bloody path begins as the police are hot on their tail.
Leatherface is a movie that spends absolutely no time focusing on the title character that the film is named after.
This rather ignorant and misleading approach is deceiving all of those who watch the movie. We get five minutes at the end of the movie (if that) where Leatherface starts to come to light but the majority of the movie is just gunshots and gore with a retro TCM visual. So distant from the franchise is Leatherface that it could have easily been a Wrong Turn movie or any other number of long drawn out franchise horror features.
Throughout the entire movie, our attention is distracted by the character Bud. A guy who is built like Leatherface, quiet and weird like Leatherface and with a violent streak when prompted. But the movie drags you away from common sense, through the woods and throws you completely off course to the only positive vibe you get from the entire feature. Nice job scriptwriters!
Shot on the cheap in Bulgaria, the cast feels high quality but sadly the story is as cheap as the location budget. The film only really starts to come into its own in the last 15 minutes but it’s too little too late as Leatherface trips up and lands face first onto its rusty churning blade.
Leatherface is geared up for an October 20, 2017, release but I won’t be watching it anytime soon. Oh how I miss Dan Yeager.
Our Rating
- Leatherface
Summary
A film that doesn’t do the franchise any justice. Diverting attention from the entire backstory of Leatherface to focus on a group of mentally ill asylum escapees on their hillbilly ride of Texan mayhem.
