Periodically we are going to do on editorial like this that focuses on a franchise. There’s been enough modern era of horror for quite a few movies to get this treatment. Not sure exactly what the qualifications will be, but TCM is over 50 years old now! That seems crazy to say out loud, but then I realize it’s a tad bit younger than me. Damn.

A couple of great and memorable things about this one outside of the movie. It was officially John Larroquette’s first role. He isn’t on screen, but does the voiceover at the beginning. Always loved him as an actor, and him getting his start here is super cool. A slightly traumatic moment in the movie though is when Leatherface slams a sledgehammer into someone, but accidentally hit him in the face for real. There were many minor traumas on the set though, including Gunnar Hansen slipping and falling while holding a live running chainsaw!

All in all, this is absolutely a great horror movie, and one that if you haven’t seen it yet….fix that!

This movie differed massively from the original though. It was in the early days of incorporating humor into horror movies. The original was just straight horror. Also in this one, the Sawyer family actively goes out looking for people to kill. It also focused heavily on the family, rather than the way the original focused on the victims. So it was a cool new look and feel. And I believe it holds up really well too. Bill Moseley in the new role of Choptop was a lot of fun.

This one also fits into the “go see it” category.

I was fresh out of high school, but remember distinctly the teaser video for this. Just like the Arthurian legend, the chainsaw rose from the still waters of a lake as immaculately as Excalibur had. I would say that is one of the iconic horror memories that I have. As a moment, it was amazing to see.

The movie sucked though. I feel like that assessment holds up to this day. New Line had acquired the Texas Chainsaw IP with the plan of making magic. One movie was enough failure for them though.

But then

But then, a new studio took over the rights. And the original writer came back to bring it back for a new audience. The idea of reworking it, making it fresh, keeping the humor, but also bringing back the horror.

And this time we get two new first appearances. Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger both made their acting debuts here. Now Leatherface as a movie was a low point for the franchise. Luckily for them, Next Generation stepped up and sucked so much worse. Ok, not really lucky. And a bummer for these two young actors who had to find a way to overcome such a rough start. (Spoiler alert: They were fine.)

Ultimately, this is a movie for completionists. I would rank this as the lowest. There are ten entries, so this is #10. Which is actually worse than it sounds, because the next entry doesn’t exist!

That might not be a bad thing though. You can find a trailer online for this. That’s all you will ever find. As far as footage that is. There are some interviews out there though. If you go look at the trailer, you will find things just look bad. Like straight to video bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I would absolutely watch this if it ever sees the light of day. And then lament the time spent wasted on it.

And honestly, I would say they accomplished that. I found this to be really good. The opening scene culminated with the most unique camera work I had seen to that point. It’s been redone often now. But I was blown away when I saw it the first time.

Does it hold up? I think so. I honestly think this would be third for me, behind the original and the sequel.

How does that relate to this? Well, some things are better left unexplained. Going back to fill in backstory sometimes is amazing. And sometimes it just sucks. Trying to explain it all just fell flat in this.

Interestingly, I hadn’t realized I owned it when I eventually got around to watching it on streaming. It wasn’t very good, and then I realized I had paid to own it too! Double Damn.

And I think they did a reasonably good job on this one. We get background on things here that nicely fill in bits. Bits we didn’t necessarily know we had been lacking. And let’s be honest here (as we discuss number 7 in the franchise), there isn’t a whole lot of new territory to cover. Dude wearing someone else’s face kills people with a chainsaw.

But the family backstory here is interesting enough to make this a nice new entry to the franchise.

But how was the movie? And this is questionable. Highly. Because it had some good ideas in it. But it also had some of the worst things I have seen. A particularly memorable one was someone who had been “wounded” and left a sixteen inch wide blood trail. Up the steps from the basement, down the hallway to the front door, down the driveway (like 80 feet), and then off into the woods. How much blood did the dude have? He left a blood trail equal to about a dozen people!

In the end though, I would say this a fairly middlish entry. Which is lucky, because we already know my top 3. So the middle is the best place for it to land!

How does that relate to this? Well, some things are better left unexplained. Going back to fill in some backstory sometimes is amazing. And sometimes it just sucks. Trying to explain it all just fell flat in this, for me. There were some twists in the story, but this wasn’t exciting the way the original Leatherface titled movie had been. Well, that one sucked, but this one didn’t have the hype to be let down from!

Does it hold up? I wrote a review for it, if you want to take a slightly deeper dive. Hmmm, as I went looking for a link, I discovered that I did not write up a review of it. Which confuses me, because I remember writing it!

What did this entry have to offer? Absolutely nothing. The town is a ghost town now, but someone wanting to rejuvenate the town has bought all the buildings (well, most.) And they bring a party bus full of investors to auction the buildings off to people for new businesses. Enter Leatherface (there’s more, but I’m doing a gloss over recap.) A super interesting facet here though is that we have the original final girl, Sally Hardesty, returning. She has been looking for justice for the four who died in the original movie, but trying to find someone who wears a mask is kinda tough.

I really liked that idea. But it falls apart massively when she gets the drop on Leatherface and doesn’t simply empty the shotgun into his face on sight. That moment ruined the movie for me. No way does she spend all that time looking for justice and then NOT take it instantly. There is a lot more I could tear into, but individual reviews were never the point of this editorial.

So where does all this put us? Texas Chainsaw is a really good franchise. Conceptually. There are lots of problems, but lots of good bits too. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Leatherface and the family, whatever surname they currently have been given. And I’m sure I will watch the newest one they put out, likely a couple years from now.