Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) New Line/Horror RT: 86 minutes (Unrated Version) No MPAA Rating (graphic bloody violence and gore, disturbing images, language) Director: Jeff Burr Screenplay: David J. Schow Music: Jim Manzie and Pat Regan Cinematography: James L. Carter Release date: January 12, 1990 (US) Cast: Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, William Butler, Viggo Mortensen, Toni Hudson, Joe Unger, Tom Everett, R.A. Mihailoff, Jennifer Banko, Miriam Byrd-Nethery, Duane Whitaker. Box Office: $5.7M (US)
Rating: ** ½
The only distinguishing aspect of Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III for me is that it’s the first installment of the franchise I saw at the movies. I saw it opening weekend on a Sunday afternoon on a double bill with (of all things) Ski Patrol. It’s unusual for two brand new movies to show on a double feature on their opening weekend. It doesn’t say anything good about the quality of the films. There’s nothing particularly striking about either movie other than the fact that they’re both very mediocre. What I found amusing was the father who brought his young children to see the PG-rated Ski Patrol. I had to wonder whether or not they would stay for the second feature. For the record, they didn’t.
I was looking forward to seeing Leatherface, a movie that was supposed to have been released the previous November, but ran into the usual problems with the MPAA. They slapped an X rating on the movie which, as we all know, spells box office poison. The studio cut the more graphic scenes and it hit theaters two months later with an R rating and an 81-minute running time. I think the studio should have retained the gory footage and released their movie with a “No One Under 17 Admitted” policy like its immediate predecessor, but nobody in the studio system ever asks my opinion on these things.
Anyway, New Line unleashed the unrated version on DVD in 2003. The additional scenes don’t really make the movie itself any better. Leatherface is an okay movie, but there really isn’t anything truly memorable about it. It’s a very routine slasher flick with a few dashes of weirdness, but we’ve seen it all before. It’s closer in spirit to the claustrophobic 1974 original than the OTT 1986 sequel.
The movie opens with a scene of Leatherface (Mihailoff) practicing his unusual trade on a young woman while her sister Sara (Hudson, School Spirit) watches from a nearby window. This scene is important because Leatherface makes himself a new skin mask from her face. We then jump right into the main “story” of Leatherface, a term I use loosely since there’s not really much of a story here.
Two young people, Michelle (Hodge, Rapid Fire) and Ryan (Butler, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood), driving across Texas find themselves at the creepy rundown Last Chance Station where hitchhiking cowboy Tex (Mortensen, the Lord of the Rings trilogy) shows them a route that will take them to an actual town. The station owner Alfredo (Everett, Best of the Best) is a creepy pervert who spies on Michelle when she uses the ladies room. The couple flees during an altercation between Tex and Alfredo. They take the route recommended by the stranger. Naturally, they end up lost in the middle of nowhere (at night, of course) and face-to-face with the hulking Leatherface.
They also meet up with a survivalist named Benny (Foree, Dawn of the Dead) who tries to help them get away from the chainsaw-wielding psychopath. There’s also a tow truck driver named Tinker (Unger, Road House) who doesn’t exactly provide courteous roadside service. Eventually, Ryan gets captured (in a bear trap) and Michelle finds a house where she can ask for help. Okay, what does she NOT understand about a situation like this? She’s not likely to receive any assistance from the occupants of that house. Take a wild guess who lives there? If you said the Sawyer family, you’d be 200% correct! Yes, apparently there are a few more nuts on this family tree.
Remember when I talked about certain rules applying to this situation in my review of the first movie? Remember what I said about everybody being related to each other in a remote area like this? This time around, Leatherface is under the control of three brothers and an elderly mother (Byrd-Nethery). There’s also a little girl (Banko) living in the house.
Eventually, Leatherface becomes a rehash of the first movie with Michelle becoming the guest of honor/main course at the family dinner. The only stand-out aspect of this installment is that Leatherface wields a golden chainsaw with “The Saw is Family” engraved on the blade.
To be honest, I didn’t even remember the golden chainsaw until I rewatched this movie last week. What I do remember is the trailer for Leatherface. It played like a homage to Excalibur with Leatherface receiving a chainsaw from a hand in a lake. I wish the whole movie had been that clever. No, what we have here is a horror movie that’s a little bit weird, but mostly formulaic and unmemorable. It’s one of Viggo Mortensen’s first roles. He shows just a little bit of early promise, but it’s still early in his career. Who would have guessed that he’d go on to star in one of the greatest sci-fi/fantasy epics of all time? Young Banko makes a pretty good evil child and Foree is always fun to have around.
Leatherface is a relatively weak horror movie, but I can’t find it within myself to criticize it too harshly. I feel the same way about this movie as I do about certain entries in the Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger franchises. It may not be the best installment, but it features a well-known and loved mad slasher, so it can’t be all that bad. Okay, that’s not entirely true, look at Friday the 13th Part VIII and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Better yet, don’t look at those, they both suck! Leatherface doesn’t actually suck, but it does leave something to be desired, namely copious amounts of gore! If a movie has the word “chainsaw” in the title, I want the filmmakers to follow through on that tacit promise of a total bloodbath. It’s another case where the final product fails to live up to its fullest potential. Still, it makes for a reasonably entertaining horror movie if you watch it on a double bill with something. Might I suggest Ski Patrol?
