This chainsaw bites ... badly
It’s just Leatherface, there’s nothing to see here folks ...
Leatherface is a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which I suppose also makes it a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). That one was set four years before the original. This one moves the action back to the 1950s.
So as not to confuse viewers, the story kicks off in Texas, with a chainsaw and a massacre. There’s only one death in the opening scene, but plenty more to follow through the film’s 90 minutes.
The first killing takes place at the birthday party of young Jedidiah Sawyer, and involves the entire hillbilly clan, even old Gramps. I guess the family that preys together stays together.
From there the action moves forward 10 years to a youth mental institution, where Nurse Lizzie (Vanessa Grasse) gets accidentally caught up in a riot and breakout led by the psychopathic Ike (James Bloor) and the presumably psychopathic but polite Jackson (Sam Strike). They’re pursued cross-country by a Texas Ranger (Stephen Dorff ) who’s as much of a loose cannon as his quarry.
Leatherface was directed by the horror team of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Inside, Among the Living) with about as much subtlety and grace
as a recipe for blood pudding. Jump-scares are unfailingly preceded by a five-second silent close-up of the person about to be jumped.
And there’s no death so gruesome the camera can’t linger on the body for at least that long. This Chainsaw bites, and not in a good way.
The only bright side to the film is that these Massacre movies tend to be few and far between. The last one, Texas Chainsaw 3D came out four years ago, and raised the cumulative box office of the franchise to $197 million.
This one might push it all the way to $198 million. I’d suggest more but I don’t want to go out on a limb — not when there’s a chainsaw in the house.