REVIEW: Leatherface

While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered one of the main franchises of the slasher sub-genre of horror, it wasn't initially so.  The first sequel didn't happen until 1986, twelve years after the initial movie.  Since that time, there have been a number of films made.  Most have been sequels, but there was one reboot in 2003 and then a prequel in 2006.  Both of those films were products of Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes, and neither were particularly good.  The prequel only had the origins shown in the first ten minutes before it just turned into a generic slasher film.

What has propelled this franchise along through the decades are mainly two things.  The first is that the original film claimed to be based on a true story.  So many movies in the modern age make those claims, but I remember straight through high school hearing people talk about the events that Texas Chainsaw was based on.  The truth is that nothing in the film happened in real life.  One of the characters in the film, known as Leatherface for wearing a mask of human skin, was loosely based off of real life serial killer Ed Gein.  Norman Bates from Psycho had elements taken from Gein as well.

The second popular aspect from Texas Chainsaw is Leatherface himself.  He was just one of a number of characters in the original film, but is quite prominent in the following films.  Leatherface has a horrifically creepy appearance, something that is a must for antagonists in popular slasher films.  He is so popular that he is the only character from the murderous family in the first film to be featured in 2013's Texas Chainsaw 3D.  Could film makers leave him to be a mysterious creature?  Nope.

Origin stories abound, and why not delve into the history of one of the most iconic faces in horror history?  Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Murray chart a journey into the creation of this particular member of the Sawyer family, a group of deviants if ever there were any.  They set the opening of the movie with Jed (Leatherface's real name) celebrating his birthday at a table with his relatives.  This is not your typical birthday, as Jed's gift from his family is a chainsaw which they want him to use on a thief who is bloody and bound in a chair.  Jump ten years later in a youth psychiatric hospital and the story takes off with a young nurse, Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse) caught up in an escape attempt by some seriously messed up adolescents.

The ultimate problem with this movie and the story that it tells is that it didn't need to be part of the Texas Chainsaw universe.  It could have just had a different title and it would have stood on its own, outside of the last ten minutes.  This is an issue with a lot of forced origin stories is that the tale that they tell really could be interchangeable with anything and isn't necessarily something unique to cannon.  Take out a handful of scenes and this movie has nothing at all to do with the franchise.  When this happens in a movie I have to ask, 'was this even needed?'  The truth, most of the time with origin stories to established properties, is that no, it isn't needed.

The directors of this movie aim to disturb the audience through elevated gore unnerving behaviour.  The movie does not miss an opportunity to bring forth the blood.  Some of the effects are well done, but it goes a little too far.  There is one scene in the movie where the violent act isn't seen, and to me that had the most impact.  There was build up to it, and then just sounds as the camera cut away.  Too much weight was put on the visuals when I thought the real power of the movie was the disturbing nature of some of the characters.  It did end up taking some of that too far as well, which is a shame because with a little bit of tempering there could have been an interesting tale in here.

As the movie progresses, don't even bother trying to keep up with the motivations of the characters.  Our young nurse, Lizzy, is so dedicated to hiding from the police that she and two others go all Han and Luke on Hoth and curl up in the torso of a cow.  She emerges when the police are gone.  One minute later she sees a police car driving on the road and runs towards it yelling and waving her arms.  This sort of baffling behaviour seeps into a few of the scenes at the end, which try to shove the movie towards finally being about Leatherface.  The directors aim for a bit of swerve in there, but it is really unneeded.

It isn't the worst horror picture out there, but it sure isn't anything amazing.  The base story is interesting, and would have been better without trying to push the limits of gore and forcing itself to fit into the Texas Chainsaw world.  In the film lay some decent performances, but they get muddled thanks to the lack of direction and consistency of the characters.  This ends up being a paint by numbers sort of film, and one that could have had some partially interesting elements.

Rating - 1.5 out of 4 stars