I was never very enthusiastic about the concept of the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE prequel / origin story LEATHERFACE, and once I finally got the chance to see the movie I found that I had been right to be wary of it – LEATHERFACE turned out to be my least favorite installment of the entire franchise. The movie just did not work for me on nearly any level. Arrow in the Head's own Jake Dee wasn't too pleased with it, either. He gave it a 3/10 review, which seems fitting to me.
I'm still a fan of INSIDE directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, they just didn't have the right material to work with on LEATHERFACE.
Scripted by Seth M. Sherwood, the film has the following synopsis:
In Texas, years before the events of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in the early days of the infamous Sawyer family, the youngest child is sentenced to a mental hospital after a suspicious incident leaves the sheriffs’ daughter dead. Ten years later, he kidnaps a young nurse and escapes with 3 other inmates. Pursued by authorities including the deranged sheriff out to avenge his daughter’s death, the young Sawyer teen goes on a violent road trip from hell, molding him into the monster known now as Leatherface.
Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Grasse, Sam Strike, Jessica Madsen, Finn Jones, James Bloor, Nicole Andrews, Julian Kostov, Sam Coleman, and Lili Taylor star.
I didn't like LEATHERFACE, but when it comes to collecting movies I am a franchise completist, so that means I'm going to have to own a copy of it at some point.
The chance to own it is coming up on December 19th, when Lionsgate will be releasing the film on Blu-ray with a handful of special features:
– Behind the Mask: The Making of LEATHERFACE
– Six deleted scenes
– Play feature with alternate ending
If you would like to pre-order a copy, you can do so right now on Amazon.