THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you hype up something to be the best thing ever, you’re setting yourself for failure. New Line Cinema should’ve seen this coming when promoting Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III to be the scariest thing film ever, when it was not.
PLOT
The 1990 film follows a young couple named Ryan (William Butler) and Michelle traveling through Texas. When stopping at a gas station, they meet a hitchhiker named Eddie aka Tex. Shortly after Ryan turns down giving him a ride home, Tex gets into a fight with the station’s owner Alfredo (Tom Everett) for spying on Michelle in the bathroom. The fight gets so out of control because once the couple leaves, Alfredo apparently shoots Tex with a shotgun. By night, a larger truck follows and tosses a dead coyote shortly after. When they stop, they find a flat tire on the car and once they change it, they get chased by the chainsaw wielding psychopath nicknamed Junior. Despite driving unscathed from him, they inadvertently crash into a survivalist named Benny once they see a bloody Tex leap in front of them. When Benny goes looking for him, he encounters a hook handed man named Tinker (Joe Unger) who offers assistance by setting down road flares. When seeing a damaged chainsaw in the back of the truck though, he quickly deduces he has bad intentions. And just as he flees him and evades Leatherface, he meets Sara who had just lost her family to him and his family the Sawyers. When he hears the couple calling for him, he follows their voice before Leatherface catches up to kill Sara and capture Ryan with a bear trap. Michelle avoids capture, but locates the Sawyers’ house where she finds out Tex is part of the family and was planning to capture her and her partner the whole time. At the house he not only has a decomposed grandpa and confirms Tinker & Alfredo to be his brothers, but also Tex’s wheelchair bound Mama Anne (Miriam Byrd-Nethery) and her youngest daughter credited as Little Girl (Jennifer Banko). Eventually, Tex finds her with the help of his sister and nails her to the table. As he & the Little Girl kill Ryan, Benny catches up and saves Michelle by opening fire on the house which kills Tinker and Anne in the process. Once Michelle gets out of the house, he lights Tex on fire after their fight exposes him to gasoline. Michelle is almost killed by Leatherface at a nearby swamp, but Benny again prevents that from happening when he helps her incapacitate the slasher. Alfredo tries to kill them both, but Michelle shoots him dead to end the conflict for good. Just as she and Benny drive away, the film ends with Leatherface watching them do so after escaping the swamp.
THOUGHTS
A lot of slasher franchises go off the rails when the sequels get too convoluted for the audience to care and sadly, this was the officially the first time for this particular character. We all knew Jeff Burr would bring something different to the table when taking over duties as director, we should’ve known that it wouldn’t mean good changes. The first red flag was Caroline Williams as a Stretch now being a reporter. Burr goes for a grunge atmosphere with the Sawyer family appearing as outlandish like past relatives but it didn’t feel like anything new. RA Mihailoff brings a whole other aura of dominance as the titular villain, but they don’t really capitalize on this after showing off a golden chainsaw. They don’t even bother explaining how the hell he survived the second film after the severe injuries he went through, which only feels like a stupid ass retcon if you ask me. In all honesty, he’s outshined by Viggo Mortensen who was the most deceptive of members at this point of the franchise. You know he’s having a ball when helping his sister commit her first kill by summoning a sledgehammer to end Ryan for good. He’s the most shameless of being part of a cannibal family as he uses false charm to lure his prey. The fact he gets burnt alive only makes it ironic that he should’ve learned to cook something else more humane. With such grim characters committing torment, you already know there are victims were rooting to see survive. Kate Hodge is convincingly good as the final girl Michelle because despite all the shock she’s feeling as she’s living through terror, she still had enough will in her to do the absolute. She could’ve bailed and took a car for herself, but knew Ryan didn’t deserve to die which defends the decision to go back for him. Even though it didn’t work out, there’s no shame in respecting her efforts because with Benny’s help, she is able to hold her own when using the surroundings to an advantage. Speaking of which, Ken Foree plays what is for sure another badass role in his resume. Benny is quite likable because due to being a survivalist, he is prepared for the worst and was very self aware on what to do for things being not what they seem. The second he saw Tinker’s chainsaw, he knew he had to act fast. And that motive is what helped him survive the night and be an avenger for someone who needed help. Arguably speaking, I think that become possible due to someone else starting the chain. Besides Ryan, you totally feel bad for Sara because her mentality is so frozen from the gore she overcame that she sacrificed herself to give Benny a stronger chance that worked. Despite having a terrible death that was being chainsaws through a tree, I won’t take away the vulnerability brought by Toni Hudson. Despite saying all I could to defend this movie, it ain’t enough to defend other illogical things. Like for example, I think Ted should’ve the part of trusting the couple by pretending to kill Alfredo rather than the other way around. If he did that, they would’ve respected him enough to take him home and the rest would’ve been history because they likely would’ve not met Benny. That only reminds me Benny should’ve armed his gun before he left them because he has no idea what to expect when leaving them for help. Another continuity error that bothers me deeply is the fact there is another grandpa. If it’s from the other side of the family, I would’ve liked for that to be said. I can also complain that he took too long to find the house, but it’s more of a surprise he was able to duck and lay on his back when the car drove over him. Since his leg got injured during the conflict, it’s hard to buy he would drop on time. Lastly, what bothered me more than trying to figure out when Alfredo caught up to the remaining survivors was the fact Michelle left the trunk open because they could’ve lost that tire the faster they drove and that can result in Leatherface catching up should another fire go flat. I don’t know how anyone can ignore this in order to enjoy this. To wrap up, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is the franchise’s first side bump for not being anywhere close to the roots that made the first two worthwhile. If the gore is what you’re into, I hope this is able to satisfy you enough.
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