Old
horror franchises never die—they just get the Hell rebooted out of them. It is
time to go back to the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre well yet again. This time, we get the origin story of the nastiest
and most sadistic of the clan. If you are wondering how this squares with Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, released
way back in 2006, I’m afraid you are on your own when it comes to questions of
canonical continuity. The title character is still a fresh-faced kid, but he
will change during the course of Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury’s Leatherface (trailer here), which opens today nationwide.
The
knuckle-dragging Sawyer family regularly gets away with murder, but killing the
daughter of Texas Ranger Hal Hartman is pushing the envelope, even for them.
Believing in a Roy Moore Biblical kind of justice, Hartman whisks away Jed
Sawyer, the youngest of the brood, using a dubious order of protection.
Actually, a legitimate case could be made Jed needs protecting, if he were not
dumped into a nightmarish bedlam style looney bin.
About
a decade or so later, young Jed is now known by his alias, whatever that might
be. Murderous matriarch Verna Sawyer is still desperate to regain custody, but Hartman
and the hospital director continue to stymie her. However, Jed will soon be
leaving as one of a small group of escaping inmates who take the decent,
well-intentioned Nurse Lizzy hostage. Seth M. Sherwood’s screenplay wants to
keep us guessing as to which one will become Leatherface, but it is pretty easy
to guess on the basis of relative screen time.
With
the late Tobe Hooper only credited as an executive producer, Leatherface the movie has just one thing
going for it—Stephen Dorff going all in as Hartman. When he is yelling and
glaring and chewing the scenery, the movie actually starts to generate a little
bit of fun. Still, it is frustrating to see his character make the same dumb
horror movie mistakes. Seriously, he is a Texas Ranger. When stalking murderous
backcountry folk, he should shoot first and keep shooting. Talking can wait.
Independent
Spirit Award winner Lilli Taylor looks weirdly out of place as Verna Sawyer,
but she does her best to snarl and hiss, Vanessa Grasse is way too shy and
retiring to make us believe she could be a “final girl,” but we can’t help
feeling for her. Everyone else is basically a caricature, a cliché, or an idiot
with dubious motivation.