Traveling through Texas, Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler) are traveling from L. A. to Florida to deliver the car to Michelle's father uncertain of their future as a couple. On an isolated stretch of road at the Last Chance gas station, an altercation between the lecherous station owner and a hitchhiker named Tex (Viggo Mortensen) sends the couple fleeing for their lives down the isolated road. Their safety is short lived as they're chased off the road by a pick-up decorated with roadkill and eventually must outrun chainsaw wielding lunatic Leatherface (R. A. Mihailoff). The couple have a run in with weekend survivalist, Benny (Ken Foree) who helps the two try to survive the terror hunting them.
After the box office disappointment of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in 1986, the lack of financial success coupled with the film's rather sequel unfriendly ending put the series in hibernation with no more heard from it. New Line Cinema eventually secured the rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Cannon Films intent on relaunching the franchise as more conventional slasher shifting focus away from the Sawyer family and more on Leatherface himself. Initially intended for a November 1989 release date, the film was pushed back to January the following year (possibly motivated by the relatively disappointing performance of Elm Street 5) where the film opened in 11th place and was pulled from theaters after two weeks becoming the lowest grossing entry in the series until Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Next Generation. The movie may have been intent on starting a new franchise with Leatherface at the center, but in practice Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is just a rehash of elements from the first two films that gives plenty of carnage but isn't scary enough nor fun enough to justify itself.
The movies leads in Kate Hodge and William Butler are unfortunately rather boring and bland when compared to the characters from the previous series entries. The opening 30 minute stretch where we follow these characters on Texas backroads are so lifeless and boring that they're pretty much a far cry from the driving scenes of the original which built character, mood, and atmosphere giving the audience much more with much less than this film had. The movie feels less like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more like The Hitcher especially with its primarily road based setting in the first two thirds of the film and a setup and execution that seems more tuned to an action movie than a horror film. Once we get Ken Foree as weekend survivalist Benny the movie abandons all pretense of trying to be scary and just turns into an action flick. Foree is good as Benny, I'm not disputing that, but by having a rugged survivalist with action hero prowess you undermine the fear that can be mined from a situation like this.
Despite the marketing's attempt to make Leatherface the forefront of the movie, he surprisingly does very little in the movie that's supposed to make him the next Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees. Much of the important things are done by other members of the Sawyer family with Viggo Mortenson and Tom Everett arguably more important to the movie than the titular character. The Sawyer family are fine all things considered and the filmmakers do try to shake things up by having female Sawyers with Miriam Byrd-Nethery performance as "Mama" Sawyer being fairly effective but it's basically just the dinner scene from the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre film but with a bigger cast and budget and less fear.
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a very middle of the road entry in this series. It doesn't capture the raw grit and intensity of the first film or the campy splatter fun of the second and as a potential "franchise launcher" it's pretty cynical and manufactured. There's some merit to be had from the craft in the gore effects or some of the performances of the Sawyer family, but if you saw the first two films you've seen most of what this one has to offer except better.
After the box office disappointment of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in 1986, the lack of financial success coupled with the film's rather sequel unfriendly ending put the series in hibernation with no more heard from it. New Line Cinema eventually secured the rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Cannon Films intent on relaunching the franchise as more conventional slasher shifting focus away from the Sawyer family and more on Leatherface himself. Initially intended for a November 1989 release date, the film was pushed back to January the following year (possibly motivated by the relatively disappointing performance of Elm Street 5) where the film opened in 11th place and was pulled from theaters after two weeks becoming the lowest grossing entry in the series until Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Next Generation. The movie may have been intent on starting a new franchise with Leatherface at the center, but in practice Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is just a rehash of elements from the first two films that gives plenty of carnage but isn't scary enough nor fun enough to justify itself.
The movies leads in Kate Hodge and William Butler are unfortunately rather boring and bland when compared to the characters from the previous series entries. The opening 30 minute stretch where we follow these characters on Texas backroads are so lifeless and boring that they're pretty much a far cry from the driving scenes of the original which built character, mood, and atmosphere giving the audience much more with much less than this film had. The movie feels less like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more like The Hitcher especially with its primarily road based setting in the first two thirds of the film and a setup and execution that seems more tuned to an action movie than a horror film. Once we get Ken Foree as weekend survivalist Benny the movie abandons all pretense of trying to be scary and just turns into an action flick. Foree is good as Benny, I'm not disputing that, but by having a rugged survivalist with action hero prowess you undermine the fear that can be mined from a situation like this.
Despite the marketing's attempt to make Leatherface the forefront of the movie, he surprisingly does very little in the movie that's supposed to make him the next Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees. Much of the important things are done by other members of the Sawyer family with Viggo Mortenson and Tom Everett arguably more important to the movie than the titular character. The Sawyer family are fine all things considered and the filmmakers do try to shake things up by having female Sawyers with Miriam Byrd-Nethery performance as "Mama" Sawyer being fairly effective but it's basically just the dinner scene from the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre film but with a bigger cast and budget and less fear.
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a very middle of the road entry in this series. It doesn't capture the raw grit and intensity of the first film or the campy splatter fun of the second and as a potential "franchise launcher" it's pretty cynical and manufactured. There's some merit to be had from the craft in the gore effects or some of the performances of the Sawyer family, but if you saw the first two films you've seen most of what this one has to offer except better.