Leatherface (2017) Review

So, my very first movie review on my blog and I'm going to do it about an eighth film in a horror series.  Promising start...

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of my absolute favorite horror movies.  It's gnarly and twisted.  Whenever I watch it, I cling to my armrests like my life depends on it.  As is to be expected, when it comes to horror sequels, none of the seven Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels have managed to live up to the original.  But does the newest film have enough going on to make it worth a watch?  The short answer is yes...but barely.

Leatherface is a prequel to the original 1974 film, which is a bad sign out the gate.  Do we really need a prequel to the original masterpiece?  Probably not.  But the reason why Leatherface is as decent as it is, is because the film truly tries something different.  It's not just your typical slasher movie.  Most of these films are about a group of teenagers who inadvertently wander into Leatherface's house and get brutally murdered.  That isn't the case here.

The film is about how young Jed Sawyer becomes the psychotic Leatherface.  As a young boy, Jed is taken from the home run by his insane mother by the police after his brother, Drayton, kills the daughter of Texas Ranger Hal Hartman (Stephen Dorff).  Years later, Jed's name has been changed and he has been put in basically an insane asylum.  One night, there is a breakout and four of the inmates escape with a kidnapped nurse in tow.  What follows is not really a slasher movie, but a road movie, like The Devil's Rejects.  The inmates try to escape to Mexico, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, and Ranger Hartman, who is just as crazy as the inmates now, is hot on their trail.

What works:

The road movie twist is certainly interesting.  We haven't had anything like it in the Texas Chainsaw series before.  It makes the second act of the film the strongest.  It gives us some fun and unexpected kills and the story is more character driven at this point.  Not all of the escaped inmates are insane killers, which gives the group an interesting dynamic.

Another interesting facet is we don't know which of the escapees is going to become Leatherface.  Since Jed's name was changed, he could be any of the three male escapees, and that uncertainty gives us more tension, as we don't know for sure who is going to survive the film.

Finally, some of the performances are pretty solid.  Stephen Dorff is great as the grieving father who goes off the deep end and Lili Taylor is memorable as Jed's insane mother.  Sam Strike is also solid as the most sane of the escaped inmates and he really does a good job of creating a sympathetic character.

What sucks:

The third act is easily the weakest part of the film.  I won't give away the ending, but the film abandons the road trip aspect of the movie, for the much safer, classic Chainsaw ending.  It all goes back to Leatherface's house.  I suppose they have to do that to set up for the original movie, but I wish they had gone for a different ending and kept the road trip going.  The 3rd act also stylistically acts as an homage to the 3rd film in the series, which was also called Leatherface, but is that a movie we really want to homage?

Verdict:

So the final question: does Leatherface have it going on?  Not really.  If you're a fan of the series or horror movies in general, you'll probably like this film just fine.  It's nothing too special, but it's at least something different.  It won't make any new fans of the series, but for an eighth film in a horror series, it's fine.

6/10:  Ok