It’s been forty years since the last Texas Chainsaw video game.
It’s hard to believe actually, considering how much of a powerhouse ol’ Leatherface and his cannibalistic family have been in the horror genre, let alone pop culture as a whole. I feel you would be hard-pressed to find somebody who isn’t aware of the franchise.
Before I go on, if you’d like to watch this article rather than read it, I’ve put together a blood-filled piece of art HERE.
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Other horror properties, such as Evil Dead, Alien, Predator and Friday the 13th have been hitting it big in the gaming spectrum recently. It’s about damn time we got to wield the chainsaw.
There’s plenty of gaming content that allows you to play as Leatherface; Dead By Daylight, Mortal Kombat X and a couple of Call of Duty games. But the last stand-alone entry in Chainsaw video game lore was the notorious The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the Atari 2600 in 1982.
One of the very first video games based on a horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre saw you take control of Leatherface with one objective: Kill as many girls as you can before your chainsaw runs out of fuel.
This kind of pixelated violence would’ve been seen as absolutely insane back in 1982.
In fact, the game was deemed so extreme, that most video game retailers refused to carry it – and the few that did, it was kept behind the counter.
This led to poor sales. And no sequels.
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Now developers Sumo Nottingham and Gun Interactive are unleashing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre across consoles and PC. An exciting horror multiplayer game set around the events of the original 1974 slasher classic.
In order to fire up for this historical moment in gaming history, I thought we’d take a look back at the film that has inspired the game, its sequels and the legacy left in its wake.
Warning: Here be spoilers.
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)
The one that started it all.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, interestingly the only title in the franchise to spell Chain Saw this way, follows Sally Hardesty and her young friends as they accidentally stumble across the estate of a family of cannibals, who pick them off one by one.
Loosely based on the true story of Ed Gein, a loose cannon from Wisconsin who dug up gravesites, using the dead bodies to create furniture and the like among other murderous crimes. This is mostly evident in the film and franchise’s chainsaw-wielding big baddie.
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Depending on the movie, his real name seems to differ (we’ll talk about it). But in this one he is simply referred to as Leatherface. A mentally challenged butcher, who wears the faces of his victims over his own.
One of the most iconic screen villains, some have labelled Leatherface as the scariest of all time. His terror influenced other horror mask-wearing juggernauts to come; Michael Myers of Halloween fame and of course my favourite slasher, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. It’s impossible to deny how important this psycho is in horror history.
Most frighteningly, he’s actually not the most sadistic member of the family. His brothers, plainly named The Cook and The Hitchhiker, are even more insane than Leatherface.
When these punk kids start turning up at his family’s secluded homestead, Leatherface does what he thinks is best: protects his home and carves them up for meat to be prepared by his brother for dinner.
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Many people consider The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to be one of the most violent and goriest films ever made. Funnily enough, the film is relatively bloodless. Even in the infamous ‘hook’ scene, you don’t see anything graphic, everything is just implied.
Now, fifty years on, Chain Saw is a rough watch. There isn’t a whole lot of story, but its magic is in how goddamn uncomfortable it is.
Director Tobe Hooper makes your skin crawl with intense edits and a jarring soundtrack. Aided by Director of Photography Daniel Pearl’s documentary-style cinematography, the shot you can see below is absolutely incredible. Watch as the camera seamlessly glides under the swing and the house almost looks like it’s about to swallow unfortunate Pam.
Where a good chunk of horror is set in the dark, Chain Saw effectively makes sunlight scary. The searing Texan sun is blinding, and instead of worrying about what could be lurking in the shadows, your concern is what lies beyond that lens flare. You can practically feel and smell the heat cooking filth and bodies on screen.
The panic and desperation of poor Sally when Leatherface and his brothers ‘invite’ her to dinner is infectious. This scene just goes on forever as the family mock and ridicule her. It is the very height of discomfort to watch.
It’s brilliant.
Made for a reported $140,000 US, its money that producers Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper are alleged to have acquired in part through shady dealings with the Mafia. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a true testament to independent filmmaking.
That ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude to get the film made and released is truly admirable. Ultimately, its low-budget nature is what makes the movie feel so raw.
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The cast and crew’s hard work and sacrifice paid off. The movie was a mega hit, which means it would spawn sequels… Eventually.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)
It took over a decade, but in 1986 the buzz was back! Just not as you remember it.
Tobe Hooper returns to direct, along with writer L. M. Kit Carson, they knew they needed to shock and outrage – just as the 1974 film did.
Bizarrely they decided to do it in a completely different way.
Where that first film is horrifying, harsh and messy, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a bit more polished. But most oddly of all, is a black comedy rather than a straight-out horror movie.
This doesn’t mean that it’s bad, in fact, the movie is so delightfully ’80s and everything is cranked up to 11, it’s hard not to laugh. Funky lighting, special effects makeup maestro Tom Savini brings the gore and Dennis Hopper brings the chainsaw duels.
Hopper plays ‘Lefty’, a former Texas Ranger who is the uncle of Sally from Chain Saw 74 and her deceased brother Franklin, who fell victim to the family back then. He’s out for revenge and when he discovers that a local radio DJ, Stretch, has an audio recording of some chainsaw murders, he has her broadcast it on air in an attempt to draw out the murderous family.
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Yep, the family is back.
Jim Siedow reprises his role as The Cook and Bill Moseley, of Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses notoriety (a film that definitely pays homage to this one), is fantastically unhinged in the role of Chop-Top.
I always thought Chop-Top was an evolved version of The Hitchhiker from the first picture, but apparently, he is his twin brother? I don’t know, things tend to get confusing with this family, who are now called the Sawyers. You’ll see as we make our way through these movies.
And of course, Leatherface is here, or as we find out, his name is ‘Bubba’.
This time around he’s a little more sympathetic, or as sympathetic as a chainsaw-wielding maniac can be. He develops a bit of a crush on our heroine ‘Stretch’. Getting weirdly sexual with his chainsaw in one scene…
Fun fact: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was banned here in Australia until 2006. But a few copies of the New Zealand uncut version that was released on VHS in 1987 could be found illegally at some Aussie video stores.
LEATHERFACE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III (1990)
In the late eighties, New Line Cinema, hot of the success of their Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, bought the rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the hope to kick off a new series.
New Line founder Robert Shaye decided they would return to the ‘hardcore-horror’ vibe of the original classic. And for the most part, they do.
Back is the rawness, at least cinematography wise, and it feels scary again. The majority of the film is set at night though, so it loses that gritty sun-drenched dryness that I was so fond of in the original.
Unfortunately, the MPAA really sunk its talons into this one, pulling punches when it comes to any of the violence. In fact, this was the last movie to be given an X rating before the NC-17 rating came into effect.
The plot is simple, the Sawyers lure a young couple onto the back roads of Texas and begin hunting them for fun and presumably food.
Nothing too special here. Leatherface feels more like Jason Voorhees. The better part of the movie plays out like a Friday the 13th, ‘man stalking girl through the woods’ piece, and things really slow in the middle.
It’s not until we get to the family that things get interesting, with a young Viggo Mortensen playing ‘Tex’ Sawyer. I thought maybe he was playing The Hitchhiker now, but it seems this is a whole new family again, bar Leatherface, whose name is now ‘Junior’.
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Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III was a commercial and critical flop, that would see the franchise go into hibernation again…
Enter Matthew McConaughey.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION (1995)
Kim Henkel, co-writer of the 1974 original, figured if you wanted something done right, you gotta do it yourself. This time helming the director’s chair while also penning the script.
What resulted is interesting, to say the least.
After a car crash on their prom night, a bunch of teenagers get lost in the backwoods of Texas, only to encounter Leatherface and his family, now the Slaughters rather than the Sawyers.
As far as I can tell, the only connection to the other films is Leatherface, who takes a backseat – and for good reason. The Next Generation features two soon-to-be superstars in Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger.
The latter plays the typical final girl type, where McConaughey plays a new member of the family, Vilmer, and absolutely eats up the screen.
Positively deranged, McConaughey will have you cringing in fear, while nervously chuckling at his absurdity.
Director Henkel makes some offbeat choices, opting to inject a bit of comedy back into the franchise. One scene sees a member of the family ordering pizza, showing some normalcy amongst these crazies.
But possibly the most outlandish decision was to present the reasoning behind why the Slaughters lure and torture people in their house. They’re actually working for a secret society… Possibly the Illuminati.
What?
The film had a limited release in 1995 under its original title The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but was ultimately shelved until two years later after Zellweger and McConaughey hit it big. Hoping to ride their success to the bank, the picture was re-released in 1997 under the new name Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. But even with all that star power, it didn’t fair too well at the box office.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003)
After a series of flops, filmmakers thought it best to return to what worked. They would remake the original film for a modern audience.
Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes produced the remake and would go on to give the same treatment to other famous horror films such as The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
This was the first film I saw in the franchise, and that viewing still haunts me to this day.
The plot is pretty similar to that first film. Jessica Biel stars in an early role as part of a group of friends on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, when they pick up a stranger on the side of the road.
This time it’s not The Hitchhiker, but a traumatised young girl.
When she realises which way the friends are headed, she breaks down and shockingly blows her brains out with a revolver.
Daniel Pearl, cinematographer of the 1974 film, returns and eclipses his legendary swing shot (in my opinion), with this incredible moment where the camera pulls pack through the hole in the girl’s head and out of the car.
Barbaric, but beautiful. It’s one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.
I remember sitting in the cinema at this moment, thinking I could handle horror movies. Chowing down on popcorn, M&M’s and Coke, which I promptly put aside, I was so disgusted and disturbed by this unexpected incident.
And I wouldn’t touch my snacks again.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), is everything I expect from its 1970’s namesake, but more digestible with a contemporary style of filmmaking.
It is dreadful, dirty and macabre in all the best possible ways.
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Trying to locate the local Sherriff to report this poor girl’s death, the youngens find themselves in the clutches of a sadistic family. No not the Sawyers, or even the Slaughters. This time they’re the Hewitts.
R. Lee Ermey plays the crooked Sherriff, who conducts mind games with these victims to a disturbingly, hilarious effect. But you won’t be laughing, even in disbelief, when Thomas Hewitt turns up.
You might know him as Leatherface.
Truly savage in this iteration, the chainsaw-wielding fiend is nothing short of brutal and terrifying.
I adore this film, it’s my favourite of the lot and, ultimately, I would say it is one of the best horror films ever made. It might be my nostalgic feeling of terror still reverberating within me from that first screening all those years ago, but I really believe it still holds up.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING (2006)
TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (2013)
LEATHERFACE (2017)
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022)
