Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Jeff Burr
Written by	David J. Schow
Produced by	Robert Engelman
Starring	Viggo Mortensen Kate Hodge Ken Foree
Music by	Jim Manzie Pat Regan
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	January 12, 1990
Running time	86 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$5,765,562 (USA)

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is the second sequel to the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The film was released January 12 1990.

It stars Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, William Butler, and a then-unknown Viggo Mortensen. It was directed by Jeff Burr. At the time this was intended to be the first of several sequels in the series to be produced by New Line. However, it was not a success. The film largely ignores the events of its predecessor.

Plot

The film begins with Leatherface (R.A. Mihailoff) bludgeoning a young woman to death with a sledgehammer before beginning the process of cutting off her face so as to make it into a mask, as another girl (Toni Hudson) watches from a nearby window. Hearing the girl outside, Leatherface, after the girl flees, briefly checks outside before going back to work. Elsewhere and sometime time later, Michelle (Kate Hodge) and her friend Ryan (William Butler), who are traveling through Texas to deliver a car to Michelle's father in Florida, pass through a security checkpoint near where a large number of butchered bodies are being excavated and reach the Last Chance Gas Station, where they are met by a hitchhiking cowboy named Tex (Viggo Mortensen) and the station's perverted owner Alfredo (Tom Everett). A fight soon breaks out between Tex and Alfredo when the former finds the latter spying on Michelle while she uses the station washroom. As Michelle and Ryan flee from the station in their car, they witness Alfredo seemingly kill Tex with a shotgun.

As night falls, Ryan and Michelle, having taken a route Tex advised them too, become lost. As Ryan and Michelle begin to bicker, they are attacked by a large truck and are forced to pull over when the vehicle's unseen driver throws a dead coyote at their windshield. As Ryan changes the car's flat tire, Michelle, hearing a noise, urges him to hurry, just as the two of them are ambushed by Leatherface. Getting into the car as Leatherface begins hacking at it with his chainsaw; Michelle and Ryan bump Leatherface with the vehicle before driving off. After their escape from Leatherface, Michelle and Ryan, as well as another driver, a survivalist named Benny (Ken Foree), crash when a bloodied Tex leaps in front of them. As Benny tends to the unconscious Michelle, Ryan begins to explain the situation to him, showing him the damage caused to their car by Leatherface when Michelle awakens. Deciding to go off and find Tex, Benny discovers a hook handed man named Tinker (Joe Unger), who offers his assistance, setting down road flares. Benny soon realizes Tinker's true intentions after finding a damaged chainsaw in the back of his truck and, grabbing an automatic rifle from his overturned jeep, retreats and encounters Leatherface when Tinker attempts to ram him with his truck.

As Benny fights Leatherface, he is saved from being killed by the girl who had earlier escaped Leatherface, who lures the killer away before joining Benny. Questioning the girl, who is injured and traumatized, Benny learns from her that her entire family has been killed and that she has been unable to escape due to Leatherface and his family, who hunt people for food and sport, watching the roads. Hearing Michelle and Ryan calling for him, Benny leaves the girl, who is killed a short time later when Leatherface pins her to a tree with his chainsaw. After killing the girl, Leatherface stalks Ryan and Michelle, mutilating and capturing the former when he is caught in a bear trap.

Finding a house after being told to run by Ryan, Michelle enters it seeking aid, and finds a little girl (Jennifer Banko) whose room is filled with the remains of various animals. Stabbed by the girl with a knife she was concealing in her skeletal doll, Michelle is restrained by Tex, who brings her to the kitchen and nails her to a chair, introducing her to Grandpa, a withered corpse who the family feeds blood. After Mama (Miriam Byrd-Nethery) appears, Tinker drags in the barely living Ryan, who he and Tex proceed to suspend upside-down with a pair of meat hooks. When Leatherface returns home, he is given a large golden chainsaw with the phrase "The Saw Is Family" engraved on it by Tex, as a present made by Tinker, who is less than pleased with Leatherface's failure to kill Benny. Outside the family home, Benny finds and attempts to interrogate Alfredo, who is disposing of bodies in a bog, eventually knocking the man into the bog with his rifle and leaving him to drown after Alfredo proves uncooperative.

Leatherface, who had gone off to practice his vocabulary with a computer, rejoins his family, who are preparing for dinner in the kitchen, where the little girl kills Ryan with a sledgehammer swinging device. With Ryan dead, Leatherface prepares to kill Michelle with his chainsaw, the noise attracting Benny, who opens fire on the house with rifle, killing Mama and Tinker and partially destroying Grandpa's body. With Leatherface incapacitated after being knocked to floor by Benny's gunfire, Michelle tears herself from the chair she is nailed to and stabs Tex while escaping and meeting Benny outside.

When Leatherface begins heading towards them with Tinker's truck, Benny tells Michelle to run to the woods as he tries to shoot Leatherface, only to be hit by the truck instead after he realizes he is out of ammo. With Benny stunned, Leatherface exits the truck and grabs his chainsaw before going after Michelle. As Leatherface stalks Michelle, Tex and a recovered Benny begin fighting, a battle which ends with Benny soaking Tex in fuel and immolating him with a lighter the girl from earlier had given him. Rushing to Michelle's aid, Benny stops Leatherface from murdering her, knocking the killer into the bog. Fighting Leatherface in the water, Benny appears to die when Leatherface forces his head into blade of the floating and still running chainsaw. Turning his sights on Michelle, Leatherface begins dragging her underwater, when Michelle, grabbing a rock, bashes Leatherface over the head with it again and again, knocking him out and underwater.

As dawn breaks, Michelle reaches the main road and rests on an abandoned tire, when Alfredo's pickup truck, driven by Benny, stops in front of her. As he helps Michelle into the truck, Benny is attacked from behind by a sledgehammer wielding Alfredo. Avoiding Alfredo's attacks, Michelle shoots him in the chest with a shotgun, dumping his body in the middle of the road before driving away with Benny, not noticing Leatherface revving his chainsaw some distance away.

Cast

Actor	Role
Viggo Mortensen	Tex Sawyer
Kate Hodge	Michelle
Toni Hudson	Sara
R.A. Mihailoff	Leatherface
Ken Foree	Benny
William Butler	Ryan
Beth DePatie	Gina
Duane Whitaker	Kim
Caroline Williams	Vanita "Stretch" Brock (cameo)
Jennifer Banko	Little girl
Miriam Byrd-Nethery	Mama Sawyer
Tom Everett	Alfredo Sawyer
Joe Unger	Tinker Sawyer

Trivia

• This film ignores the events of the second one, creating a new continuity. This is established by saying that the cook's name was W.E. Sawyer, and that he was executed in a Gas Chamber in 1981. Also, in order to make it look like it takes place after the first one, Leatherface is given a knee brace, as a nod to the ending of the original when he accidentally cut his knee with the chainsaw

Soundtrack

1. "Leatherface" (Lääz Rockit) - 4:10
2. "Bored" (Death Angel) - 3:27
3. "When Worlds Collide" (Wrath) - 5:42
4. "Spark In My Heart" (Hurricane) - 4:56
5. "Power" (SGM) - 4:05
6. "One Nation" (Sacred Reich) - 3:20
7. "Monster Mash" (Utter Lunacy) - 5:31
8. "The Gift Of Death" (Wasted Youth) - 8:50
9. "Methods Of Madness" (Obsession) - 3:24
10. "Psychotic Killing Machine" (MX Machine) - 3:22

DVD Release

File:Dvdleatherface.jpg

R-Rated and Unrated DVD of Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.

In 2003, the film was released (In the R and Unrated versions) on DVD. The special features are:

• Audio Commentary with Jeff Burr, Gregory Nicotero, R.A. Mihailoff, David J. Schow, William Butler, and Mark Odesky.
• The Saw is Family: The Making of Leatherface Featurette
• We Knows What To Do With Them Parts: A small compilation of unrestored, raw, deleted scenes in which director Jeff Burr explains the reason for their removal.
• Original Ending

External links

• Official site
• Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III at IMDb