Leatherface : The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3

Leatherface : The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 title

Tag Line : He puts the teeth in terror.

Leatherface : The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 Well, in spite of being chainsawed through the stomach at the end of part 2 and then blown up along with the rest of the family after his older brother, Drayton Sawyer (the cook), set off a hand grenade, Leatherface appears to have survived and moved in with new kinfolk.

A young couple, Ryan (Bill Butler) and Michelle (Kate Hodge) are travelling coast to coast along the desert highway, when they have a run in with the retarded owner of a gas station. Taking off down a lonely road, which they believe to be a shortcut, they then find themselves being pursued by a lunatic driving a giant 4x4 pickup truck.

They manage to get away from him, but then have a run in with Leatherface as they stop to inspect the damage to their car. Taking off once more, they then inadvertently collide with another traveller named Benny (Ken Foree), a survivalist on his way back from a meeting at his training camp.

At first he doesn't believe their story about gun toting gas station clerks and chainsaw wielding maniacs driving pick-up trucks, but a sudden appearance by Leatherface and his razzing chainsaw makes him change his mind.

Ryan is killed and Michelle is captured and taken back to the families home, where she is subjected to all sorts of nastiness, in much the same vein as poor old Sally Hardesty did in part 1. Only in this film she is nailed to the chair (ouch!) instead of just being tied to it.

In the meantime, Benny being the hardened survivalist he is, recovers his rifle from the truck and sets off after them. But can he rescue Michelle in time?

Directed by Jeff Burr and written by David Schow (didn't he used to have a column in Fangoria mag?) this is by far a much better sequel than part 2. Kim Henkal, who produced the first movie, also worked on the film as a creative consultant.

Overall marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag lines "The Saw is Family", "He puts the teeth in terror".
Vigo Mortessan who plays "Tex" in the film, also played Sam Loomis in the 1998 remake of Psycho. In 2001 he went onto star in his best known role as Aragon in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Bill Butler has also starred in "Friday the 13th Part 7", "Ghoulies 2" and the 1993 remake of "Night of the Living Dead".
Ken Foree is probably best known for his role as Peter in "Dawn of the Dead".
The original script was much more brutal and gory. However, the distributors insisted on making changes to tone down the violence. The US censors board, the MPAA, still insisted in making cuts to avoid being given an NC17 rating.
R.A.Milhoff played the part of Leatherface this time round, making him the 3rd actor to star in the role.
Available in the USA in a heavily censored "R" rated version and also in a special "Uncut" edition. The unrated US DVD and the old collectors edition laserdisc contained additional material, including an alternate take on were Bill Butlers character is killed, showing the young girl actually performing the final death blow with the sledgehammer, instead of Tex, and a different ending.
Kane Hodder, who played Jason in Friday the 13th parts 7-10, was the films stunt co-ordinator.
The alternate ending (shown as an extra on the US laserdisc, DVD and the UK disc) shows much more of the fight between Benny and Leatherface in which Benny is actually killed by his chainsaw, not just wounded. Michelle hits Leatherface with a rock repeatedly, rather than just twice and is then attacked by a badly burned "Tex" who's then impaled in a spike trap (this scene didn't feature in the theatrical version). She makes it to the main highway, just as a police car pulls up. Her relief turns to despair as she realises the young girl from the house is sat on the back seat (in the theatrical version she is just picked up by Benny and they drive off into the sunset). Although on US DVD this scene is extended slightly as we see the police car drive off so the final scene is not as ambiguous (ie whether or not she is killed by the occupants).
The "Excalibur" chainsaw Leatherface uses in the film weighed over 80lbs.
Texas Chainsaw 3 was submitted to the BBFC for classification in 1990, but was rejected outright (presumably because the former chief, James Ferman, had a personal grudge against the first film). Strangely though, the "Bravo TV" satellite channel screened what appeared to be the full uncut directors version of the movie in December 2000, despite the fact that it was still effectively banned on video at the time. Whilst instances like this are not unheard of in the UK, they are extremely rare.
The film was resubmitted for classification in 2004 and passed uncut, although the distributors submitted the cut US R rated version. When the BBFC pointed out that there was a longer gorier print in existence, the distributors got hold of the full length uncut directors version and the BBFC passed uncut this time.