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| New Line Cinema | Release Date: January 12, 1990 |
Starring:
David Cloud, Jennifer Banko, Joe Unger, Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, Miriam Byrd-Nethery, R.A. Mihailoff, Tom Everett, Viggo Mortensen, William Butler
Summary:
A California couple and a survivalist encounter Leatherface and his family.
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They're gonna say that it used to be a good movie, but then the Motion Picture Censor Board got on their case and gave it an X rating, and they had to take a chain saw to the movie, and what came out was different. They weenied out on us.
They suckered us for five bucks. They profaned the name of the most revered horror movie in film history. And what makes it worse is that the director, Jeff Burr, evidently knew what he was doing. There are a few scenes in this flick that are as scary as anything I've ever seen. [02 Feb 1990, p.12]
Splatterpunk novelist-turned-screenwriter David Schow and director Jeff Burr take the material back to its roots, re-creating the minimal plotting and alternately muddy and washed-out look of the original. In deference to contemporary tastes, Leatherface pulls as few gory punches as prevailing standards permit (Texas Chainsaw Massacre only seemed unbearably graphic) and underscores the mayhem with an abrasive speed metal soundtrack.
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The Museum of Modern Art has committed Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to its permanent collection. This spin-off, which has none of that film's brutal energy, won't be joining it. The state of Texas ought to sue the makers of Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III for defamation of character. [13 Jan 1990, p.C5]
For those who saw the first two Massacres, this will seem pretty much deja-boo! All too much of III is rehashed horror. The first installment was genuinely shocking, unrelenting, visceral terror. II was camp terror, a gothic detour that cast Dennis Hopper as a good guy (albeit nuts). III envisions itself as a return to I, but director Jeff Burr is no Tobe Hopper (director of the first installment), and even the special effects seem bloodless imitations.
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There might be a lot of guts scattered around in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, but it's a completely gutless movie, without the wit to be a comedy or the nerve to stand on its own as a straight horror picture. It just floats around at its own dull pace, trying this out and that out, as it slowly sinks. [13 Jan 1990, p.C30]
Leatherface is as tasteless as its predecessors, but it reduces fear to a business and blood to a drip. It's a slaughterhouse without any real buzz. [15 Jan 1990, p.F2]
Apr 27, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
Jul 18, 2019
Leatherface is barely in it, There is no real character development and some parts of the story just don't make any sense. It's daytime when they race away from the gas station and yet when night time comes, They're still in an area relatively close to the Sawyer family? It didn't make any sense.
0 of 1 users found this helpful01
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