Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

I stayed away from Leatherface for many years, because the Swedish tape was cut to ribbons by the weak distributors that wouldn’t dare take a fight with the censors. I’ve always prefered my movies uncut, at least the violence, and as close as possible to the director’s vision as possible (which makes VHS a no-no). When it finally was released in a nice special edition in the UK, I decided to buy it. That was a couple of years ago, and yesterday I decided to take a new look at Jeff Burr’s troubled production.

Kate Hodge and William Butler are Michelle and Ryan, a young trendy LA-couple on their way home. After some drama at a gas station where they meet redneck-idiot Alfredo (Tom Everett) and hunky cowboy Tex (Viggo Mortensen), they escape out in the night just to almost crash into tough guy Benny (Ken Foree). He first dosen’t believe them that a chainsaw-maniac is after them, but soon has to use his survival skills to defend himself against Leatherface out in the backwoods. In the meantime, Michelle and Ryan is stuck on a farm… a farm belonging to the infamous Sawyer-family…

Jeff Burr is an excellent director, his From a Whisper to a Scream is one of my favorite episode-movies ever. Dark and gritty, very cynical about humanity. TCM3 is never as dark as that movie, but it’s still very stylish and fun movie which might lack some of the trademark-sadism that Tobe Hooper gave the two first parts, but has more interesting and colorful character and for once a very strong hero (Ken Foree). The Sawyer-family is great, with R.A. Mihailoff as one of the best Leatherface-versions ever. The mumbling redneck Alfredo is a highlight to, and Tex and Tinker (Joe Unger) is a sadistic duo of…brothers?

The house in the TCM-movies has always been important, and the problem with this movie is that it’s way to clean. The random body parts just feels way to fake and you never get the sense of the organized chaos that should reign this family. Because if post-production trouble a lot of the grittiness and violence was trimmed, and what’s left in the unrated version isn’t that graphic – but still has a nice streak of violence thru all the horror scenes. The shoot-out, and everyting surrounding the kitchen, is the best and most TCM-esque scenes in the movie.

But still, Leatherface is a great sequel in a franchise that is more even than most movie-series. Almost every part has its own style, and so of course this one. Blue-tinted, typical early ninties, witty dialogue and that special kind of acting that you see very rarely in todays horror movies.