The sputter of a chainsaw. The thud of a hammer. Blood, oil, and gasoline. Ever since its first appearance in 1974,The Texas Chainsaw Massacrefranchise has been defined by simple, visceral things. It took Leatherface a single film to become a staple of the horror genre, and almost half a century later, the franchise shows no signs of slowing.
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Loosely inspired by real killers and shot in a confrontational style, the story of one terrible family from Texas was handcrafted to cause nightmares. Over the decades the story has changed, expanded, and been reimagined, but one thing has remained true: the scream of the saw heralds doom.
8The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
This film wants to be deep. It wants to have something meaningful to say about war, violence, and exploitation. It wants to contribute something of substance to the canon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite get what it wants.
There are a few fun moments, a few ideas that could have elevated the rest of the project had they been better utilized. Mostly, however, this film is lackluster slashercashing in on the infamy of the original. The exceptional R. Lee Ermey has a role, but not even he’s enough to save it.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginningwas almost the end.
7Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
3D is a phrase that raises the hair on the back of most moviegoers' necks. Unfortunately,Texas Chainsaw 3Dmakes precisely the same mistake that most other 3D films make: ruining otherwise powerful shots by shoehorning in gratuitous CGI.
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The film fails often, but not because its actors or director lacked talent.Texas Chainsaw 3Dwas essentially doomed by its premise, which is a shame given that the creative team behind it had the good sense to ignore every previous entry in the franchise except the original, setting upTexas Chainsaw 3Das a direct sequel to Hooper’s original. If this sundae needed a cherry on top, it’s the pure, unearned surrealism of Alexandra Daddario’s character tossing a chainsaw to a suddenly heroic Leatherface.
6Leatherface (2017)
How sympathetic should Leatherface be? Some might balk at the very premise, but it’s hard to deny that the character has a more human backstory than almost any other slasher villain. Every film in the franchise puts a different amount of weight on mental illness, abuse, and simple evil as explanations for Leatherface’s violence. It’s unsurprising that in the film named for him,Leatherfacereceives a more thorough backstory.
There’s nothing wrong with giving the villain a tragic backstory or asking viewers to empathize with him, at least temporarily. The problem here is that the film leans too heavily on unjustified melodrama. Leatherface receiving his saw or mask for the first time should have weight, and here they simply don’t.Practical effects can’t save it.
5The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
R. Lee Ermey’s sheriff is the most disconcerting part ofThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).Everything about his performance is simply unpleasant to watch — which is great, because horror isn’t really doing its job if it doesn’t make audiences nervous.
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The cool color-coding might have been the perfect aesthetic for the early 00s, but it detracts from the menace of the original. Because of their lower budgets, earlier films in the franchise were shot in a way that was more conducive to an atmosphere of unrelenting dread. Form and function met beautifully. In the 2003 film, everything is a little too polished, which is ironic for a film in which every shot focuses on filth.
4Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
Yet another film in the franchise that brought more star power than it could justify,Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre IIIgifts viewers with a Viggo Mortensen performance. Where Hooper’s original film went for subtlety, keeping bloodshed to a relative minimum and relying on the graininess of its 16mm film to disconcert,Leatherfaceswings big on blood and guts.
If the film has a major weakness, it’s that it hews too closely tothe formula of the originaland ends up feeling like a retread rather than a new and exciting addition to the canon.
3Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)
Directed by the co-writer of the original film, Kim Henkel,Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generationmay be most noteworthy for the performances of Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger. Both performers wrangle more fun moments from their characters than the writing can justify.
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The Next Generationis also the firstTexas Chainsawfilm to explore Leatherface’s cross-dressing in any depth. Though that may seem a minor point, it’s a significant one. In a growing crowd of interchangeable slashers whose major personality trait boiled down to what weapon they used, Leatherface grew in nuance. While the portrayal is problematic at best, at least the actor, writer, and director committed to making the character a complicated human rather than a vanilla monster.
2The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Fans of Rob Zombie’sHouse of 1000 Corpsescan point to this film as its natural antecedent. Cramming the words “chain” and “saw” together isn’t the only wayThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2shook up the franchise: its version of the Sawyer clan is a blackly comedic one. Their mannerisms, dialog, and lair are stretchedout of all reasonable proportion.
Dennis Hopper turns in a phenomenal performance, but this isn’t a movie to watch for any individual role, admirable as the performances might be. It sets out to stitch together an entire tapestry of the sinister and the bizarre, and it succeeds.
1The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Tobe Hooper’s 1974 originalThe Texas Chain Saw Massacreis everything that is right about the franchise. It will always be best known for introducing the world to Leatherface and the rest of his twisted kin, but everything else about the movie is equally sublime.
This is sun-dappled, sweat-drenched horror at its best. The Texas sun oozes through the cinematography. Hooper’s direction turns every terrible detail introduced to the set by his props department into nightmare fuel. It’s an abrasive, sumptuous film. No one who has seen Gunnar Hansen twirling in the road, chainsaw held aloft, is likely to forget the sight.
