Leatherface (2017) Review!!

Synopsis – A teenage Leatherface escapes from a mental hospital with three other inmates, kidnapping a young nurse and taking her on a road trip from hell, while being pursued by a lawman out for revenge.

My Take – Like I mentioned in my review of Amityville: The Awakening, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre series is also a perfect example of a franchise which refuses to die down for some reason, despite some terrible entries. The problem with many horror film franchises is that due to lack of new ideas brought by their authors who tend to solely exploit the trademarks and fundamentals of the original work instead of contributing something of their own, resulting in a lack originality, simply put they just are too derivative, formulaic and overall subpar. Director Tobe Hooper‘s 1974 original, despite massive controversy upon release, went on to become commercial success & is considered as a seminal horror classic in modern times, mainly due to its birth of the its iconic character Leatherface. However, like most horror, the film’s success led to three middling sequels, a glossy Michael Bay produced remake, a prequel to that film, and a 3D film, who somehow feel completely disconnected from another, as each new entry seems like it is just grasping for straws to cash-in on the bar set by the 1974 original, only if producers understood that at this point making a good Texas Chainsaw film is just impossible. However, with the financial success of 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D (earning $47.2 million on a $20 million budget), Millennium Films & Lionsgate Films decided to bring in French directing duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (who made a splash with foreign films like Inside, Livid and Among the Living), and do exactly what director Rob Zombie did with his Halloween remake in this eighth installment of an already inconsistent franchise: give the killer a back story. While the film on its own is a decent enough, confidently directed by the duo, making their English language debuted, who clearly know what they’re doing and have a few tricks up their sleeve. But keeping in mind, it is supposed to be an origin of the original story; the film largely does not work on many levels.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, worked because of its mystery, atmosphere, and controlled gore, plus a large part of Leatherface’s horror stems from not knowing who or what is under that mask. In humanizing the character, they have lessened his effectiveness as an object of fear. Once an emotionless, uncontrollable monster, impossible to reason with, has now turned into someone we can identify with and feel a level of pity for, well, it didn’t work for Michael Myers and it doesn’t work here. Taking place two decades before the Sawyer clan would gain infamy as the cannibalistic hillbilly family in the backwoods of rural Texas, the story follows their youngest progeny, Jedidiah Sawyer, an eight-year old, who finds himself at the wrong end of the law after participating with his brothers in the murder of Betty, the daughter of local Hal Hartman (Stephen Dorff). While he can’t prove that the Sawyers were responsible, he is connected enough to punish Verna Sawyer (Lili Taylor), the mother of the boys, to send young Jed to Gorman House, a mental facility where young kids are forced to go as a means of protection. Ten years later, the patients at Gorman House are introduced to Lizzie White (Vanessa Grasse), a young pretty nurse, who seeks to help the troubled teenagers, with her focus diverted mainly diverted towards the compassionate Jackson (Sam Strike), wired-to-the-gills Ike (James Bloor), psychotic burn victim Clarice (Jessica Madsen) and lumbering, mentally impaired Bud (Sam Coleman). While on a visit to the facility to find Jedidiah, Verna finds out that he has been assigned a new identity, and is denied by the head doctor (Christopher Adamson) from meeting him. Frustrated, Verna starts a riot in order to find her teenaged son on her own, however, things spiral out of control, and seeing this as an opportunity Ike & Clarice make a break for it, and offer rides to Jackson & Bud while taking Lizzie as a hostage shield. As the group leaves a trail of death and destruction in their race towards Mexico, Hartman gets a wind of them & when he finds out that the group contains one of Verna’s children, he calls upon his rangers including Deputy Sorrel (Finn Jones), and vows to take them down by any means necessary. We get three main potential suspects to who could be the growing Jedidiah Sawyer which is about as much of the story we see, because we are trying to figure out who will eventually find his true calling as Leatherface. Serving as a prequel to the original film, this new film forgoes most of the sequels and reboots that have come over the years and totally wipes the slate clean. However, just like its failed predecessors this film too concentrates on bringing as much gore and blood to the screen as possible, yet leaving the story and the characters rather thin and uninteresting. Practically from the beginning, the film is all about the bloodshed, without ever allowing any real suspense to kick in because the movie never chooses the unforeseeable path, but instead teases its twists in such a predictable way that viewers shouldn’t be surprised or particularly shocked anymore.

Personally, I did like the idea of following four inmates spreading out the chaos in Texas and making the viewer trying to guess which one of the protagonists would be the famous serial killer. But instead, what we’re subjected to for most part, is literally a lunatic couple shotgun-killing their way to notoriety on their supposed escape with a helpless nurse Lizzy, a character we’re supposed to root for, but sadly this does not work as we know as little about her as we know about the rest of the zany troupe. At its core, this is a violent road movie with horror overtones that focuses on four deeply disturbed kids and the equally unstable lawman on their tail, told from the perspective of the hapless nurse caught in the middle. That said, this isn’t a Hellraiser-style retooling of an original story that tries to force itself into an existing mythology; the film clearly deals with familiar characters, settings, and ideas, all while doing its own thing. Characters like Drayton and Nubbins Sawyer from the first film make significant appearances, but most of the references belong to characters and events introduced in 2013’s Texas Chainsaw, such as Verna Carson, Barry Farnsworth, and the Hartmans, whose feud with the Sawyers is explained in more detail. The film makes the biggest mistake by making Leatherface a sympathetic character. Here, we see him as someone with feelings and as someone who even comes to the rescue of other people at times. It humanizes the deranged behemoth we see in the original film and hurts that movie in the process. All of this done to bolster a surprise reveal midway through the film which makes no sense given how Leatherface appears in the original film. Portraying him as someone who was once full of humanity that was driven insane by a harsh cruel world. We are led to believe that this seemingly highly intelligent and compassionate young boy becomes the mute psychopath simpleton who hangs his victims on hooks and carves them up for barbeque. The comparisons become glaringly obvious as the movie trudges on to its inevitable conclusion, right down to the inclusion of a loopy, necrophiliac blonde (of course, even the directors understands we only need to see Otis in bed with a corpse to get the message–that’s right, these guys show less restraint than Rob Zombie). Thankfully, there’s no rape scene, but what we get instead is arguably more unsettling (not to mention try-hard). It wants to be a rougher watch than it is (or, at least for different reasons) but for all its posturing (particularly in the case of that superb trailer), the film less chainsaw action. There’s an argument to be made about it being teased the whole way through, but there’s little to keep us invested in the plight of the central group (all of whom are horrible and dull in their own ways). Sure, directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury don’t hold back on the brutality and blood, but even so, I can imagine many fans of the series being disappointed with the level of splatter (too much for some, not enough for others). Take away its association with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series; the film is pretty much an average horror flick that sticks close to an overused formula. At several points, it comes off as highly cheesy especially in the dialogue itself and in the narrative directions it takes. On the positive side, it features some satisfyingly nasty kills and a blood curdling sound design. The cast does quite well in the film. Lili Taylor, Stephen Dorff, and Finn Jones all put in great performances – again, with that they are given to work with. Vanessa Grasse is easy on the eyes, and plays her part well, despite being poorly written, while, Sam Coleman delivers both a compelling and a layered performance. Sam Strike and James Bloor are alright, while Jessica Madsen over acts. On the whole, ‘Leatherface’ has some intriguing potential yet fails as an attempt to revive a long dead classic horror franchise.