Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

[Quorthon]

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Horror
1990
Color
MPAA Rating: R (Review pertains to Uncut/Unrated version)
Directed by: Jeff Burr
USA

Well, I've finally done it. I've finally polished off all the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Now I've seen every Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Sleepaway Camp, Alien, Predator, Critters, Romero "Dead," Evil Dead, Phantasm, and TCM movie. I'm so proud of myself! My blood curdles with horror! But there's so much left! Amityville, House, Leprachaun, Hellraiser, Slumber Party Massacre.... I've still got to finish off those franchises. But anyway, onto this butcher-fest....

This film, basically, revolves around a bunch of people who, by chance, all end up being chased through the Texas wilderness in the middle of the night by Leatherface and his lunatic family. That's about it. A lot of this movie was stolen and directly planted in the TCM: Next Generation movie, and that movie pretty much sucked. And since the second film wasn't very good, I wasn't expecting much from this one. Luckily, I spent my 89 or so minutes being pleasantly entertained:


Here’s the breakdown:

The Good:
--Much, much better than TCM2.
--Decent acting, go figure. The movie that followed this one was just putrid.
--Genuinely creepy moments--and for this franchise, rather refreshing.
--Good looking blood when we have it.
--Leatherface's fancy new saw.
--Pretty good atmosphere.
--The overt cheesiness of the second movie almost completely gone here.
--Nice opening to the film. Reminiscent of one or two of the Nightmare on Elm Street films.... but I don't remember which one!

Didn’t Hurt It, Didn’t Help:
--Leatherface has a new mask. I didn't care too much for it, but granted, one would expect him to change his skin once in a while. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer Leatherface's old mask from the 70's.
--Average music for the most part. The 80's horror cliche of bringing in some wicked Heavy Metal tunes was present here, luckily, it was instrumental and not invasive. Also, it didn't feel as "dated" or cheesy as a lot of older horror films with Metal music in them. And while I believe no other form of "popular" (non-orchestrated) music but Metal works or belongs in a horror film, it often just doesn't work and at times, it can ruin the atmosphere. Didn't hurt or help it here. Sounded pretty good.
--Roughly the same plot as the first movie--and almost directly stolen for the fourth.
--Some pretty good characters, both in the family and in the victims/survivors.
--Felt more like a sequel to the first film than the second--which isn't all bad, becuase most of the second film was bad.

The Bad:
--Leatherface's fancy new saw is barely used.
--Story of dug-up pit of corpses in the beginning pans out to nowhere. Only hints relate it to the first film.

The Ugly:
--For some slasher fans, they'll be disappointed that this is not a full-fledged slasher-gore film. It's actually pretty tame for the time and sticks to a lot of the rules set by the first film--off-screen gore and such.
--No Gunnar Hansen. In fact, the family is made up of completely new people from the first two films. At least, like the following film, we have a rising star in an early slasher film role: Viggo Mortenson.

Memorable Scene:
--The survivalist takes aim on the family.

Fun Fact:
--Stunt Coordinator: Kane "Jason Voorhees" Hodder.
--Leatherface wears a leg brace, this idea was carried over to the fourth movie with Matthew McConaughey's character.
--The following now-estabilished actors have appeared in TCM films: Matthew McConaughey, Rene Zellweger, Viggo Mortenson, Dennis Hopper, Jessica Biel, and R. Lee Ermy--God, I love that guy!


Acting: 7/10
Story: 7/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Character Development: 6/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 9/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10
Violence/Gore: 9/10 (quality over quantity, lots of violent weirdness)
Sets/Backgrounds: 8/10
Dialogue: 7/10
Music: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Direction: 8/10

Cheesiness: 2/10
Crappiness: 0/10

Overall: 7/10

--My personal rating of the TCM movies in decending (best to worst) quality:

TCM 1974
Leatherface: TCM III
TCM 2004
TCM 2
TCM: Next Generation

And there you have it. Leatherface: TCM3 is a good movie. It's a decent horror film and a valuable notch in the TCM belt. Well worth the time for pretty much any horror fan, and especially, any TCM fan. As a side note, this can be found in Wal-Mart's $5 bin--and it's one of the best values one is likely to find in that whole pile. I'm going to highly recommend this one, despite the fact that often, opinions of it are very poor. It's one of the most solid films in the franchise and is acted pretty well. It's slight lack of originality is it's only real downfall--but that's what you get with sequels.

[Bartwald]

I liked it, too. The only TCM film I still haven't seen is #2: is it really that bad, Quorth? You see, I even enjoyed bits and pieces of TCM #4, shit you not.

Anyway, the original film is my favourite - and it badly needs a re-watch, haven't seen it for some time; the remake follows closely and then #3.

[Quorthon]

TCM 2 is a cheesefest. Dennis Hopper at one point dons two chainsaws hanging from his waist like pistols and goes out a-huntin' Leatherface's family. Sure, that sounds cool but it looked really dumb. They're [the family] mostly still played by the same people as the first film, but seem to be living in some abandoned mine or underground storage facility or something near their house. It's really odd. I just really remember being nicely impressed with the opening scene's beheading of a guy from a moving vehicle and then thinking the whole rest of the film was just awful.

I would only recommend TCM2 to TCM completists and hardcore fans. Part III is much better.

[Bartwald]

I'm a completist, so I'll have to watch it sooner or later. But thanks for the word of warning, Quorth.

[slayrrr666]

`Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III' is the under-rated film in the `Chainsaw' films.

**SPOILERS**

Driving from California to Florida, friends Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler) make a brief stop in Texas, where a deadly discovery concerning a mass murder in a graveyard is making travel a living hell. Stopping at a gas station, they are attacked by the local attendant (David Cloud) and take off down the road. They are run off the road by a strange four-wheel drive truck. While fixing the damage done, a man in a leather mask, Leatherface (R.A. Milhailoff) attacks the car, causing even more damage. Speeding away, they don't see another truck baring down on them. Narrowly avoiding another accident, the driver the other truck, Benny (Ken Foree) goes to check on Michelle and Ryan. He is a weekend survivalist and can get them out of trouble. The four-wheel drive truck shows up, manned by Tinker (Joe Unger) and attacks Benny, who meets up with Leatherface. After a short battle, a woman, (Toni Hudson) the only survivor from the previous party who ran into Leatherface and his family. She is killed and the family captures Michelle and Ryan. They are tortured mercilessly, Ryan dying in the process. Benny finds the house where they are being held and launches a surprise attack, giving Michelle a chance to escape. Leading Leatherface, the sole survivor of the attack, into the woods, Michelle has the final conclusion fight with the cannibal.

The Good News: The `Un-rated' version of the film is the better version, so I'll be describing that form of the film in this section, as it has nothing to do with the plot mention above. The gore is a little nastier, and it should please the gore-hounds looking for a ton of blood and guts. Unfortunately, Leatherface does not get to use his famous 80-pound chainsaw in the film. He revs it, but that is all. The film does have some good jumping moments. Michelle is holding the flashlight in front of Ryan as they are trying to fix the flat tire, and Leatherface emerges into the scene by revving his chainsaw. The family is having their dinner, and suddenly machine gun fire bursts into the room, gunning down most of the family. The actors do a good job, but the one that should've been cut was Viggo Mortensen as Tex, who did very little and wasn't that important to the family. You notice how he was left out of the plot? Foree steals every scene he is in, as Hodge gets more screen, and scream, time. She gave a good performance that at that time would've been given to Jill Schoelen. It was nice to see another young actress in a late 80's, early 90's horror movie. The film is beautifully lit, as the night sets are very spooky and give an unusual atmosphere to the film. It envelops you into the film more so than most of the other movies being released at that time.

The Bad News: Yes, there is an `R' rated version of the film that is so heavily cut that it makes no sense why it was rated `R.' Almost no violence at all, very little atmosphere, and just the language made it an `R' Despite the reviews when it came out hammering it for being cut to hell and being incomprehensible, the film is actually pretty understandable. You get the main gist of the plot, but the overall weakness of the Massacre's, and even Hopper's original makes this mistake, of not having a big cast for Leatherface to cut up. There are only three people in the cast who aren't members of the family, Benny, Michelle, and Ryan. When you include the survivor(s), that doesn't leave a lot of butchering to do. I'd love to see a Massacre film that had the cast the size of a Friday the 13th, where you have double-digit victims to axe. That would be a good film.

The Final Verdict: Cut to hell, this is still a good film. Not enough blood in the original, but with a bit more suspense than the `Un-rated' cut. Some of the cast members should've been dropped or switched sides to give Leatherface people to massacre, but it still is a better film than is generally given credit to.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Implied Violence Rated Un-rated: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence

[Quorthon]

I was surprised at the low score this movie got on IMDb.com. How much crack are these people smoking? One of the better films in the series.

Glad to see some agreement on this film's overall quality.

[slayrrr666]

Totally. Like I said in the opening line: The underrated film in the series. I really liked it. Ooh, it was watered down, big deal. It was still pretty good. Any film that has Ken Foree as a firearms expert is aces in my book.