The newest movie in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series is directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, the French duo who made 2007’s truly disturbing womb-raider tale Inside. That’s a notch in the “pro” column for Leatherface, though it’s also got a built-in huge problem to overcome.
That problem is that we’ve already gotten a prequel that explored Leatherface’s early years. It was called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and it came out in 2003—perhaps that’s long enough ago for a movie that made minimal impact to be totally forgotten? At any rate, this new take stars Lili Taylor as Leatherface’s mother and Stephen Dorff as a vengeful Texas Ranger, and it looks to offer the usual power-tool frights, with a side of “escaped mental patient” shockaroos.
Leatherface hits DirecTV on September 21, followed by On Demand and theatrical releases on October 20. If it’s a hit, the next movie better be a horror comedy called Chop Top, and give us the only Chainsaw family member origin story we’ve truly been waiting to see.
