Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Awesome!
If you loved the first Texas Chainsaw, and hated the sequel, then this movie if for you. TCM part 2, tried making the series funny and that just didn't work. The movie was gory but really silly. So when Leatherface was released, they went back to the first film and cut out all the comedy.

This film has an awesome story, really neat gore, and not to bad acting. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a really under-rated film, mostly likely because of the other sequels which arent that amazing. The unrated version is the one to watch on this DVD, the R version just doesn't have the same glory. This is the best sequel to the franchise and a must buy to all TCM fans.

Not that great...
I remember watching this one years ago and decided to check it out again since it was on sale at Amazon for 5.49. I believe the idea for this sequel was to make it more like the original but to me it didn't succeed. I enjoyed the first sequel with Dennis Hopper and Caroline Williams and felt their performances were really great. Plus we had the original family returning with the introduction of one new character called Chop Top who was really grotesque and creepy. He sort of took over the role of the Hitchhiker from the first film (there is actually a corpse of the Hitchhiker in that one too). Returning from the first film were Leatherface, Grandpa and The Cook. TCM 2 may have not been as effective as the original but it was a lot of fun to watch and had some very suspenseful, disturbing moments. A lot of horror fans dislike the second film (also directed by Tobe Hooper) and say this one is better. I completely disagree. I thought this one was all around boring. I didn't really like the main characters, Michelle and Ryan, or the 'new' family of Leatherface and felt the performances were really weak. There seemed to be way too many people in Leatherface's new family. There is Mama, a little girl you wish someone would have smacked, Tex (played by Viggo Mortensen), another guy with a hook on one arm, Leatherface himself, the corpse of Grandpa and another demented man from the gas station who never interacts with the rest of the family. I didn't even catch all the names of these characters because there are too many and the film doesn't focus on any one for that long so no one really develops. I want to say this only runs at about 80 minutes. There are no chase scenes. There is also not that many death scenes. Actually I can only think of two. If I would have liked other things about the film, I could let that slide. I tried to give TCM 3 another chance but it's not one I would watch again. It just wasn't that scary nor did it provide any edge-of-your-seat chills or likeable characters with the exception of Ken Foree as the heroic Benny. Even Leatherface wasn't that good. He seemed tired. Maybe under Tobe Hooper's direction, he could have gotten more out of his performers. I would recommend the first two and also the 2003 remake which is surprisingly good. *Cameo alert* You do get to see Caroline Williams in this one as a reporter in the very beginning for a few seconds. 2.5 stars

The beginning of a long ride from New Line Cinema
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 marks the beginning of a very long slew of TCM sequels from New Line Cinema. I will also add that it's a very long line of sequels that pretty much amount to reworkings of the original. This completely unnecessary installment focuses directly on the character of Leatherface, trying to make him into an unstoppable slasher icon like we saw in Halloween or Friday the 13th. In reality however, Leatherface was always just one part that made the whole TCM experience such a great whole, and the absence of the original family really makes this a less than enjoyable watch.

TCM 3 intentionally goes out of it's way to completely disregard the events of the previous Tobe Hooper sequel, and provides an alternate outcome for Sally Hardesty of the original. We are treated to the tale of a young couple taking a trip on the Texas backroads. After a series of unfortunate events and car troubles, they are ambushed by Leatherface and the rest of the cannibalistic clan. Once they are captured, we witness the horrors that they unleash upon the couple inside their rural Texas home. So this is very much in the same vein of the original storywise.

Here the family consists of an annoying little girl, woman with a mechanical voicebox, Viggo Mortensen as a cowboy, rip off of the hitchhiker, man with a hook for an arm, Grandpa corpse, and Leatherface. Although the characters are obviously barbaric and are grisly in appearance, they provide absolutely none of the effectiveness of the family in the previous two films. For one there are just too many of them, they have absolutely no personality, and we care nothing about them. They pretty much just serve the purpose of shock value with none of the heart or enthusiasm we saw from Jim Siedow(RIP), Edwin Neal, and Bill Moseley.

The "comedy" that is described in the Amazon synopsis is virtually non-existent, they must be confused with another film, as I did a lot more yawning than laughing. "Uncut" also left me scratching my head because the gore here is at an absolute minimum for a TCM film. All in all this film paled in comparison to the Tobe Hooper movies and makes for a pretty mundane watch, even as a horror sequel. If you really love the series, you'll probably like it. If not avoid at all costs.