- Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
- Written by Kin Henkel, Tobe Hooper, Seth M. Sherwood
- Stars Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor, Sam Strike
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fol95UzHPlg
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
The eighth film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, this one is a prequel to the first film, making it chronologically the earliest film. If you like gore, this movie is for you!
Synopsis
At the Sawyer Farm, it’s little Jed’s birthday. The first piece of cake goes to the thief they have tied up in the corner. They kidnapped a man who may or may not have been stealing their pigs. For his birthday, Jed gets a chainsaw to kill the man with. His big brother helps him pull the cord and start it up. His mother, Verna, lovingly encourages him. They force him to cut the man’s leg, but he can’t go through with it. Instead, Grandpa smashes the man’s head in with a mallet. Credits roll.
Texas, 1955. A young couple almost hit an animal in the road but it’s no animal, it’s a boy wearing a cow head. He yells, “Help me, please!” And runs into the field, and Betty follows. Jed lures her into the barn, where she falls into a pit through the floor. They smash her by dropping a tractor engine on her.
Sheriff Hal arrives, and Betty was his daughter. He wants to arrest Drayton Sawyer, but there’s no evidence. Verna arrives and tells the Sheriff what’s what. Hal wants to take Jed away from her custody. “You take one of mine; I’ll take all yours, Verna,” he threatens. No, it’s not just a threat.
Ten years later (1965), at the Gorman House Youth Reformatory, the doctor warns new nurse, Lizzy, that most of the children at the home will end up in prison or institutionalized; they have serious problems. She makes friends with Bud and Jackson and runs afoul of Clarice, three patients there.
Jackson warns Lizzy about “Dr. Lang’s chamber of horrors,” and tells her to come back tonight and see what he means.
Verna comes to see Jed, but Dr. Lang doesn’t want her to see him. “He was taken from you for a reason.” She’s now got a lawyer and an injunction that allows her to see him. Lang is not cooperative, calling Verna “Hillbilly trash.”
Verna uses the bathroom, but sneaks out and goes looking for her son. Meanwhile Bud is strapped to the chair for electroshock treatment. Verna gets the other prisoners riled up, causing a riot. Bud hears Verna’s voice and kills the attendants and Dr. Lang.
Clarice, Bud, Lizzy, Jackson, and Ike grab a car and get away. Sheriff Hal Hartman is called in to investigate the massacre at the hospital.
The escaped kids all go to a nearby diner for food. Ike and Clarice kill a few people, but Bud gets shot in the side. They hole up in a mobile home and find a dead man inside. Lizzy patches up Bud while Clarice has sex with the corpse.
Lizzy tries to escape in the middle of the night, but that just causes a fight. After the fight, Bud whacks Ike over the head and drags him away, re-enacting a very famous curb-stomping scene with him.
Clarice, while looking for Ike, finds a deputy instead. Sheriff Hal tortures her for information; he’s taking this all very seriously. Then he executes her.
Lizzy, Bud, and Jackson are on the run again. A cop shoots Bud, but Jackson and Lizzy take his car and drive away. Hal pursues and shoots some of Jackson’s face off. Their car crashes.
When Lizzy wakes up, she’s cuffed to Hal’s car. Hal pulls her out of the car and into an old barn. He explains that Jackson is Jed Sawyer. This is the same barn where Jed killed Hal’s daughter. Jackson was the boy in the cow mask.
Deputy Sorelle tells Verna what’s happened, and she has her other boys kill him. Verna goes to the barn with a chainsaw. The family soon overpowers Hal and rescues what’s left of Jed, who can no longer speak because much of his jaw is gone.
Back at the Sawyer farm, Verna sews Jed back together again, but he’s not a pretty sight. She puts a leather harness on his face to hold it all together until it heals.
Lizzy unties herself and helps Hal. They’re inside the Sawyer house, and it looks a lot like what we’ve seen before. They’re recaptured quickly, and this time, Jed/Jackson brings in the chainsaw, and now he has no hesitations about using it.
Lizzy runs into the woods, and everyone pursues. She gets caught in a bear trap and tries to talk Jed into letting her go. Verna tells him to kill her. Who will he obey?
Time passes, and we see Jed in the cellar sewing a face mask made of what’s left of Hal’s head…
Commentary
It seems obvious from the physique and mental capacity that Bud is going to be Leatherface, but that’s not the way it works out. Red herring time!
The stuff at the hospital is really good, but it slows down a lot once they’re wandering the countryside. Once Jed and Verna are reunited it picks up again.
It’s not the best film out there, but it’s a fun prequel and good origin story for the franchise. Lots of gore and gross-out moments with a strong cast.