The directors from Inside return with 2017’s Leatherface. An origin to Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

 

 

by Adam Holtzapfel

 

I had high hopes for this as Inside is such a great film, while beautiful to look at Leatherface never really goes anywhere.

 

Telling the story of young Jed Sawyer, the film focuses on him escaping a mental institution to find his family. The asylum changed the names of the patients so this kept viewers guessing as to who was Jed. Once revealed the twist shit the bed.

 

Suffering from the “slasher backstory bug” the film mixes Michael Meyers backstory with the Sawyer clan. Fans of the original film know who Leatherface is and what he is without needing a backstory.

 

This brings me to ask do we need a backstory for films from 43 years ago, 30 years ago, or even 20 years ago? The answer is no. Most genre fans like our slasher loosely based on real life crimes by Ed Gein to the mysterious boogey man. What’s next a film called Jason that’s 90 minutes of him drowning in Crystal Lake?

 

The good from Leatherface was the cinematography and FX, but it was not enough to save 90 minutes of a film with no identity.