The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (1990) Review

He puts the teeth in terror.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 is the point when this franchise switches from focusing on the Sawyer family as a combined villain to just Leatherface. But it strangely still includes a family very similar to the Sawyers, including the half dead (or in this case mummified) grandpa who they feed blood. Not sure how Leatherface managed to evade the law and find an equally deranged family in the same state to take care of him, but hey, it's a 90's horror movie so we'll have to let a few gripes go.

The movie starts off very similar to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with the protagonists on a road trip driving through the middle of nowhere scorched desert Texas, they even included the dead armadillo. The couple drove an old Mercedes, same as the friends at the start of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 . These were cool details, although it's where all similarity to the previous two movies end.

In the first Texas Chainsaw, the group of friends went snooping around inside the Sawyers' house which got them got. In the second Texas Chainsaw a local radio DJ basically exposed the Sawyers as still being active killers which put a target on her head. In this one, a couple on a road trip just kinda found themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing more, nothing less.

A guy named Benny played hero in this one, he's the same charismatic guy who played Charlie the pimp in The Devil's Rejects . His character was bad ass and easily made the movie for me. Although Michelle, our final girl, also put up a helluva fight. The guy who took over the role of Chop-Top from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was played by Viggo Mortensen who I personally felt did not fit the crew whatsoever. He was way too sharp and put together to sell his role as a mentally unstable backwoods killer. And this Leatherface was easily the worst in the franchise, at least so far. No real style or character, he was more just a lumbering stalker than anything else.

Overall, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 feels like a generic 90's horror movie complete with suspenseful music and jump scares. It's a slasher that's more about Leatherface, who kind of like Jason from Friday the 13th, lumbers around the forest chasing scared college kids around. Of course, Kane Hodder was the stunt coordinator so I guess it makes sense. He played Jason, a guy lumbering around the forest chasing scared college kids around.

Worth Watching?