Battle Of The Prequels: Leatherface (2017) Versus The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Lately I have been in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of mood. Due to all of the hype surrounding the recent release of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game, I decided to rewatch all nine of the films. Since there are two prequel films in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, I thought it would be cool to examine and determine which of these films is a better prequel. The films to be discussed are Leatherface (2017), which is a prequel to the original 1974 film, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), which is a prequel to the 2003 remake. My goal for this post is to examine certain aspects of both films and determine which installment is a more worthy prequel to it’s predecessor.

Leatherface (2017)

The story of Leatherface follows a young Leatherface who is taken away from his family and put into a mental hospital. Young Leatherface, who is referred to as Jed Sawyer in the film, was taken away from Drayton and the other Sawyer’s because of their suspected involvement in the death of a lawman’s daughter. The film then cuts forward to when Jed Sawyer is a teenager in the mental hospital. However, we as the audience do not know which of the patients are actually Jed Sawyer. Eventually, Verna Sawyer causes a riot to breakout at the mental hospital. She does this in hopes of finding her son and bringing him home. Jed Sawyer escapes with a few other inmates, who also kidnap a nurse. Little do they know, the previously mentioned vengeful lawman is searching and hunting for them.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this film utterly bored me. When I rewatched it recently, I had to try watching it three different times to actually finish it because I fell asleep my first couple attempts. This is a poorly acted film and is a cheap Wal-Mart brand knockoff of one of Rob Zombie’s greatest films, The Devil’s Rejects (2005). The vengeful lawman pursuing crazed killers is a concept taken right out of The Devils Rejects. When I finally managed to finish this film, my boredom transformed into frustration. This is because we, as the audience, were led to believe the big character who doesn’t speak, Bud, is Jed Sawyer who later becomes Leatherface. In a lame and unexpected plot twist, we discover it is actually the Jackson character who is Jed Sawyer after he suffers a gunshot wound to the face. Jackson acted mostly normal for the entire movie up until he received the gunshot wound to his face. Jackson was also very skinny which makes no sense considering Leatherface was always big and overweight. After the gunshot wound, Jackson began acting like a psychotic, raging lunatic who is now incapable of verbal communication.

In the end, Jed reunites with his family then murders the vengeful lawman and the nurse with a chainsaw. His face wounds are stitched together and he begins his trademark of wearing cutoff human faces. In my honest opinion, this film is not even close to being a worthy prequel to the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. The other Sawyer characters in the film like Drayton, who was also a character in the original, are barely focused on. The character development for Leatherface is weak and the origin of how he became the killer he was in the original is also incredibly stupid. Basically, Jed becomes Leatherface because of a gunshot wound to his face, which resulted in a brain injury causing him to forget who he is. This backstory for Leatherface is so uninspired. This film has a very insensitive perception/understanding of mental illnesses and brain injuries. With all of these aspects combined, it should be clear I think this is a terrible film and a bad prequel to the original film. I would go as far as saying this film is the worst in the franchise.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

The story of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning begins with a woman giving birth to baby Leatherface in a meat factory. The baby is abandoned and later discovered in a dumpster by one of the Hewitt family members. Note, the killer family are known as the Sawyer’s in the original timeline and are known as the Hewitt’s in this timeline. A large gap of time passes in the story where we find a grown Leatherface working in the same meat factory where he was abandoned. The town has been going under economically and all the resident’s are beginning to move elsewhere. As the meat factory is shutting down, Leatherface kills the owner for calling him an animal and the last law enforcement officer still in the area is called. A man who we assume is Leatherface’s step-father or step-uncle goes with the officer to apprehend Leatherface, who is named Thomas Hewitt in this film. The step-father or step-uncle kills the officer and takes his uniform, assuming the new role of Sheriff Hoyt. The family begins to engage in cannibalism as a new form of survival, but I can’t help but think they also enjoy what they are doing. The Hewitt family plans to murder and cannabilize any travelers that come through the abandoned town they now rule over. The film then goes as you would expect with a group of young people coming through and being hunted. Out of all of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, this one felt the most sadistic and helpless to me.

This film works much better as a prequel to its predecessor compared to the previously discussed film. The story explores the family’s reasons for exploring cannibalism in the first place as well as how Leatherface became part of the family. The Leatherface in this film is motivated by his anger due to being bullied for his skin disease. While bullying is not an entirely original motivation, it still works. My main issue with this film is we barely focus on Leatherface’s childhood because the film cuts ahead past a significant amount of time. This is disappointing, because so much potential existed for exploring Leatherface’s childhood. While reading about this film, I heard there was supposed to be a scene of teenage Leatherface at his high school prom. Scenes like the deleted prom scene would have added more depth to the character and would have made the film an even better prequel.

Overall, this film is still a worthy prequel to the 2003 remake, as it makes sense how the events of this film would progress into the remake. It was also interesting to learn how R. Lee Ermy’s character acquired the police uniform and car. The fact there was no police left in town makes the 2003 remake make more sense and helps us understand why no police came. I also really loved the concept that this family essentially ruled over this abandoned town. If this film would have been longer, with more insight into Leatherface’s childhood, I think it would have reached its full potential as a prequel.