Leatherface (2017)

Number 1 rule of Horror! No origin story. What's this? An origin story. As many said before, and I've said since seeing the amazing 1973 version at a 80's re-release drive-in, it worked because of the mystery, atmosphere, and NO GORE. So basically, Leatherface 17 basically does every single thing the original didn't do to make it the film it was.

Are the filmmakers aware of that? Do they care? Do they know origin stories are bad financial decisions for horror properties? If I were credited exec producer Tobe Hooper (RIP), I would have made sure to pass away before seeing this too. It is a better option. No, really, die before seeing this.

As Scorsese says as he continues to sell out "cinema is dead". This is a mean, inept, nasty, badly overacted at every breath. It has more production value than the 1994 version. Haven't seen all the TC films, but somehow this makes the Matthew Mcconaughey film look like a gem. In an attempt to be relevant, they added forced shock as there is a sex scene taking place on top of a dead body. Lame. And this is a no-no to say subjectively in a review, but there is definitely something wrong with you if you like these kind of movies. And I've seen Henry/Cannibal Holocaust/Serbian Film - don't condone those, but there's a point to them, at least. These statements will make people outraged, but the real fright is, nobody will be outraged that film content like this is normal these days. Worst part is, all the imagination this property can offer is fully drained from this Bulgaria filmed outing.

Lili Taylor tries to underact. To think, she and Stephen Dorff had respectable careers at one time in the 90's, and before. It doesn't get too much lower than ending up in a Z-grade version of a 40 year old horror classic, that goes direct to streaming and forgotten in a few days.

Fmovies: In 1955, in Texas, the teenage daughter of Sheriff Hartman (Stephen Dorf), Betty (Lorina Kamburova) and her boyfriend Ted (Julian Kostov) are driving along a lonely road kissing each other when Ted almost hit something on the road. He stops his truck and Betty realizes that is a child is asking for help. She follows him and is trapped in a derelict barn and killed by the dysfunctional Sawyer family under the command of the matriarch Verna (Lili Taylor). When Sheriff Hartman learns that he beloved daughter was killed, he sends the boy Jed Sawyer to a mental institution called the Gorman House Youth Reformatory as avenge. Ten years later, the idealistic nurse Elizabeth "Lizzie" White (Vanessa Grasse) is hired by the Gorman House and soon she befriends the teenagers Bud (Sam Coleman) and Jackson (Sam Strike). But Verna comes to the institution with a lawyer bringing an injunction expecting to see her son Jed that had his name changed. However the director Doctor Lang (Christopher Adamson) rejects the document and Verna leaves the security doors open to let the patients to escape. There is a havoc in the mental institution and the violent Ike (James Bloor) and his girlfriend Clarice (Jessica Madsen) steal a car and bring Bud and Jackson and decide to abduct Lizzie as hostage. Hartman learns what happened in the Gorman House and hunts the escapees down with his men, following the crime spree left by Ile and Clarice.

"Leatherface" is a horror film that explains the origin of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The film is underrated maybe because its release timing more than forty years after the release of the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974). But the storyline, screenplay, direction, performances and makeup are remarkable. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Availale

As a child, Jed Sawyer is taken from his murderous hillbilly family and put in the Gorman House Youth Reformatory, where he spends the next ten years with a new identity. When the prisoners revolt, a small group make a bid for freedom with pretty nurse Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse) and fellow inmate Jackson as their hostages.

Tobe Hooper's original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ranks as one of the scariest films ever made, its iconic killer Leatherface its most frightening creation. With this latest film in the series, they've gone and done what Rob Zombie did with his godawful Halloween remake: give the killer a back story. In humanising the character, they have lessened his effectiveness as an object of fear. Once an emotionless, uncontrollable monster, impossible to reason with, he is now someone we can identify with and feel a level of pity for. It didn't work for Michael Myers and it doesn't work here.

The origins story-line also makes much of the film seem frustratingly unlike a Texas Chainsaw movie, at times even reminding me of a Tarantino flick (the escape from Gorman House made me think of Natural Born Killers while the BBQ stop massacre was redolent of both NBK and Pulp Fiction). Only in the film's closing moments do things actually feel like they belong to the franchise, with Lizzy trying to escape the Sawyer's charnel house, a chainsaw wielding Jed (soon to become Leatherface) hot on her heels. Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury don't hold back on the brutality and blood, but even so, I can imagine many fans of the series being disappointed with the level of splatter (too much for some, not enough for others).

5.5 out of 10, rounded down to 5 for that really dumb scene in which three people (including one really fat guy) hide from the law by climbing inside the festering carcass of a steer. A really big steer. Also, minus half a point for the unbelievable necro sex scene. And another half point subtracted for Jed's sudden (and also completely unbelievable) transformation from rational human being to hulking homicidal maniac.

Leatherface fmovies. When the directors of 2007's gore-spectacle 'Inside' (Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury) took over the reins of a supposed prequel to 1974's Tobe Hooper classic 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', expectations had indeed sky-rocketed. But what we get isn't even worthy of being called a tribute to the TCM franchise, let alone be regarded as its worthy canon prequel.

The screenplay offers very little in terms of the surprises it throws at the viewers (and TCM fans), thereby ending up strictly ho-hum. We see a bunch of eccentrics creating a riot at a mental health facility and escaping, with tidbits of the Sawyer family thrown in to engage the viewer. In fact, the makers are trying to sell this movie around the mystery of which character amongst the the leads ultimately evolves into 'Leatherface'. Well, much to our dismay, even this stretch appears annoyingly contrived (and to be honest, the poster kinda spoils it already!).

What we're subjected to for most part, is literally a lunatic couple shotgun-killing their way to notoriety on their supposed escape (even the big chainsaw-kill comes in too late) with a helpless nurse named Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse) who has unnecessarily been dragged along with them while also being accompanied by a duo of brothers (the somewhat compassionate Jackson and the bulky Bud). Lizzy is the character we're supposed to root for, but sadly this does not work. We know as little about her as we know about the rest of the zany troupe.

The directors who're known to stage horrifically-exciting set- pieces, resort to cheap tricks here (like a partial necro scene) in order to augment the shock-value. The shot of a woman's derriere walking into a barn surrounded by badlands (during one of the opening segments, clearly reminding us of previous TCM films including the Michael Bay funded remake) had just about raised my hopes a teeny weeny bit before everything came crashing down.

With no real thunderbolts in store for fans or non-fans, this prequel falls head first into a pit of quick-sand, the real difference-maker in the story being the weapons (shotguns, knives) that the characters possess and not their personalities. You're bound to forget this movie as soon as the credits roll.

Verdict: Terrible!

This movie in itself is not exactly bad. It looks alright, has some OK gore, decent acting for the most part, some slightly interesting characters. It doesn't suck. But as a origin story to one of horror's biggest icons? Eeeh, yeah. It's not great.

Actually, right off the bat the biggest problem with this movie strikes me. When you're making an origin story to such a famous character, you should make sure that the story you make up and make into a movie is really awesome. Unfortunately, it's not. We see Leatherface's family and stuff, and it's just meh. The opening scene is just not very interesting. What follows though, isn't bad. They have some kind of story to tell here, not relying too much on TCM- lore, and I thought it was somewhat entertaining.

You wouldn't have to cut a lot here to make this movie totally unrecognizable as a Leaterface origin-story, though. That's a shame. And it's also pretty tame, I'm sorry to say. Actually really tame. Like I said initially, the origin story to such a gruesome character should really be a lot more horrific, gruesome and ghastly. It's not. It's pretty watered down. I think the die hard fans of Leatherface will be disappointed with this. But who knows, I may be wrong.