This new review comes not from me but from cult-labs alum Peter Neal aka Markus and he's kindly sent me over his review for Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. Hope you enjoy this review...
Watching "Leatherface" is always like a journey to an era long gone for me, an era not exactly universally missed by the horror fan community, namely the late 80's/early 90's Still an important time for me, because it was around that period that I started to get more seriously interested in the genre and the poor conditions fans were faced with back then clearly shaped my take on horror movies and their troubled relationship with ratings boards and distributors.
You probably couldn't dig out a better movie to illustrate the dramatic change for the better for the genre - well, in most quarters of the western world anyway.
I was fortunate enough to catch this on its very brief theatrical run in Germany in '91.
May be not surprisingly, this hasn't had an official German home format release to this day, not even in the truncated "R rated" version - though it came quite close around the time of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning"'s release...until that prequel ran into serious trouble with the German ratings boards itself.
Back in the days of "Leatherface" though, it was also the rest of the horror movie watching world, which had to do with watered down genre flicks, courtessy of the overly vigilante MPAA's demands for "R rated horror movies" to be cut.
We still hadn't reached the age of common place "unrated" releases - though "New Line" were one of the pioneers of testing the ground for uncensored horror material.
Too bad though that the thought of an unrated "Leatherface" did occur only when it was already too late to preserve the original uncompromised vision the makers were aiming for.
What we have to do with now as the "unrated" "Leatherface" is a compromise at best, only hinting at the break from what was back then considered as "mainstream horror".
Funnily enough, this is one film which would barely raise an eyebrow in Today's market, though its catalogue of "realistic", hard hitting violence and torture was very unusual for the genre climate it got originally released in.
"Leatherface" got some fame for being one of only a few movies, which got its release delayed by troubles with the MPAA.
Most EU fans had to do with Danish/Dutch VHS imports of the "R rated"version until the laserdisc came along. (That is, if you didn't speak Spanish. The Spanish tape reached legendary status, as it did represent the unrated cut and gave birth to rumours about Spain actually getting THE longest cut available worldwide.)
Following after the somewhat controversial satirical "TCM 2", "Leatherface" was "New Line's" obvious attempt to resurrect/kickstart another potential franchise after "Nightmare 5" had been the first real commercial letdown for the studio's former lucky charm, Freddy Krueger.
Commercial preassure paired with censorship problems guaranteed troubles for the project, originally penned by "splatterpunk" scribe David J. Show, but ultimately watered down and "streamlined" in the process. I'm always amazed when studios hire the "wild guys" to spark some creativity only to cut down on said creativity when things get real.
Director Jeff Burr had formerly helmed the (IMO) decent "Stephather 2", but "Leatherface" should proove to be an endurance test for the young and "inexperienced" director.
Listening to Burr talking about the movie is quite fascinating, because you rarely come across a more humble, down-to-earth personality on mainstream horror commentary tracks.
For the purpose I'd recommend the original commentary for the laserdisc though.
What might make the film more appealing to Today's fanbase is a fun turn as psycho Tex by one particular Viggo Mortensen.
Also the rest of the cast were fit for the task, particularly the lead Kate Hodge and genre fave Ken Foree as "weekend soldier" Ben.
Stylistically you'll get a first glimpse of the hulking Leatherface we'd encounter again in the remake and prequel,who's probably more appealing to mainstream crowds than Gunnar Hansen's original "transvestite", not to mention the caricature Kim Henkel came up with in his awful "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation".
The movie is ridiculously short in the theatrical version, still some of the changes applied feel so tired that there's still room for occasional boredom.
Most dramatically affected was the finale and it's a real shame that the original ending couldn't be fully restored for the unrated version, because the "studio ending" really ridicules the outcome of "test screenings" to the point of hysterical self parody. Let's just say, a character returns you saw meeting a terminally messy death....
On the plus side, you have a neat opening sequence, a very brief cameo by "TCM 2"'s Caroline Williams, nice -if compromised- KNB gore, some truly nasty ideas and a fairly atmospheric score.
Remember, this wasn't the kind of horror movie en vogue in the late 80's, so if you want to meassure it up against something, I'd strongly recommend the likes of "Friday, the 13th Part VIII" or "Halloween 5".
Nothing to really scream about, but always a welcome reminder of changing times in horror - for me
FILM:3/5
Written by Markus Duschek
Watching "Leatherface" is always like a journey to an era long gone for me, an era not exactly universally missed by the horror fan community, namely the late 80's/early 90's Still an important time for me, because it was around that period that I started to get more seriously interested in the genre and the poor conditions fans were faced with back then clearly shaped my take on horror movies and their troubled relationship with ratings boards and distributors.
You probably couldn't dig out a better movie to illustrate the dramatic change for the better for the genre - well, in most quarters of the western world anyway.
I was fortunate enough to catch this on its very brief theatrical run in Germany in '91.
May be not surprisingly, this hasn't had an official German home format release to this day, not even in the truncated "R rated" version - though it came quite close around the time of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning"'s release...until that prequel ran into serious trouble with the German ratings boards itself.
Back in the days of "Leatherface" though, it was also the rest of the horror movie watching world, which had to do with watered down genre flicks, courtessy of the overly vigilante MPAA's demands for "R rated horror movies" to be cut.
We still hadn't reached the age of common place "unrated" releases - though "New Line" were one of the pioneers of testing the ground for uncensored horror material.
Too bad though that the thought of an unrated "Leatherface" did occur only when it was already too late to preserve the original uncompromised vision the makers were aiming for.
What we have to do with now as the "unrated" "Leatherface" is a compromise at best, only hinting at the break from what was back then considered as "mainstream horror".
Funnily enough, this is one film which would barely raise an eyebrow in Today's market, though its catalogue of "realistic", hard hitting violence and torture was very unusual for the genre climate it got originally released in.
"Leatherface" got some fame for being one of only a few movies, which got its release delayed by troubles with the MPAA.
Most EU fans had to do with Danish/Dutch VHS imports of the "R rated"version until the laserdisc came along. (That is, if you didn't speak Spanish. The Spanish tape reached legendary status, as it did represent the unrated cut and gave birth to rumours about Spain actually getting THE longest cut available worldwide.)
Following after the somewhat controversial satirical "TCM 2", "Leatherface" was "New Line's" obvious attempt to resurrect/kickstart another potential franchise after "Nightmare 5" had been the first real commercial letdown for the studio's former lucky charm, Freddy Krueger.
Commercial preassure paired with censorship problems guaranteed troubles for the project, originally penned by "splatterpunk" scribe David J. Show, but ultimately watered down and "streamlined" in the process. I'm always amazed when studios hire the "wild guys" to spark some creativity only to cut down on said creativity when things get real.
Director Jeff Burr had formerly helmed the (IMO) decent "Stephather 2", but "Leatherface" should proove to be an endurance test for the young and "inexperienced" director.
Listening to Burr talking about the movie is quite fascinating, because you rarely come across a more humble, down-to-earth personality on mainstream horror commentary tracks.
For the purpose I'd recommend the original commentary for the laserdisc though.
What might make the film more appealing to Today's fanbase is a fun turn as psycho Tex by one particular Viggo Mortensen.
Also the rest of the cast were fit for the task, particularly the lead Kate Hodge and genre fave Ken Foree as "weekend soldier" Ben.
Stylistically you'll get a first glimpse of the hulking Leatherface we'd encounter again in the remake and prequel,who's probably more appealing to mainstream crowds than Gunnar Hansen's original "transvestite", not to mention the caricature Kim Henkel came up with in his awful "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation".
The movie is ridiculously short in the theatrical version, still some of the changes applied feel so tired that there's still room for occasional boredom.
Most dramatically affected was the finale and it's a real shame that the original ending couldn't be fully restored for the unrated version, because the "studio ending" really ridicules the outcome of "test screenings" to the point of hysterical self parody. Let's just say, a character returns you saw meeting a terminally messy death....
On the plus side, you have a neat opening sequence, a very brief cameo by "TCM 2"'s Caroline Williams, nice -if compromised- KNB gore, some truly nasty ideas and a fairly atmospheric score.
Remember, this wasn't the kind of horror movie en vogue in the late 80's, so if you want to meassure it up against something, I'd strongly recommend the likes of "Friday, the 13th Part VIII" or "Halloween 5".
Nothing to really scream about, but always a welcome reminder of changing times in horror - for me
FILM:3/5
Written by Markus Duschek
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