Leatherface (2017)

From the opening scene, it has the feel of a straight to digital movie. Stephen Dorff is awesome as usual, but aside from him, there isn't a single character to like or root for. I know these movies are gory but this one seemed a little over the top and unnecessary.

It stars out semi interesting as we see a young Jedidiah Sawyer and his decrepitly twisted family trying to sway him into their evil ways. Then it takes the story in a completely opposite direction for about an hour with a whole different feel and initiative. This is where it runs into some dragged on problems of scattered plotting and pointless gratuitous violence without substantial connection to the overall story. There's a character named Bud that has an overwhelmingly distinct look to that of Leatherface with a heavy stature and messy brown hair and you're constantly thinking that will end up being the iconic character until they throw their massive attempt at a clever twist at you and kill him off only to have the very unsuspected Jackson character turn out to be the main character. This ridiculous move alone destroyed this film's potential. I get wanting to be clever and unsuspecting with the plot in this day and age of endless twists and turns, but it would've been so uttlery fitting to have had Bud turn out to be Leatherface. I don't think it would've made the overall mediocre story and pacing much better but it would've added a familiarity element to have that outcome. Maybe I'm just being biased but overall this origin story didn't amount to much other than some well shot cinematography and a few throwbacks to the franchise. I'd stick to the original, extremely underrated 2003 remake, and even the ok origin story to that "the Beginning".

LEATHERFACE is an ill-conceived prequel to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, supposedly telling of Leatherface's back story and the events that made him a killer. Not that it does. Instead this plays out as a cheesy murder mystery for the most part, with lots of cheesy and over the top gruesome death sequences. The original Tobe Hooper classic was all about what you didn't see, whereas this is a film that delights in showing bodily dismemberment and chainsaws penetrating chest cavities and lopping off limbs. The asylum setting is an unusual one that doesn't really fit, while the subsequent road movie action feels like it belongs in another movie. Of the cast, only the old timers (Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor, Christopher Adamson) impress, while the rest are bogged down by the sheer numb-headed predictability of it all.

I didn't even know that they made this movie and happened to come across it by sheer luck. And being a huge horror fan, I did of course grab it immediately, because "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is indeed a mastodon in the horror genre.But wow! This movie disappointed tremendously, as it had a very pointless storyline, which offered nothing much to the franchise. And it was a very anti-climatic and disappointing backstory to an otherwise iconic horror character.I will say that the acting in the movie was adequate, and that was actually one of the brighter sides to this otherwise abysmal prequel.There were a few good kills in the movie, but hardly enough to make up for all of the other shortcomings that made up the "Leatherface" movie."Leatherface" is not a movie that you should run out to invest in right away, unless you find it a super bargain discount bin and if you are an overly huge fan of the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchise.