One can say that director Jeff (Stepfather 2) Burr and writer David J. (The Crow) Schow had impossible shoes to fill after the all-time classic that was the original Chainsaw. Still, this movie is a personal favorite of mine. Even though it got butchered by the MPAA (the censors seemed to have a personal peeve against this flick) and the studio slapped on an entirely different ending, without the director and writer knowing it!

Leatherface starts of with the lovely Kate Hodge and her boring brother off on a cross country trip in their rusty old Mercedes when believe it or not, the engine gives up on them at the worst possible moment. Not long after that the sickos are in pursuit and the pair are being rescued by a pre-Lord of the Rings Viggo Mortensen. Brother dear is offed after a few nail-biting, and admittingly very noisy scenes and the lovely Kate winds up in the hands of Texas’ favorite family of psycho. She then becomes Leatherface’s personal object of affection, and in record time ( the movie runs a scant 80 minutes) it’s off to an, again very noisy, finale which doesn’t wholefully deliver on the thrills and gore it promised earlier on. Let’s also blame the cutting room floor for that.

As you may have guessed the movie has it’s flaws, but besides that I think it’s damn entertaining. Burr keeps the pace up and running and Schow is an amazing writer (they should make a movie out of his ‘The Kill Riff’, that’d the ultimate tribute to all things eighties and heavy metal). His brilliant writing skills shine through in characterization (Tinker’s great), the sharp dialogues and the outbursts of pre-Tarantino like vicious black humor (for example, a guy gets his ear shot of, then bitches about it).

Also there’s a wonderful supporting role by genre fave Ken (Dawn of the Dead) Foree, as a weekend survivalist named Benny. Again, much of his role was cut out of the movie, and to learn that his character was sawed in half in the original cut underlines how much this movie was butchered. Please all join me in screaming at New line to get a director’s cut of this movie out on DVD, right now!

I still give it four stars, but mostly because of what could have been.

P.S: I own the German version on DVD. Although that has an atrocious picture quality it does include the wonderful teaser trailer. If features Leatherface standing at the shore of a lake, after which lightning bolts come crashing down from the sky and his beloved saw rises from the water to jump right into his hands. Believe me, that was worth the price of purchase alone!