'Leatherface' Trailer: Two French Directors Walk Into A Texas Chainsaw Massacre...
When I wrote about the red band trailer for Leatherface, I went long about how a prequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre sounds like a lousy idea, but also how I'm hungry for another horror movie from the talented and twisted team of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Now, a new trailer has arrived and it's a bit more traditional and a bit more plot-oriented and it probably won't change any minds. Either you're intrigued by an origin story for the iconic serial killer from Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece or you're not.
The green band trailer goes heavier on plot than the somewhat more avant garde red band trailer. It lays out Leatherface's origin beat-for-beat: the future maniac was the son of a mother who encouraged his homicidal tendencies, only for him to be torn away by the authorities and put in a mental hospital. Some time passes and he escapes, wreaking havoc across the Texas countryside. Naturally, the trailer features everything you'd expect from this series: desolate southwest locations, thick accents, bladed weapons, and masks made out of human skin.
Honestly, it's hard to get excited about a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie since the vast majority of these movies have been fairly terrible. The first one may be a masterpiece and the second a bit of splattery fun, but the other sequels, the remake, the prequel to the remake, and the other one that tries to be a sequel to the original while ignoring the other sequels (yeah, it's weird) range from mediocre to unwatchable. Then again, those movies didn't have the filmmakers behind Inside and Among the Living behind the camera and that may make all the difference in the world.
Leatherface will premiere on DirecTV on September 21, 2017 before opening in limited release and arriving on VOD on October 20, 2017. I'm choosing to believe that the small release is because Bustillo and Maury have made something too gnarly for American theaters and not because it's a bad movie. Fingers crossed!
In Texas, years before the events of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in the early days of the infamous Sawyer family, the youngest child is sentenced to a mental hospital after a suspicious incident leaves the sheriffs' daughter dead. Ten years later, he kidnaps a young nurse and escapes with 3 other inmates. Pursued by authorities including the deranged sheriff out to avenge his daughter's death, the young Sawyer teen goes on a violent road trip from hell, molding him into the monster known now as Leatherface.