The story of the notorious cinematic serial killer Leatherface started with Tobe Hooper’s 1974 low-budget horror movie The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath. With its surprising costuming, implied gore, and cannibalistic antagonists, the film continues to prime lists of the very best horror films of all time. Hooper launched The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath 2 in 1986, capitalizing on the success of franchises like Friday the thirteenth and Halloween – franchises whose narratives had been closely influenced by Hooper’s unique movie.
Quite a few further sequels, prequels, and remakes later, The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath has develop into a profitable franchise in its personal proper. Whereas they is probably not as financially affluent or critically acclaimed as their siblings within the style, the Leatherface flicks preserve a big following amongst followers of scary films.
Up to date on February twenty second, 2022 by Mark Birrell: Although the Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath films have by no means fairly tapped into the riches of the assorted slasher franchises that had been–partially–impressed by Tobe Hooper’s unique movie, they’re nonetheless going and the discharge of the most recent sequel to take the title has rejuvenated curiosity within the sequence as soon as once more. The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath films ranked by IMDb present the fascinating historical past that one in every of horror historical past’s most standout franchises has had.
9 Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath: The Subsequent Technology (1995) – 3.3
• Obtainable on HBO Max
The Subsequent Technology is the fourth addition to the franchise, a movie written and directed by Kim Henkel – who co-wrote the primary film’s screenplay with Tobe Hooper. The Subsequent Technology follows a gaggle of teenagers who encounter Leatherface and his deranged relations on their promenade night time.
Henkel considers the movie a parody of the franchise, however audiences weren’t impressed and it bombed on the field workplace. The Subsequent Technology has since gained a cult standing amongst critics and followers who recognize its absurdist humor, the tackle Leatherface, and the appearing from a younger Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger.
8 Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) – 4.8
• Obtainable on Peacock
The seventh movie within the horror franchise, John Luessenhop’s Texas Chainsaw 3D is taken into account a direct sequel to the 1974 film, ignoring the following installments. Set 4 many years after the occasions of the primary movie, it focuses on a personality named Heather Miller, who occurs to be Leatherface’s long-lost cousin.
Miller, performed by Alexandra Daddario, reunites along with her chainsaw-wielding relative in an effort to declare an inheritance she’s owed. Whereas a worthwhile film in theatres, Texas Chainsaw 3D was derailed by critics for plot holes, poor appearing, and a scarcity of creative terror sequences.
7 Leatherface (2017) – 5.0
• Obtainable on Pluto TV
The eighth installment within the franchise, Leatherface is a prequel that follows its title character’s evolution right into a mass assassin and cannibal. Directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, the prequel got here into being after the success of Texas Chainsaw 3D.
The filmmakers tried to stay as devoted to the unique movies, each The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath and The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath 2, as doable. Regardless of stellar appearing from Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor, Leatherface does not method the creativity and wit of its supply materials.
6 Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath (2022) – 5.0
• Obtainable on Netflix
In response to producer Christa Campbell, a large delay within the launch to Leatherface triggered the manufacturing and distribution crew of Millennium Movies and Lionsgate to lose the rights to the franchise. They had been subsequently picked up by Legendary Photos, who opted to reboot the sequence as soon as once more similarly to Texas Chainsaw 3D and different profitable traditional horror title reboots of latest years, such because the 2018 sequel to Halloween, by ignoring all different story continuity for a direct sequel to the primary movie.
Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath (2022) additionally selected to forgo the messy theatrical launch mannequin that mired Leatherface‘s distribution, releasing straight to Netflix. It is confirmed to be as equally divisive as its predecessor within the franchise with some followers praising the copious gore however others passionately criticizing its therapy of unique protagonist Sally, who returns as a legacy character like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (2018).
5 Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath III (1990) – 5.1
• Obtainable on Max Go
New Line Cinema produced and distributed Jeff Burr’s follow-up to The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath 2, which accompanies Leatherface and his prolonged household (together with a younger Viggo Mortensen) as they proceed to terrorize individuals within the Texas backwoods. What New Line Cinema hoped can be the primary of many sequels turned out to be the one one on account of its poor reception on the field workplace.
On account of its graphic violence, The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath III virtually earned an X score, one which was averted after slicing over 4 minutes of gore from the film. Nonetheless, the film’s excessive horror turned off critics and audiences alike.
4 The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath 2 (1986) – 5.6
• Obtainable on Hoopla
Tobe Hooper returned 12 years after the primary movie with this darkly comedic sequel. As a substitute of counting on documentary-style filming and minimal bloodshed, Hooper goes all out right here, and the result’s an over-the-top massacre.
In The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath 2, the chainsaws are greater, the characters are extra animated, and the physique components pile excessive. With its memorable performances from Dennis Hopper and Caroline Williams, what was thought of a mediocre film upon launch has since develop into thought of the most effective Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath films.
3 The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath: The Starting (2006) – 5.8
• Obtainable on Netflix
After Marcus Nispel revived the franchise together with his 2003 remake of the unique slasher film, Jonathan Liebesman launched this prequel to the remake – the sixth installment. Like 2017’s Leatherface, The Starting digs into the lives of Leatherface and the remainder of the Sawyer clan.
Most of The Starting, which stars Jordana Brewster and Matt Bomer, is about in 1969 and it depends on the overused road-tripping trope to lure its sufferer into Leatherface’s entice. The Starting earned again its price range in theatres, but it surely was thought of a important failure.
2 The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath (2003) – 6.2
• Obtainable on Netflix
Many crew members concerned within the making of the 1974 The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath returned for the remake, together with Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel – who served as producers. Whereas set in 1973, the remake brings younger, new faces like Jessica Biel into the franchise, in addition to sooner motion sequences, extra bounce scares, and elevated brutality.
Critics hated the fifth installment, deeming it utterly pointless. Nonetheless, audiences beloved it, and it went on to earn over $100 million in theatres, making it essentially the most worthwhile within the franchise and ranked comfortably as the most effective Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath films.
1 The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath (1974) – 7.5
• Obtainable on Showtime, Shudder, Tubi, and IMDb TV
Within the minds of diehard followers and critics, no different movie within the franchise comes near the unique for the title of greatest Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath film. Made with lower than $140,000, the film established a number of tropes within the horror style: the masked killer, road-tripping victims, and using a signature weapon – to call a couple of.
Impressed by serial killer Ed Gein, Leatherface and his cannibal relations terrorize passersby unlucky sufficient to run by their blight-ridden small city. By way of delicate hints and foreboding interactions, the movie depends on dread as a substitute of bloodshed to instill concern in audiences.
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