Director: Jeff Burr
Starring: Kate Hodge, Ken Foree
My Rating: Didn't like it
TCM3 is one very basic horror movie. It never manages to establish an identity, which is one thing the first two had no problem doing, and it borrows heavily from the original TCM. In the beginning, the two main characters kill an armadillo, and in the original there is a shot showing a dead armadillo. Directly after this when they get to the gas station, the crazy worker there takes a polaroid picture and asks how much money they'll pay for it, exactly like the hitchhiker in the first movie did. I mean, come on, be unique. And then directly after that the gas station attendant peeps on the girl in the bathroom like he's Norman Bates.
This movie completely ignores TCM2 as if it didn't exist, which is fine, I suppose, but this makes everything even more unbelievable than it already is. So you're telling me that Leatherface's father and brother died prior to this, and Leatherface went about his killing business for a whole other family? Or maybe these people are his extended family? Either way, this befuddles the story for me. The whole reason why Leatherface is such an interesting villain in the first movie is directly because of his relationship with his father, brother, and grandfather. TCM3 throws that directly out the window and adds more "family members" who simply act weird for the fuck of it.
I'm pretty lenient when it comes to films, but this one is just bad. TCM3 has no personality of its own. The story isn't interesting, the characters are dull, the dialogue is goofy, and Leatherface's mask is a noticeable downgrade from the first two. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a big bore. Watch the first two and pump the brakes there.