Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: Directed by Jeff Burr. With Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, R.A. Mihailoff, William Butler. A California couple and a survivalist encounter Leatherface and his family.

“Review based on the unrated version.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA college-aged couple, delivery driving a car from California to Florida, are sidetracked by a police investigation of a body pit found at a construction site in the Texas countryside. (Camera flashes, illuminating the corpses (in the unedited version, anyway) are a good reference to the first film) The next day, the couple have a bizarre experience with a psycho hick apparently killing a cowboy at a small gas station. While trying to get away and find help, theyu0026#39;re detoured onto a side road … and thatu0026#39;s when the real fun begins.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn over-sized truck begins stalking them, then throws a dead animal at them. In the excitement, they drive off the road and puncture a tire. While changing the tire, a hulk with a chainsaw attacks them. Narrowly escaping him, they only end up nearly in a head-on collision with a weekend warrior.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe three of them eventually team up; the couple are just trying to live through the night, but the weekend warrior wants to go after our new friend with the chainsaw.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis has dialogue far superior to the original, and isnu0026#39;t as silly and over-the-top as the underrated Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Itu0026#39;s graphic, but it uses its gore and bloodshed almost as part of telling the story, as well as referencing the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (through camera angles, props, and bits of dialogue) without going so far as to rip off that film. The music score was surprisingly effective, and did not distract from the movie itself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDavid Schow did a great job with this screenplay, for the most part, but film falls into the u0026quot;undying killeru0026quot; mode in its repetitive final third, where seemingly every character (Tex, Alfredo, Leatherface, Benny) returns from the dead for one last encore performance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnfortunately, the theatrical version of the movie was seemingly edited with a chainsaw, and released in a horribly truncated version, missing several minutes of footage and rendering much of the plot incoherent. Thankfully the unedited/ unrated version has been released on DVD.”