Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1990)

Dir: Jeff Burr

The family that slays together stays together in this grim, sadistic entry in the notorious cannibal slasher series. Plot doesn't really add much to the set formula; yet more hapless travellers get hunted, tortured and killed by the insane Sawyer family in the usual bloody fashion. That said, the first half of film is surprisingly creepy. Jeff Burr's direction is taut, assured and stylish, and the screenplay ticks along nicely. It's only in the second half that it all falls to bits and becomes generic stalk'n'slash fodder, symptomatic of everything wrong with the subgenre in the late 80s; a howlingly inappropriate heavy metal soundtrack, half-cocked wisecracks every other line, endless footage of people fleeing through darkened woods, etc. You know the drill (or, in this case, the saw). It's a damn shame. All the misguided black comedy attempts (a gold-plated chainsaw? puh-lease!) throw a wet blanket over the spooky atmosphere and the plot simply isn't strong enough to sustain itself. The tacked-on ending sequence (thanks, New Line studio bosses!) makes absolutely no sense at all. A shame. There are some nice touches here but, like much from its era, the film smacks of wasted potential. **