In 1955 Sheriff Hartman (Stephen Dorff) is called to the scene of his daughter, Betty's, death. The Sawyer children are at the crime scene (and not for the first time as they've been present at other deaths) and while he can't charge any of them he gets revenge on the Sawyer matriarch, Verna (Lili Taylor), by taking custody of her son, Jedidiah, away under Child Endangerment. 10 years later Jedidiah has been given a new name and has been integrated into the system at mental hospital Gorman House Youth Reformery. When Verna unsuccessfully tries to contact her son, she instigates a riot by opening several facility doors. A group of four inmates consisting of hulking mute Bud (Sam Coleman), violent psychopath Ike (James Bloor) and his equally violent girlfriend Clarice (Jessica Madsen), and Bud's subdued relatively level headed friend Jackson (Sam Strike) escape with Ike taking nurse Elizabeth White (Vanessa Grasse) hostage. Learning of the escapees and that one of them is Jedidiah Sawyer, Sheriff Hartman pursues the group intent on bringing them down rather than bringing them in.
Following the relative success of Texas Chainsaw 3D, Lionsgate and millennium opted to move forward on another installment tentatively titled Texas Chainsaw 4. Following a proposed follow-up to be filmed by Texas Chainsaw 3D director John Luessenhop being scrapped, the producers instead opted for a prequel pitch by Seth M. Sherwood described as a road thriller akin to Terrence Malik's Badlands but with gore. French New Extremity directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo who had made a name for themselves with their films such as Inside, Livid, and Among the Living that like other members of the (Alexandre Aja, Xavier Gens, etc.) were noted for their brutal intensity and violence. Leatherface is technically speaking a better film than Texas Chainsaw 3D, and it does well capturing the period with Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo evoking an almost neo-western vibe from the film, but it's also an exercise in redundancy as much like other prequels we know exactly where it's going and the characters and story aren't engaging enough to make us forget that.
The movie does have good elements to it. The cinematography is well done and convinces us the Bulgarian filming locations are in fact 1960s East Texas and unlike the Platinum Dunes films I actually felt like Leatherface took place in a different decade. Stephen Dorff is really good as antagonist Sheriff Hartman who plays the hellbent lawman archetype with seething intensity and hatred for the Sawyer family, in many ways it's reminiscent of Dennis Hopper's Lefty from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 except played straight but still good. I also liked Lili Taylor as Sawyer matriarch Verna Sawyer-Carson who conveys this almost Betty Crockerish image that barely contains the intense violence and hatred beneath the surface.
Unfortunately the principal cast whom we spend the most time with are the least interesting. Bud, Ike, Clarice, Jackson, and Elizabeth aren't all that interesting and it feels like we're focusing on the wrong people story wise. Stephen Dorff is arguably the driving force behind the story as he's Hellbent on taking down this group because he knows his daughter is dead because of them, and while his character does engage in shady or brutal acts, he's not more evil than the group we're following who we see kill without hesitation or remorse. The story isn't unworkable and all the pieces are in place, btu the movie wants us to sympathize with the group of escaped psychopaths rather than be scared by them and it just leaves the movie lacking in much of anchor point for investment. This probably explains why certain actions the hostage character Elizabeth does seem so outright perplexing because there are several opportunities where she can make a run for safety from the unstable group but just doesn't and the relationship between her and Jackson isn't strong enough to buy give credibility to her uncertainty as to whether or not she should leave. Eventually the movie leads right back to where we knew it started and because it played with the uncertainty of who is Leatherface the character's descent feels like it's on fast forward when it should've been a slow rot.
Leatherface is just kind of "meh" it's not unique enough like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, it's not bad enough to be funny like Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Next Generation or Texas Chainsaw 3D, and instead is content to settle for competent mediocrity. It has some good performances and a nice look, but it's in service of a movie that's just "there".
