Director: Jeff Burr
Screenplay: David J. Schow, based on characters created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper
Starring: Kate Hodge, Viggo Mortensen, William Butler, Ken Foree, Joe Unger, Tom Everett, Toni Hudson, Miriam Byrd-Nethery, R.A. Mihailoff
Running Time: 86 minutes
Genre: Horror, sequel, survival
Summary: A young Californian couple, Michelle (Hodge) and Ryan (Butler), are driving through Texas on their way cross country to Florida. Along the way, they pass an excavation of a large number of butchered corpses. Stopping at a small service station, Michelle has an unpleasant encounter with the station's sleazy owner, Alfredo (Everett), but the couple are helped by a seemingly friendly cowboy, Tex (Mortensen) who informs them of a short-cut along a small little used road. However, that night they find themselves under attack from a chanisaw wielding maniac known as Leatherface (Mihailoff) and his sadistic, cannibal "family".
Opinions: This film is the second sequel to the notorious horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and it attracted a lot of controversy prior to it's release due to a battle between the film's studio, New Line Cinema, and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), which initially gave the film an "X" certificate due to graphic violence. In the end, the studio relented and a cut version was released with an "R" rating. However, both versions of the film are available on DVD. The movie is neither particularly bad or particularly good. It's very predictable and moves along with few surprises, and also a lot of the film takes place at night and is shot so darkly that it is really difficult to make out what is going on. However there are enough gruesome special effects to satisfy gore fans, and it is really too short to ever get boring. The cast all give spirited perfomances with Ken Foree a particular standout as the tough survivalist hero. Today, the most notable aspect of the film is an early appearance by Viggo Mortensen as the charismatic, but sadistic, cowboy. Incidentally, one of the studio's first choices to direct this film was Peter Jackson, who would later work with Mortensen on The Lord of the Rings films.
Basically, this is a very average, fairly gory, horror movie sequel, no better then many others.
Viggo Mortensen in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
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