Leatherface 2017 film review. Produced by Millennium Film. Distribution by Lionsgate. Directed by Juilen Maury, Alexandre Bustillo. R rated, certificate 18, running time 87 minutes.

Leatherface released on DVD and BLURAY on Monday 8th January.

What Does Alien and every horror film made in the seventies have in common? They have all tried to make sequels, prequels, and all have failed miserably. Namely The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, except for a few exceptions such as Exorcist 3, and maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, the rest has been completely dreadful. The shameful remake in 2003 from producer Michael Bay, straight away you know it is gonna be shit, to the prequel Texas Chainsaw The Beginning, it was even tried a few years ago with Texas Chainsaw in 3D "wow fucking wow" which was meant to be a direct sequel to Tobe Hoppers original movie, that was good for the first few minutes then went very quickly downhill. So it was announced a beginnings story was to be made showing a young Leatherface in his teens, and how he turned into the man he was, and who we all know now, set in the thirties America, with an early insight into the Sawyer family, and their brutal hatred of outsiders, and murdering ways. Headed by head of the family Verna Sawyer ( Lili Taylor) the story of her son Jedidiah 'Jackson' played by Sam Strike, who ends up in a mental institution, whilst being taken into care as a 6 year old, from his mother, as a precaution and for his own protection. With his best mate Budd (Sam Coleman), escapes the institution during a riot, with psychopaths Ike ( James Bloor)
and Clarice ( Jessica Chapman) who take a nurse Lizzy( Vanessa Grasse) hostage, and then go on a killing spree across rural Texas. With Jedidiah being the man of reason, and far from the killer he is supposed to morph into later, with his simpleton friend Budd, and actually caring for nurse Lizzy, trying to let her escape many times. With a police chief on their tails who has a deep hatred of the Sawyer clan, convinced the killing spree is caused by Jedidiah, when Ike and Clarice are the real killers. What we have left is a road/ chase movie, showing the cops to be the bad guys, and Intimidators, forcing Jedidiah into a killer.

It is this that I just don't get, as a patient Jedidiah or Jackson as he calls himself is a genuinely nice young man, caring, with empathy, yet somehow on this road trip within days he can turn into the psychopathic killer he is known to be later doesn't sit well with me. At no time he is showed to be a young unhinged man, yet within a short run time, and a run in with a police chief, he can then turn into a vicious killing machine. So the moral of the story, you can be a good lad, but one currupt cop can turn you into a serial killing madman , because he shoots you in the face and tortured  you, then when you return to your family clan, you can kill then with absolutely no empathy whatsoever.  This part does not work, it makes no sense at all, and a poor representation of how a normal lad turns bad.
This is once again another poor attempt to reinvent the franchise, with this movie so called sitting at the front with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Then Texas Chainsaw completing the trilogy. With still only Tobe Hoppers movie standing out, with every failed one since, like Alien Covenant of late, stop making these movies, as they will never better their originals.
A poor movie, although very bloody and violent, is a disappointment to say the least.
2/5**
*DVD extras include.
Alternate opening.
Alternate ending.
Deleted Scenes.
Behind the bloody mask: making of Leatherface.