The American horror franchise The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was launched in 1974 by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. As of 2024 it consists of nine films, a novel, video game adaptations, and several comic book series. The films have collectively generated more than $252 million in worldwide box office revenue. The rights to the series are owned by the production company Vortex, Inc. The franchise has produced several sequels, prequels, a remake, and spin-offs. Although their storylines vary, the main entries in the series all feature Leatherface, a cannibalistic murderer who wields a chainsaw as his signature weapon. Portrayed as a physically imposing but intellectually-impaired man, Leatherface lives in the Texas countryside and targets innocent victims who stumble into his territory before cooking their bodies with his family's help.
The franchise's first movie, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), is the most successful (by return on investment) of the series. Produced on a modest budget of around $140,000 and featuring mostly unknown actors from Texas, the movie became a major commercial success, grossing more than $30 million domestically. The film is widely regarded as one of the most influential horror movies of all time. It pioneered the slasher subgenre and introduced elements such as the use of power tools as murder weapons and masked, wordless killers.
The 1974 film was followed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), also directed by Hooper and set several years after the events of its predecessor. Produced by the Cannon Group with a significantly expanded budget of $4.7 million, the sequel was more graphic than the original and incorporated black humor and satirical elements, which Hooper thought went underlooked in the first film. Rights to the series were then purchased by New Line Cinema, which hoped to replicate its success with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. New Line sought to emphasize Leatherface as the primary star of the franchise. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), directed by Jeff Burr, was a commercial disappointment, and New Line abandoned its plans for the series. Unlike the previous two films, it was not shot in Texas.
Henkel directed The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1995), which featured Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey early in their rise to stardom. The movie, produced on a budget of only $600,000, debuted at South by Southwest and received a limited theatrical release. Following Zellweger’s and McConaughey’s breakout performances in Jerry Maguire (1996) and A Time to Kill (1996), respectively, Columbia TriStar Pictures acquired, re-edited, and re-released the film as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation in 1997. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), directed by Marcus Nispel, followed as a remake of the original 1974 film, albeit with a different story. The first of several horror remakes produced by Platinum Dunes, the film was shot on a budget of $9.5 million and grossed more than $107 million globally. Its success led to the creation of a prequel film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), directed by Jonathan Liebesman. This was the last film in the franchise to be shot in Texas.
The seventh film, Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013), directed by John Luessenhop, followed an alternate continuity from the other films. The eighth film, Leatherface (2017), directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, serves as a prequel to the 1974 film and explores the origin of the franchise's main character. It was followed by Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), a direct-to-streaming film directed by David Blue Garcia and set fifty years after the events of the original film.
A spin-off film, Butcher Boys (2012), was produced and written by Henkel as a follow-up to his 1995 film. There is also one unreleased film in the franchise. In 1998 William Hooper, son of Tobe Hooper, began filming All American Massacre, intended as a spin-off of the second film. However, due to post-production cost issues after filming concluded in 2000, the movie was never released, with only a trailer made available online. In 2011 William attempted to raise funds for its release through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, but the effort was unsuccessful.
The first video game in the franchise, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1983), was released for the Atari 2600 console as a single-player game. Being one of the earliest horror-themed video games, its violent content caused many stores to refuse to sell it. The second entry, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2023), is a multiplayer game for the PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Leatherface has also appeared as a playable character in several other combat and survival horror video games, including Mortal Kombat X (2015) and Dead by Daylight (2016), in which he wields his signature weapon.
The franchise's comic book debuted in 1991 with Leatherface, a mini-series published by Northstar Comics and loosely based on the third film. In 1995 Topps Comics released a crossover series featuring Leatherface and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise. Following the success of the 2003 remake, Avatar Press published new comics beginning in 2005. The comic book license was acquired by the DC Comics imprint WildStorm in 2006.
The franchise’s central character, Leatherface, has appeared in every film and adaptation of the series, though his real name, personality, appearance, and motivations have varied. While other characters have made recurring appearances or been referenced, Leatherface is the only character to appear in all installments. He is one of the most recognizable figures in horror cinema, with his character transcending the genre as a popular culture icon. In 2013 Gunnar Hansen, who portrayed Leatherface in the original film, released a non-fiction book titled Chain Saw Confidential, which offered an insider's perspective on the making of the movie, Hansens’s personal experiences, and the film's impact on the horror genre.
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Gunnar Hansen, Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World’s Most Notorious Horror Movie (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2013). Sean O’Neal, “The Horror Sequel That Made All of Texas Out to Be Insane,” Texas Monthly, October 27, 2023.
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- Texas in the 21st Century
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Andrés Herrera, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Franchise),” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed October 28, 2024, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/the-texas-chainsaw-massacre-franchise.
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- Original Publication Date:
- October 25, 2024
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- October 25, 2024