The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 3 is somewhat of a bizzare entry into the
greatest slasher series of all time. It has been 3 years since the last film,
and there have been many MANY changes. The only characters from the two previous films are Leatherface and possibly the psychotic Hitchhiker, but it is
somewhat uncertain. But in this film grandpa is nothing but a stuffed corpse, and a new family has been added in place of the one of have grown to love.
An old woman in a wheelchair who speaks with a mechanical voicebox, a pig-tailed little
girl, a young brother, and two older men take the place of the old cook from
the previous installments. The plot involves a young couple delivering a
car to their father in Florida. They make their way through the backroads
of rural Texas, and run across a gruesome police scene where a pond has been
drained and over 50 corpses have been found. They then pull into a local
gas station where they run into the 'possible' hitchhiker and piss him off
royally. He then sends Leatherface off to hunt them down. Who will survive?
And what will be left of them? This film takes away the pure-comedic element
that gave TCM2 its sizzle and flare, and mixes action with purely relentless horror. This film
brought back the element of terror that made Texas Chainsaw Massacre so,
well, terrifying. Gritty and relentless, Leahterface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part
III is a CANT-MISS in one of the greatest horror series ever made!
There is an alternate version of Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III out there. It contains deleted scenes, more gore, and an alternate ending. The different scenes are as follows:
Instead of Tex hitting the guy who's hanging from his foot by hooks over the head with the sledgehammer, he lets the little girl pull a string, which brings a mallet swinging down into the mans head.
After the girl bashes Leatherface over the head with a rock, he sinks into the water. Then Tex attacks her, after being badly burned to a black crisp. The girl activates a trap which brings a spiked swatter swinging into Tex, pinning him against a tree and killing him.
The alternate ending involves the girl coming to a road. She flags down a police car. The car stops about 15 feet from her, and the little girl from the Family sits up in the back seat, giggling. The girl drops to her knee's and reads the bumper sticker on the cop car: "Dont mess with Texas".
Other than that, a few scenes are different. Ken Foree's character dies at the end, he does not return to drive off into the sunset. We do not see the girls hands as she rips them right off the nails that are holding them to the chair, and Alfredo does not kiss the severed head before tossing it into the swamp. I prefer this version as opposed to the one released theatrically and on video.
Pictures from LEATHERFACE: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III