10 Movie Villains So Awesome They Ruined Their Franchise

6. Sheriff Hoyt - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Dark Knight Joker
New Line Cinema

Given that he's the guy wielding the titular chainsaw, one would think that Leatherface would be the main star of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies.

Too often, however, he tends to take a back seat to the shenanigans of his extended family. Case in point, R. Lee Ermey's deranged Sheriff Hoyt, in the 2003 remake. With Leatherface relegated to the role of a speechless, unstoppable monster (essentially Michael Myers with a chainsaw), Hoyt picked up the slack...

And so much of the film became a showcase for Hoyt's own brand of cruelty, putting its hapless teenagers through their paces in a physical and mental ordeal that had more in common with Full Metal Jacket than a Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

So terrifying and magnetic was Ermey's Hoyt that, by killing him off at the end, the film wrote itself into a corner... leaving the franchise to head down the prequel route (see The Beginning) to ensure that audiences got more of their Hoyt fix.

Contributor
Contributor

A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.