5 Faces Of Leatherface (And What Your Most Frightening Says About You)

4. The Simple Sadist - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Part 2 (1986)

"You've got one choice boy: sex or the saw." €“ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Part 2 (1986) As a warning, I predict you will be reading the word "phallus" a lot in this section. Only time will tell, of course, but don't say I didn't warn you. In the Texas Chainsaw sequel, which was directed by Tobe Hooper who also directed the original, the critique on the family unit was almost entirely dissolved. In its place comes a far more business minded unit, resulting in a bold, bloody attack on the capitalist structure, and appropriately so since Texas Chainsaw 2 was made in the middle of the excess obsessed 80s. It's also worth noting that the stark realism of the original has also been replaced by a garish, nightmare carnival kind of vibe. The blood is redder, the blade is shinier, and the ride through the funhouse has become even more bizarre. With the cannibal family setting up business in an abandoned theme park, where does this leave our beloved Leatherface? He becomes a lackey, an errand boy, an everyday man. At least he does until he spots a pretty girl. Then the sexual confusion begins and he revs up for some action. During one particularly disturbing scene, Leatherface enters into a macabre kind of foreplay with the lead heroine where he uses his chainsaw to molest her. In an interesting turn of events, the heroine takes note of this vulnerable confusion and in order to avoid being cut into pieces, she tells the masked maniac that, "You're really good. You're the best." In this film, Leatherface becomes the conduit through which the sadistic appeal of horror films gets flipped on its head. The film pushes the metaphor of the erect chainsaw out of the realm of safe subtext or subtle innuendo and into the arena of undeniable phallus (can we get a phallus counter? This is number one, well, technically three). Leatherface is a juvenile sexual predator with a powerful lust. The terror of his new incarnation is very different from his previous one, but equally as disturbing. What does this mean for the viewer? Well, you have to ask yourself, what happens when you get sexually frustrated men with little to no ability for empathy? You get sexual harassment, misogyny, and rape, just to name a few lurid byproducts. On the other side of things, Leatherface's character may speak to the fear you have of your own sexuality, whether or not it's truly depraved. He's a bit of a pubescent boy in this movie, frightened and bewildered by his own phallus (there's another). It's as if the chainsaw is wielding him, instead of the other way around, and who can't relate to that? It's an anxiety that has been explored in horror movies stretching all the way back to the Wolfman, and probably further. Sex, death and horror are always a potent mix.