Every Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movie Ranked Worst To Best
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Much like the 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre was saved from the bottom of this list due to that one excellent bloody bus sequence, the final moments of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning manages to nudge this 2006 feature above that movie and Leatherface.
Serving as a prequel to Marcus Nispel's 2003 Texas Chainsaw reboot, The Beginning - much like Leatherface - makes the bold decision to flesh out the backstory of our chainsaw-loving killer. As in, we literally get to see the birth of the child who would go on to become Leatherface.
As TCM: The Beginning opens, we find a young woman dying during premature childbirth in the Texas slaughterhouse where she works. That baby is rudely dumped in the trash by the woman's supervisor, but is discovered and raised as her own by Luda Mae Hewitt. With the Sawyer name swapped out for Hewitt in this film and the 2003 reboot, that boy becomes Thomas Hewitt, aka Leatherface.
From there, we jump ahead 30 years to the adult Thomas working in that same slaughterhouse under the same supervisor. When the slaughterhouse is forced to close, Thomas butchers his boss and we're off to the races as Leatherface truly comes to the fore, as he and his 'family' end up targeting two Vietnam War enlistees and their girlfriends.
Sadly, The Beginning brings nothing to the table, relies too much on gore rather than trying to craft genuine dread, and stupidly looks to delve into what made Leatherface who he is.
Still, that final sequence - where we think Jordana Brewster's Chrissie has escaped in a car, only to have Leatherface pop up in the backseat - is a belter.