Leatherface Was Misunderstood

Four young people invade a Texas family home searching for gasoline. The family defends itself with hammers and chainsaws. My name is Sgt. Horror. Today, we’re talking about Leatherface and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

In October of 1974, the United States was introduced to one of my favorite horror movies ever. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was billed as a chainsaw-wielding maniac killer preying on youths. But this isn’t the story that we were shown on the video. This wasn’t what was released. The story we see in the movie is a Leatherface that is oftentimes mischaracterized and misunderstood. He’s at his home, minding his own business when four young people invade his private property, and he is forced to defend his home with a hammer and a chainsaw.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the breakdown. When you look at the story of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is essentially a home invasion movie. You have five young people traveling to visit a home in Texas. You have Sally, who’s Franklin’s sister, Jerry, who’s Sally’s boyfriend, Kurt, and his girlfriend Pam. Franklin is probably the most annoying guy in the horror movie.

I would argue that these five people were in no danger at all until they invaded Leatherface’s home. They were riding down the road; nobody bothered them. They visit the graveyard because they heard their grandfather’s grave was vandalized. They get back in the car, they stop and pick up the hitchhiker. Now you could argue that at this point they were in some danger, and possibly they were. The hitchhiker was mentally unstable. He had a straight razor. He did cut Franklin’s arm, but he did get kicked out of the car. So, maybe he was trying to lure them back to the house for them to get killed, or perhaps he was just crazy. But at that point in the story, they were riding down the road. They were not in any danger.

They stopped to get some gas, and at the gas station, the scene is significant. They’re warned. They’re warned that in that community in Texas, private property rights are extremely valued. The cook AKA the old man, tells them plainly, that people in those parts take it seriously if you go fooling around their property.

But they didn’t heed the warning. They decided to go to their grandfather’s house. It wasn’t until Kurt and Pam decided to look for the watering hole to take a swim that they go and wander on to the Sawyer’s property. They hear a generator running and discover these cars. Now you might say these cars or the cars of their victims. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe these are the cars of the people that wandered on and trespassed on their property. You don’t know. The story doesn’t tell you. But if they’d have stayed over there at the grandfather’s house, they wouldn’t have had any trouble, but they wandered over to Leatherface’s house. And not only did they wander over, Kurt knocked on the door and came into the house.

Now, what would you do if you were sitting at your home, minding your own business, cooking you up some dinner, and a man walks into your house? We’d probably do what Leatherface did. Hit him upside the head with a hammer a couple of times. Then, Leatherface sitting there, “Oh my God, somebody’s in my house. I had to defend myself. I like eating any type of meat. Cows, pigs, people.”

That’s what Leatherface’s whole family they eat whatever meat that is provided. Now why? Well, we could explain that simply if you listened to the hitchhiker when he got in the car. Franklin goes on and on talking about how the slaughterhouse, which was obviously still in business because they were all kinds of cattle out there when they drove by. But the slaughterhouse had switched from the methods of killing cattle. They had changed to an air-bolt gun versus using the hammer.

Leatherface’s family were the ones that used a hammer to kill the cattle. And when the air-bolt came in, and they started using the secondary means of killing, it cost them jobs. The hitchhiker plainly says the new method cost jobs. So, therefore, the Sawyer family, Leatherface, the old man, hitchhiker, and grandpa are forced to eat whatever they could eat, whatever meat comes along. So you have this young guy coming in the house, walking all the way in, Leatherface hits him upside the head. Now we could argue that that young man would be perfectly safe if he’d have kept his butt at the house that they were visiting, but he didn’t.

He invaded Leatherface’s home, and Leatherface defended himself. Then you have his girlfriend. She wanders into the house. Pam goes all into the house, looks all around, sees all the skeletons, sees the chickens. It’s funny to me how they make that chicken scene look so spooky. And then she tries to run out when Leatherface confronts her. But what was Leatherface to do? She was in his house, uninvited, snooping around. Maybe he thought she was going to harm him. When he confronted her, she ran out, and he scoops her up and pulls her back in and puts her on the hook, because he’s like, “Hey, that’s dinner for tomorrow night.”

Then at this point, everybody is still over there at grandfather’s house. You have Sally, Jerry, and Franklin, just sitting there waiting. So Jerry decides he’s going to go off and wander the property and see if he could find his friends. At that point in time, he goes to Leatherface’s house. He invades Leatherface’s personal property, and guess what? He gets killed. Now Leatherface is freaking out. Leatherface was like, I was sitting here, minding my own business, and these three people come into my property. My house is under attack. I have to defend myself. And that’s what he does.

Then he’s looking through the window. He’s like, “What in the world? How many of these people are coming? Who and all is out there, and why are they messing with me?

Nighttime comes, and you have Sally and Franklin sitting there in the dark. Franklin’s being a little bitch and don’t want to give Sally the flashlight. And Sally wants to go off to look for her boyfriend, Jerry, and their friends. Franklin decides he’s going to go with them. So we could argue that if they’d have stayed at the van, did they would have been safe. But no, just like all the rest of them, they decided they’re going to wander. And they go far enough in the thicket, she pushes him in a wheelchair, which is amazing, all the way through the thicket and they see a light. It’s at the point that they see a light that Leatherface comes out and defends himself and takes out Franklin.

Sally takes off running, but she doesn’t run back to her private property. No, she runs to Leatherface’s house and tries to lock him out of his own home. Leatherface is forced to gain entry into his home by using his chainsaw to cut it into the front door. Then she goes upstairs and disturbs grandpa, you know, handicap old man, just sitting there minding his own business. You can clearly see grandpa’s barely making it. Then we’ll Leatherface finally tries to get her, she jumps through the window and runs down the road.

Now at this point, everyone’s dead except for Sally. Everyone has come into the Leatherface home except for Franklin. But I’m going to argue that Franklin was on Leatherface’s personal property. Yeah, is it murder if you kill someone that’s in your yard? Maybe. Depends on state law. But I would argue if he’d have stayed by the van with the flashlight that he would have been safe, but he didn’t. If Sally had stayed there with him, he’d have been safe, but she didn’t. So she runs down back to the gas station and runs into the kook, the old man. He already knows that something’s going on if Leatherface is outside of the house chasing them.

He decides that to preserve the integrity of his family and to keep the police from coming, he needs to take Sally back home. And he does. He subdues with a broom, puts her in the car, picks up the hitchhiker, and goes back to Leatherface’s home, and everybody gets ready for dinner. So they’re sitting there for dinner, have fun with her. And they decide, you know, grandpa used to work at the slaughterhouse. They are going to let grandpa kill her. And he’s barely making it; he can barely swing the hammer. At that point, yeah, maybe they were wrong. Perhaps they should’ve let Sally go. But they were trying to protect their family.

They were already afraid that somebody’s going to come in there and disrupt them. Especially if they find out. Who’s going to believe that Leatherface was only defending his property. They’re going to come in there and judge Leatherface and take him to prison, and that ain’t going to work. So they play around with Sally. They turn one of the funniest hammer scenes in the world into something extremely horrifying. Sally jumps through the window for the second time in the film and makes her way down the road with Leatherface ensue. It’s only when she gets off the property that she jumps into the back of a truck and goes away and tells her side of the story. Her side of the story is that they were minding their own business, just looking for gasoline, and these people murdered.

If you watch the movie and analyze it, it’s apparent that Leatherface is minding his own business in his home. They took advantage of an unlocked door in the country and met their fate of what happens when you invade somebody’s home in a rural part of Texas. So the moral of the story isn’t Leatherface is a crazed cannibal killer. Yeah, he eats meat. He eats any kind of meat. Killing’s killing, you know? Killed a cow, kill a pig, killed a person. They eat whatever type of meat comes their way.

Those people came in their home, they got butchered and made into dinner. So the moral of the story is clear. Don’t go wandering into people’s homes in Texas, if you don’t want to become a victim. Stay by your van and wait until gasoline is delivered the next day. Don’t invade Leatherface’s home.

Leave a comment in the section below. Let me know what your thoughts are on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Is Leatherface simply misunderstood, or is he just some type of crazy killer? Were the kids right entering his home, or were they merely trespassing, and he was right to defend his private property.

Let us know what you think in the comments.