The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Of course, this one would be at the top. It is a classic through and through and still delivers the scares after almost 50 years. The build up to the first real scare of the film is perfectly done and the sound and production design should have won the film a few Oscars. No, I am not kidding. Name one film from 1974 that had better production design and sound. Go ahead, I’ll wait. This is one of the very few horror films that is still scary after all these years.
Texas Chainsaw (2013)
People will crap on me for this, but outside of a few things (Welcome to Texas being one) the rest of the complaints are not all that valid. “What about this clearly mid 20s girl actually being in her 40s?” Well, have you seen her lately? She looks almost exactly the same as she did when she made this film. Anyways, the film is really well done and the 3D is actually good. There are some really great tense moments and the film moves at a quick pace.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
This was the one that started the whole remake craze that happened in the mid 2000s. We got a bunch of crap, but the one that started it all is really good. Sure, it doesn’t have a dinner scene like every TCM film that came before it, but it does have R. Lee Ermey giving one of his best performances and the film looks and sounds great. This film was actually shot by the same DP that did the original, so you know it looks amazing.
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
This film came out when I started getting into horror films, and film in general, so I have a bias towards it, but I still think that it is a good film. Director Jeff Burr did everything he could to make a good film even if the studio was challenging him all the time. Leatherface looks great and the cast is really creepy. The look to the film is the best the series had seen after the first one and the film is a lot of fun. I do wish that we could get the true uncut version of the film, but what we have is still pretty good.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)
I don’t like this one as much as others do. I think that the tone switch actually hurts the film more than it helps. That’s not to say that the tone is bad, but the film is never scary, outside of the one jumpscare, and I don’t really like any of the characters. I just wish that they hadn’t laid into the comedy so hard. This could have been a really good follow up to the original.
Leatherface (2017)
I actually like this film. It is not a good TCM film at all, but it is a fun and bloody “killers on the run” film. It is really bloody and gory and has some very fun scenes to it. It also looks great and we never for one minute believe that this is anything other than Texas (it was shot in Bulgaria). The “who is Leatherface” angle was an awful direction to take the film, but if we overlook that, then we can have a fun time.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
The only reason this film exists is that they killed off the best character in the remake and they wanted to get him back. This film falls into the trappings of the cynical mid 2000s horror film that came around when Saw was released and became a big hit. There is nothing here to like outside of the gore, but we just don’t care by the time it shows up.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994 or 1995 or 1996 or 1997)
I hate this film. This is the worst film of the series and one of the worst horror franchise films of all time. It ranks down there with JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY and HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION. It is that bad. The only thing that keeps us coming back to this film is the manic performance by Matthew McConaughey, but we have to sit through a whole film to get to him. The fact that this was made by one of the two guys who made the original shows me that Tobe Hooper was the main driving force behind that film.
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