With his first appearance in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface instantly
earned a spot among the all-time classic horror movie villains.
His story has become somewhat muddled throughout a series of sequels, prequels, and reboots,
but don't worry, we're here to sort it out for you.
Leatherface looks like the kind of monster that director Tobe Hooper probably saw in
a nightmare, but he wasn't a product of Hooper's imagination; he and the rest of the cannibalistic
Sawyer family were loosely based on a real person: serial killer and graverobber Ed Gein,
who was also known as "The Butcher of Plainfield."
Several residents of Plainfield, Wisconsin went missing over the years, and Gein was
found responsible for their deaths.
An investigation of his home resulted in authorities finding organs stored in jars and masks made
of human skin.
In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface doesn't just wear one mask, he actually switches
between a few, depending on the scene.
Why does he change his mask?
According to the late Gunnar Hansen, who originally played Leatherface, the masks were not just
creepy accessories.
They were actually the only way Leatherface could really express himself.
Hansen said:
"The mask really determined his personality.
Who he wanted to be that day determined what mask he put on.
So when Drayton comes home with Sally, Leatherface is wearing the 'Old Lady Mask' and he's wearing
an apron and carrying a wooden spoon, he wants to be domestic, helpful in the kitchen.
At dinner he wears a different face, the 'Pretty Woman,' which has makeup."
In the 40-plus years since the original film was released, different films in the franchise
have explored slightly altered "origin stories" for Leatherface.
The 2003 remake and its 2006 prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, offer
up an interesting explanation.
In this version, Leatherface was born disfigured from a skin disease, and his mother dies giving
birth to him at work.
Her boss doesn't care about the infant's fate, so he leaves him behind in a dumpster, expecting
him to die.
A woman named Luda May Hewitt finds him and takes him in as her own son, naming him Thomas.
He's ashamed of the way he looks, so he begins wearing a leather mask to hide his face.
This habit continues into adulthood, and eventually, the mask practically became a part of him.
Being adopted may have saved Thomas from dying in that dumpster, but the Hewitts aren't exactly
a warm, loving family.
Just like the Sawyer family in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, they're a violent
group of cannibals, and Leatherface is doomed to be one of them.
Not every film featuring a young Leatherface depicts him as disfigured or diseased, though.
The 2017 film Leatherface, which specifically explores his childhood and teenage years,
takes the story in another direction.
We're introduced to Leatherface as a young boy celebrating his birthday.
At his birthday party, his family gives him a chance to torture and kill a thief who tried
to steal one of their pigs.
But he doesn't want any part of the violent ritual, refusing to use the chainsaw.
Throughout the film, his mother makes it clear that she'll make him "one of them" at any
cost.
In this version of the story, it's clear that Leatherface knows what's expected of him,
but deep down, he doesn't want to participate.
"Bad people like him, they're trying to break our family apart.
But we're not gonna let that happen, right?"
Despite the creepy setting of the Sawyer household, he looks like an otherwise normal child.
There's no sign of a skin disease.
In fact, there's really nothing distinct about his physical appearance that would set him
apart from any other kid.
He's certainly not having a normal childhood, though.
In the movie Leatherface, the title character spends a lot of time away from his violent
family.
Young lovers Betty and Ted come across Jedidiah Sawyer on the side of the road, Betty worries
about the child's safety and follows him back to a barn, hoping to help him.
But the Sawyer family isn't kind to strangers on their property, and she meets an untimely
end.
Her dad, the local sheriff, arrives at the Sawyer farm; he's shocked and saddened by
the scene he discovers.
As retribution, he sends Jedidiah away to a mental institution, despite the protests
of his mom Verna.
This is where the boy who will become Leatherface spends his teenage years, under the name Jackson.
Leatherface's Jedidiah leaves the institution in a breakout.
After going on the run with a nurse and small group of inmates, he gets shot in the face,
and his mother is the one who helps him stitch up his wounds.
She knows that while he's vulnerable, she can sink her claws back into him and bring
him back into the Sawyer family.
When she puts a chainsaw back in his hands, he's ready to use it for the first time, on
the sheriff who sent him away and then shot him.
In the 2006 prequel, it isn't Leatherface's mother who encourages him to give in to his
worst impulses.
Charlie Hewitt, Luda Mae's son, is the real culprit.
When Leatherface loses his job at the slaughterhouse, he kills his boss.
When Sheriff Hoyt tries to arrest Leatherface, Hewitt steps in and kills him, then disguises
himself as Hoyt.
"S---, I just killed the whole f---in' sheriff's department!"
After spending time with "Hoyt," the impressionable Thomas Hewitt completely becomes Leatherface.
Terrence Evans, who played Old Monty in the film, said:
"I think there was a chance Thomas' life could have been different.
But the teasing he suffered, coupled with a bad temper, and following Hoyt around like
a puppy dog, left room for Hoyt to get absolute control."
In Leatherface, the character's his first mask was from one of his first victims: the
nurse who left the mental institution with him and the other inmates, Lizzy.
Lizzy instantly takes a liking to the young man, but their friendship is short-lived.
After killing Hartman, Jedidiah chases after Lizzy with his chainsaw.
She trips when her foot gets caught in a bear trap.
Lizzy pleads with him for mercy, but when she insults Leatherface's mother, all hope
is lost for her.
He swings his chainsaw, decapitates her, and makes his first mask from her skin.
In the 2006 prequel, Leatherface's killing spree begins when health inspectors shut down
the slaughterhouse where he works.
That matches up with the detail in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, where all the men
in the Sawyer family worked at the local slaughterhouse.
When they lost their jobs, they turned to cannibalism.
When Sally the final survivor out of her group of friends in the 1974 film, is tortured and
taunted during "dinner" with the Sawyers, they suggest that Grandpa should be the one
to kill her, because he was the best worker in the old slaughterhouse.
He's too weak to finish the job, and she escapes.
Leatherface is one of those classic movie villains who wasn't necessarily born evil,
but knowing his backstory doesn't make the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre any less
frightening.
Don't give any rides to strangers if you can help it.
"You can have dinner with us!
You like head cheese?
My brother makes it real good!"
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