Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

I was in the mood for some 'light' entertainment the other night so I ended up rooting around my shelves and ultimately blowing the dust off this one. It had been quite a long while since I had seen this third installment in the TCM franchise and I went into it feeling like my whole memory of it had been wiped clean. And it all made sense as it began and it all started coming back to me what a forgettable movie "Leatherface" is...

Two road-trippers are passing through Texas and get mixed up with Leatherface and his clan of cannibal creeps after taking a back road...

I think it's safe to say that what really sunk "Part 3" was that it was abound by production problems left and right. For starters, they wound up shooting it on the Universal backlot, as opposed to rural Texas like the others (doesn't look right...), director Jeff Burr was 'kicked around' a lot - having shit changed last second; getting fired - and, of course, the MPAA shitting all over the 'violent' content. The 'unrated' cut contains about 5 minutes of axed material, which is funny because this extended version is still remarkably 'tame'. It's evident that more was permanently cut, but however, the MPAA were, no doubt, at their worst around this time. Bunch of tight-assed bastards...  Visually and story-wise, "Leatherface" definitely suffers due to all of these production 'road blocks' it faced. The new Sawyer family is extremely boring and non-threatening. They all just look like actors who - based on their unadorned performances - hadn't been brought up to speed on the previous films. Leatherface goes from horny toddler to rebellious teenager with this flick, which allows for some awkward attempts at 'humor' from time to time and Ken Foree earns a paycheck... In all, it really doesn't feel much happens in this flick, as far as violence or gore goes.

"Part 3" is an easy watch - I'll give it that - but there's absolutely nothing note-worthy to speak of. The ratings board Nazi's went to town on this one and didn't stop until it was a reduced to a quivering pile of mediocrity, hence, the '90s begins. What a shame.