All The Texas Chainsaw Movies Ranked

The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had, they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annal of American history. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. – John Larroquette

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The seminal film, which was supposedly based on a true story, terrorized audiences and changed the horror genre forever. Its antagonists are a family of cannibals. The franchise’s most famous villain is Leatherface, a hulking chainsaw-wielding maniac who is the only family member to appear in all nine installments of the series.

Like many long-running horror franchises, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre has messy continuity. This is due to the series’ inconsistent critical and commercial reception and because the franchise rights have changed hands numerous times. The first four movies are loosely connected together, despite each being released by a different distributor. Then there was the 2003 remake and its 2006 prequel, which were produced by Platinum Dunes.

After that, the series became even more convoluted. Lionsgate bought the franchise rights and released Texas Chainsaw 3D, a direct sequel to the original film. Leatherface (2017) is a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and part of the same continuity as Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Finally, Legendary Pictures’ Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) ignores Texas Chainsaw 3D and Leatherface and functions as another direct sequel to the original, while neither ignoring nor specifically referencing the previous sequels in the original timeline.

Like the Halloween franchise, TCM is like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books, with multiple diverging timelines. Here are the franchise’s different continuities in storyline chronological order.

Original Timeline

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (also titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation when it was rereleased) (1995)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Lionsgate Timeline

Leatherface (2017)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Platinum Dunes Remake Timeline

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

The Texas Chainsaw Movies Ranked

9. The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

Other than having two future celebrities in the cast (Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger), The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (also known as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation) doesn’t have much to offer. It’s the fourth installment of the series, but lacks much of a connection to its predecessors.

This movie was produced independently after New Line abandoned plans to make sequels to its Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. It was directed by Kim Henkel, who co-wrote the original TCM. This movie has traces of the original’s dark humor, but none of its terror.

The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre disregards the simplicity of the previous films in favor of a bizarre plot involving wacky conspiracy theories and secret societies. Suddenly, the family aren’t cannibals anymore. Now they’re part of the Illuminati, or something like that. If you can figure this movie out, you deserve a free chainsaw.

8. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

This one is a prequel to the 2003 movie. Is this the only time that somebody has made a prequel to a remake? I can’t think of another. This installment is set in 1969, four years before the events of the previous installment. It stars Jordanna Brewster in the lead role as Chrissie, a young woman who is traveling across the country with her friends. They get into a car crash, and things go downhill from there. Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface) and R. Lee Emry (Sherriff Hoyt) reprise their remake roles.

Other than being a prequel, there’s nothing distinctive about this installment. It lacks interesting characters or an original storyline. Anyone who’s watched the ’03 film will already know which characters survive, so there is no suspense either.

This movie imitates a bunch of the famous moments from the original, like the dinner scene. I’m sure these were intended as tributes, but they just seem redundant and unnecessary. Did we really need an explanation for why the family became cannibals? All in all, a forgettable addition to the franchise.

7. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Legendary Pictures produced this ninth installment, which bypassed theaters and was released on Netflix. It ignores the Lionsgate and Platinum Dunes movies, and returns to the original continuity.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre brings the series into the modern social media era, with some of Leatherface’s antics being livestreamed. This time, a group of ambitious Gen Z entrepreneurs journey to a small Texas ghost town in the hopes of gentrifying the area. The main character is Lila (Elsie Fisher), who suffers from PTSD after surviving a school shooting.

Of course, the gang runs into Leatherface (Mark Burnham). He’s on his own in this movie. No other family members appear. It’s anyone’s guess what Leatherface has been doing for the past, oh, three decades or so. Was he just hanging out, waiting for someone to show up? Poor guy must be starving!

It also brings back Sally Hardesty, the only survivor of the original movie. She and Leatherface are now in their ’70s. Unfortunately the showdown with Sally and Leatherface is anticlimactic and disappointing. What a waste.

Despite his age, Leatherface is still proficient with his chainsaw. In fact, this movie has the highest body count of the series.

6. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Lionsgate purchased the franchise after Platinum Dunes decided not to make a third installment of the Texas Chainsaw remake series. This installment is a direct sequel to the original. To date, this is the last Texas Chainsaw movie to get a major wide theatrical release.

No TCM movie could be as ridiculous as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but this one comes close. This script is a total mess. It’s riddled with plot holes and logical inconsistencies. The dialogue is corny, too, with lots of cringy one-liners. This is what happens when you have a troubled production with lots of rewrites. I won’t give away the ending, but this installment is infamous for a ridiculous twist.

Heather (Alexandra Daddario) finds out that she has inherited a house from her biological grandmother, whom she has never met. She and her friends decide to visit the home, which is in a rural small town. Unfortunately for them, Leatherface (Dan Yeager), whose real name is Jed in this version, is hiding in the basement. The other Sawyers are nowhere to be found. Did Leatherface eat them?

Texas Chainsaw 3-D tries to turn Leatherface into a sympathetic anti-hero. Does anyone actually want to root for this guy? He’s a deranged perverted cannibal. Leatherface is a great villain, but he has zero redeeming qualities.

To its credit, Texas Chainsaw 3-D does one thing right – casting the stunning Alexandra Daddario in the lead role. She looks incredible and has solid acting chops. But the poor girl is saddled with an impossible task here. Along with everything else, she has to deliver one of horror cinema’s most infamous lines of dialogue: “Do your thing, cuz!” At least she was able to bounce back by starring in the first season of True Detective.

5. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

After purchasing the rights to the franchise, New Line hoped to make a long line of Texas Chainsaw movies, similar to how they cranked out Nightmare on Elm Street installments in the ’80s. Their plans were upended by this movie’s tepid reception. They never made another TCM film (although they distributed the ’03 remake and its prequel for Platinum Dunes).

Leatherface (R.A. Mihailoff) is now inexplicably living with a completely different Sawyer family. The gang includes a sassy blond girl and a crazy ranger who is played by Viggo Mortensen, long before Lord of the Rings made him famous. A biker couple and a survivalist encounter the crazed cannibals, and the usual carnage ensues. The survival dude, Benny, is played by Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead (1978). Always fun to have him around. Mortensen gives an entertaining performance as well.

TCM 3 had the misfortune of being released during a time of extreme censorship for horror movies by the American ratings board. The MPAA would threaten flicks with an X rating if they dared to show even a tiny bit of gore. New Line had to cut their film to pieces to quality for an R, turning it into a barely coherent neutered mess.

This movie has glimmers of its predecessors’ dark humor, like a funny scene where Leatherface attempts to play a computer game. But it mostly falls flat in both the scares and comedy departments. The final girl, Michelle, is rather bland. She compares unfavorably to Sally from part 1 and Stretch from part 2.

4. Leatherface (2017)

This is probably the most obscure movie in the franchise. It was released with little fanfare and mostly skipped theaters. Lionsgate, which had lost the rights to the series, sat on this movie for awhile before eventually dumping it on video on demand. As with Texas Chainsaw 3-D, this installment continues Lionsgate’s bizarre obsession with trying to make Leatherface a sympathetic character.

Leatherface doesn’t really feel like a TCM movie. It has more in common with Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers. This movie is mainly set in the ’50s. A group of teenage mental patients escape from an institution and coerce a cute nurse into accompanying them. The main character is Jackson (Sam Strike), a relatively likeable inmate with a mysterious past. The group goes on a wild road trip while the police pursue them, stealing and killing along the way.

We know that one of the escaped patients becomes Leatherface, but the movie decides to play games with us and not reveal his identity until the final act. Leatherface had 90 minutes to chronicle Jed Sawyer’s gradual descent into madness. Instead, it goes for lazy shock value. The movie features an abrupt character transformation from “guy that seems somewhat normal” to “full-on psycho who wears his victims’ faces as masks” in the span of like ten minutes of screen time.

It’s too bad, because this movie has the most original storyline, and some of the most competent acting and writing, in the entire series. If the ending had been better, this could have been a really good movie.

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Erin (Jessica Biel), her boyfriend, and their friends are traveling through rural Texas on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. They decide to pick up a hitchhiker (always a bad idea in these movies). After telling them about a “bad man” and telling them they’re going to die, the traumatized young woman promptly shoots herself. Shaken, Erin and her buddies seek police assistance in a nearby town, but end up falling prey to the evil cannibal family (now called the Hewitts) who have taken control of the town.

Jessica Biel looks amazing and gives a solid effort in the lead role. Erin is a pretty standard final girl, but she’s compelling enough. The movie’s standout performance is R. Lee. Ermy, who plays the evil Sheriff Hoyt. He’s a brutal twisted sadist who is even scarier than Leatherface.

Speaking of Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), I love how he looks in this movie. He’s a total badass. What a change from the whiny, childish way he was portrayed in some of the previous sequels.

This movie’s financial success can be credited (or blamed) for the deluge of horror remakes that flooded theaters in the 2000s. To be fair, this movie is better than most of the others.

The ’03 TCM feels a little too sleek and conventional. It’s the most normal installment in this endearingly weird series. Nevertheless, this is easily one of the best-made movies of the franchise.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

So many TCM sequels try and fail to imitate the original. This is the only sequel that was directed by TCM creator Tobe Hooper. Ironically, it’s also the only follow-up that doesn’t try to match the raw snuff documentary feel. Hooper was smart enough to know he could never redo his first movie, so he takes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in a completely different, and much more comedic, direction.

After accidentally recording an attack by the Sawyers on her live radio broadcast, radio DJ Stretch (Caroline Williams) is convinced by vengeful Texas Ranger Lefty (Dennis Hopper) to replay the disturbing footage on her show in the hope of driving the cannibal family out of hiding.

After following his advice, the leggy southern belle is pursued by the maniacal Leatherface (Bill Johnson, replacing Gunnar Hansen) and his gleefully insane brother, Chop Top (Bill Mosely). Stretch’s life is saved, temporarily at least, by an unexpected development: Leatherface falls for her. Bless his heart! Stretch is awesome – the best final girl in the series. Caroline Williams brings so much charisma and sex appeal to the role.

This storyline emphasizes the tonal difference between this movie and the original. It’s unfathomable that Gunnar Hansen’s version of Leatherface would form such an emotional attachment with a would-be victim.

Meanwhile, Lefty pursues the Sawyers into their new subterranean lair, which is located deep inside the bowels of an abandoned carnival. Hooper’s decision to set the movie’s climax in a carnival is a stroke of genius. This movie surpasses the other sequels by a country mile.

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Teenage Sally Hardesty, her incredibly annoying brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), and their friends are traveling through the Texas heartland when they encounter a crazy hitchhiker. The giggling maniac cuts himself with a knife and attempts to attack them, so they throw him out of their van.

Later, they stop for gas and make the mistake of entering a nearby home, where they encounter a demented family of cannibals: The Hitchiker (Edwin Neal) (the guy they picked up earlier), The Cook (James Siedow), and, of course, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). The maniacal glee that this trio of actors performs with is truly something to behold. Marilyn Burns also gives a strong performance as Sally, who is arguably the first modern “final girl” character in genre history. Her fear seems truly genuine.

The set design of the Sawyer house is excellent. It’s been copied by many other backwoods horror movies. The family lives in extreme grotesque poverty, which adds an extra layer of creepiness to the movie. Bones of past victims are scattered throughout, while chickens and other farm animals roam freely around the premises.

After fifty years, director Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains an immortal classic. Many aspects of this movie have been imitated countless times, not just by its sequels, but by hundreds of other slasher movies. One aspect that will surprise modern viewers is the lack of gore. This movie is easily the least gruesome of the series.

This wasn’t just an artistic decision. Hooper and his financiers didn’t have the budget for special effects. But the movie works because of the unrelenting raw terror, especially in its second half. The low budget actually works in this movie’s favor, because it makes it feel almost like a documentary.

Hooper made the film in response to the violence and social upheaval of the era, such as graphic news footage of the Vietnam War. The film has also been interpreted as having an anti-meat message.

More Massacres?

Despite its spotty history, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series has endured for five decades and shows no signs of stopping. A tenth installment, Texas Chainsaw Legacy, is reportedly in development. The franchise has many flaws, but it’s never boring. The creepy setting, wacky characters, and wild gore make even the worst TCM movies memorable.

Something I’d like to see in future installments is more screen time for the other family members. Leatherface is the icon of the series, but the most recent movies have really shortchanged the rest of the Sawyers. Leatherface must be getting lonely by now! Remember: the saw is family.