Erin

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Erin is a fictional would-be murder victim and horror film survivor featured in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series. Played by actress Jessica Biel, she appeared in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Erin grew up around the early 1950s. As a youth, she often found herself in trouble with the law, and spent some time in juvenile hall. According to her, Erin's ability to pick locks and hotwire cars developed during this era. Around the year 1970, she began dating a man named Kemper. Although Erin certainly did not take issue with skirting the letter of the law, she began to outgrow Kemper's appreciation for smoking marijuana.

In August of 1973, Erin, Kemper and their friends, Andy and Morgan went on vacation in Mexico. What Erin didn't know was that the group were actually driving there in order to purchase two pounds of pot, presumably for resale in the United States. Returning from Mexico, they were driving through West Texas on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert (along the way they picked up a hitchhiker named Pepper). At this time, Erin discovered that they had purchased the marijuana and was quite angry with Kemper, even though he insisted that he only did it so they could start a life together.

On August 18th, they were driving down Route 17 when they picked up a young teenage girl hitchhiking down the road. The girl appeared to be in a severe state of dehydration and her emotional state was bordering on hysteria. She spoke incoherently about the "bad" people she had just escaped from. When the girl thought that they were taking her back to the people who had supposedly tortured her, she lost her mind, produced a .357 Magnum (which she had miraculously concealed within her vagina) and shot herself in the head. Everyone in the vehicle were horrified to witness such a violent act.

They tried to find a proper means of reporting the suicide and/or taking her to a hospital, but all of these efforts proved fruitless as there was no hospital within the vicinity, and their attempts to contact the Travis County sheriff proved daunting. Some of the group even proffered forth the idea of leaving her body behind, but Erin was adamantly opposed to this.

Their journey ultimately brought them to the Hewitt residence. Erin spoke with crippled Monty Hewitt and asked him if she could use his telephone to contact the sheriff. She then had to suffer through an awkward moment with Monty as she helped him off the floor of the bathroom and back into his wheelchair (at which point, the horny old man copped a feel of Erin's buttocks).

An experience that had begun as a gruesome comedy of errors quickly evolved into a tableau of true horror. The residence had also happened to be the home of psychotic Charlie Hewitt, who had been masquerading as the town's sheriff for the past four years. Additionally, Charlie's nephew, Thomas Hewitt, was a deformed rampaging murderer, who skinned his victims and wore their faces as masks. While Erin was dealing with Monty, Thomas "Leatherface" Hewitt, attacked and killed Kemper.

Erin regrouped with the others and tried to find Kemper, but to no avail. Eventually, Leatherface came chasing after them, brandishing a large chainsaw. He killed Pepper right before her eyes, forcing Erin to run screaming into the woods. She came upon a trailer home occupied by a scrawny woman named Henrietta and an obese tea-drinking lady. She also noted a baby in Henrietta's possession. She warned them about the chainsaw-wielding maniac, but they showed little concern. Henrietta gave Erin some tea, at which point, Erin began to realize that the baby Henrietta was handling was not her own (the implication was that the baby actually belonged to the suicidal hitchhiker). Erin then realized that the tea she had just consumed was drugged.

She passed out and awakened back at the Hewitt residence. She found Morgan, who had been likewise tortured and imprisoned by Leatherface and the fake sheriff. They helped each other to escape, at which point Leatherface resumed his pursuit, swinging his chainsaw at them. Aide came in the unlikely form of a small inbred child named Jedidiah. Jedidiah led Erin and Morgan through an underground tunnel that exited near the Blair Meat Company. By this point, Thomas Hewitt had finished off Morgan and Jedidiah had been left behind. Erin ran to the slaughterhouse and hid inside one of the meat lockers. Thomas searched the area, but Erin managed to get the upper hand, hacking at him wildly with a meat cleaver until she succeeded in cutting off his right arm.

She flailed about frantically in the street until she was picked up by a trucker. When the man began driving towards the Hewitt house, Erin freaked out and grabbed the wheel, forcing him off the side of the road. She ran out of the vehicle at which point, the rest of the family became aware of her presence. While the others ran outside to find her, Erin sneaked back into the main house and rescued the baby. She then hotwired the sheriff's car and ran him over multiple times until he was dead. She then sped away from the scene as quickly as she could.

Notes




 * "Erin (TCM)" and "Erin/TCM" redirects to this section.


 * Erin's surname is never provided through the course of the film.


 * What became of Erin, or the baby she had rescued, following the events of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is unknown.


 * Erin never knew that Kemper had purchased a tear-cut diamond ring and had planned on proposing to her. The ring fell out of Kemper's pocket after he had been attacked by Thomas Hewitt.


 * Erin is an analog for Sally Hardesty, who was the "Final Girl" from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


 * Erin had a tattoo on her lower right-side abdomen. This is actually actress Jessica Biel's tattoo.