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"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 of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them, an idyllic summer afternoon became a nightmare."
Narrator
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The
Credits
Title: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Genres: Horror
Directed by: Marcus Nispel
Written by: Scott Kosar
Produced by: Michael Bay; Mike Fleiss; Ted Field; Andrew Form; Brad Fuller; Guy Stodel; Jeffrey Allard; Kim Henkel; Tobe Hooper
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
Cinematography: Daniel C. Pearl
Edited by: Glen Scantlebury
Production
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Platinum Dunes
Next Entertainment
Released: October 17th, 2003
Rating: R
Running time: 98 min. (1 hr. 30 min.)
Country: USA
Language: English
Budget: $9,200,000 [1]
Gross: $107,071,655 [2]
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an American horror film of the slasher sub-genre. It is a remake of the 1974 independent horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper. Directed by German director Marcus Nispel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released theatrically in the United States on October 17th, 2003. It was succeeded by the prequel film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning in 2006. The film was in broad theatrical release for 123 days, closing on February 16th, 2004. It grossed $28,094,014 over it's opening weekend, screened in 3,018 theaters in the US, averaging $9,314 per theater. Domestic lifetime grosses for the film reached $80,571,655, with $107,071,655 worldwide. Although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is certainly not the first horror film to be re-imagined, it did prompt the trend of remaking classic slasher films that dominated the 2000s and early 2010s, many of which were produced by Michael Bay and his production company Platinum Dunes. The film takes place in the mid 1970s and follows a gang of teenagers driving across Texas from New Mexico on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. After finding a traumautized young girl stumbling about the middle of the road, they try to render assistance, but things turn grim when the girl commits suicide before their eyes. They try to alert the local authorities only to find that the unfriendly Sheriff Hoyt is actually the patriarch of the gruesome Hewitt family - a depraved cabal of murderous cannibals. Thomas Hewitt, aka, Leatherface, stalks the teenagers one by one, instigating a series of attacks that eventually come to be known as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Appearances[]

Main article: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (2003)/Appearances

Characters[]

Adams
Adams was a sheriff in Travis County, Texas. On August 19th, 1973 he, along with members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, inspected a scene of multiple grisly murders that took place at the Hewitt residence in the town of Fuller. Adams had a cameraman present to record his inspection of the house, which initially appeared to be empty. He brought the crew down a staircase, which led into a furnace room and work shop in the cellar of the house. While narrating to the camera, he came upon the blocked entrance way leading to an underground tunnel. The maniacal serial killer known as Thomas Hewitt burst through the blockage and attacked Sheriff Adams, presumably killing him.

Andy
Andy was a young, blonde-haired man who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s. In August, 1973, Andy and his friends, Kemper, Erin and Morgan took a vacation to Mexico. The real purpose behind this journey was to purchase two pounds of marijuana, which they intended on selling in the United States (presumably). They got the drugs through customs by concealing it within a pinata. On their way back from Mexico, Andy and the others were passing through El Paso, when they picked up a hippie hitchhiker named Pepper. Pepper immediately found herself attracted to Andy and the two spent the majority of the ride making out in the back of Kemper's van.

The next leg of their journey involved driving too see the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert, for which they had front row seats. Unfortunately, for all of them, they never made it to the concert. While driving through the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas, they picked up a distraught young teenage girl whom they found stumbling down the road. The woman was suffering from exposure and dehydration and was rambling on about having escaped from the "bad man". When the woman realized that they were driving back towards the direction of her captors, she grew insanely hysterical, produced a .357 revolver from under her dress and shot herself in the head. The group pulled off to the side of the road to collect themselves and process what they had just seen.

The group continued to drive along looking for a place where they could take the poor woman's body. Andy tried to lighten the grim mood by comparing the remnants of the woman's brains to lasagna. Nobody else found him very funny. They eventually found the Cele Community Center. They went inside to ask the proprietor for some help. While Kemper spoke with the old woman, Andy observed a rotting pig's head with flies buzzing around it in the deli counter. The woman then advised them to drive the body over to the Old Crawford Mill where the sheriff would meet them. Left with no other options, they had no choice but to make the drive. When they got there, they found no sign of the sheriff. Morgan posited the unpopular idea of just leaving the girl's body. They put it to a vote and Andy voted for dumping her. Pepper called him a pig. As they explored the inner workings of the mill, they came upon a strange little boy named Jedidiah. Andy asked him if he knew anything about the sheriff and the boy told him that he was at home getting drunk. Jedidiah then went to the van and began poking the dead girl's body with a stick. Andy shooed him away, calling him a "sick little mutant". Jedidiah then told Kemper and Erin how to get to the sheriff's house, and they walked along leaving Andy and the others back at the mill.

While they were gone, Sheriff Hoyt (whose real name was Charlie Hewitt) arrived at the mill. Andy and Morgan explained the situation and showed him the body. The sheriff wrapped saran wrap around the girl's bloody head and then had Andy and Morgan help him load her into the trunk of his squad car. The sheriff left and Erin returned shortly thereafter, but without Kemper. They both began to feel as if something untoward may have happened.

Andy accompanied her back to the Hewitt residence in search of Kemper. While Erin distracted the paraplegic owner of the home, Monty Hewitt, Andy picked up a tire iron and began exploring the rest of the house. Monty found out about him and began screaming for them to leave his home. Andy tried to calm him down, but then Monty summoned the most dangerous member of the Hewitt clan - Thomas Hewitt. This gigantic man burst from the shadows armed with a chainsaw and attacked Andy, who tried to deflect his blows with the tire iron. Andy turned to run, and Thomas chased him outside. He caught him in the leg with the chainsaw, cutting it off. He then dragged Andy back down into his work shop where he impaled him on a meat hook. He packed his severed stump with ice and then wrapped it to keep him bleeding out. Andy tried in desperation to free himself from the meat hook, but was unsuccessful.

Hours later, Thomas Hewitt captured Erin and threw her down into the cellar where Andy was being kept. She tried to help him down, but couldn't muster the strength. Andy was nearly gone by this point, and told her that he was dead anyway. He begged her to finish him off. Tearfully, Erin took up a knife and stabbed Andy in the stomach, putting him out of his misery.

Big Rig Bob
Big Rig Bob was driving through the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas on a rainy August 18th in 1973. He spotted a frantic young woman named Erin flagging him down off Route 17 and picked her up. The woman was desperate for protection, and clearly terrified, but could not give voice to what was bothering her. Big Rig Bob tried coaxing information from her about who she was and whether or not she was in a car accident, but all Erin could say was that she wanted to go home.

They passed a sign advertising barbecue at the nearby Cele Community Center and Erin freaked out. She knew this as a place run by the Hewitt family - a clan of psychopathic cannibals, who had murdered her friends and terrorized her at length. She flew into a fit of hysterics and grabbed at the wheel, forcing Big Rig Bob to ultimately come to a stop.

He pulled up across from the general store and went up to the front door. Luda May Hewitt answered and Big Rig Bob told her about the crazy, bloody woman he had just picked up. Charlie Hewitt went outside to find her, but she was no longer in the truck.

Erin
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 Andy suspended in the cellar of the house on a meat hook. She tried to help him down, but couldn't muster the strength. Andy was nearly gone by this point, and told her that he was dead anyway. He begged her to finish him off. Tearfully, Erin took up a knife and stabbed Andy in the stomach, putting him out of his misery.

She then 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.

Henrietta Hewitt
Henrietta Hewitt was a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties in the early 1970s. She lived in the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas. She is a member of the murderous cannibal clan known as the Hewitt family. Henrietta's exact relationship to the Hewitt family is unclear. She did not live in the main Hewitt residence, but rather in a trailer on or near the Hewitt estate. Henrietta often kept company with the tea lady, who would come to visit her. Henrietta was also responsible for abducting a small child and taking it as her own.

In 1973, a frantic young woman named Erin came to her trailer pleading for help, as she was being chased by the chainsaw-wielding Thomas Hewitt. Henrietta seemed non-plussed by Erin's hysteria and assured her that they were all quite safe. Henrietta gave her a cup of tea to soothe her nerves, but Erin soon discovered that the tea was laced with poison. She was then delivered directly to the other family members.

Jedidiah Hewitt
Jedidiah Hewitt was born sometime during the late 1960s. He lived in the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas. He may have been a resident of the main Hewitt farmhouse though he seemed to spend the majority of his time at the Old Crawford Mill.

In August, 1973, five youths named Kemper, Erin, Andy, Morgan and Pepper came to the Old Crawford Mill in search of the town sheriff, whom they were expecting to meet here in order to report the suicide of a teenage girl who blew a hole through her head in the back of Kemper's van. Andy asked Jedidiah where the sheriff was and told him that he was at home getting drunk. The boy then began poking at the corpse of the girl in the van with a stick until Andy warded him off. Erin and Kemper asked Jedidiah what road they should take to get to the sheriff's house, but the boy told them that there was no road access to the house. Indicating that it was only a short walk, he gave them directions on how to get there.

Later that evening, Jedidiah went to the Hewitt family manor where he discovered that Erin and Morgan were being terrorized by his older chainsaw-wielding relative, Thomas Hewitt. Jedidiah tried to help them escape by leading them down through an underground tunnel that led outside. Thomas pursued them and when Jedidiah tried to obstruct his advance, he backhanded him against the wall.

Kemper
Kemper was a young man who grew up during the 1960s and 70s. In 1971, he began dating a girl named Erin. In August of 1973, Kemper, Erin and their friends Andy and Morgan took a vacation to Mexico. The real purpose behind this journey was to purchase two pounds of marijuana, which they intended on selling in the United States (presumably). They got the drugs through customs by concealing it within a pinata. Though Erin was a free-spirited individual, she was not particularly eager to embrace Kemper's more criminal exploits. As such, he kept the entire business of buying such a high volume of marijuana a secret from her. It was his notion that with the sale of these drugs, Erin and he would be able to start a future together. To that end, he bought her a tear-dropped diamond engagement ring, but had yet to pop the question.

On their way back from Mexico, Kemper and the others were passing through El Paso, when they picked up a hippie hitchhiker named Pepper. Pepper immediately found herself attracted to Andy and the two spent the majority of the ride making out in the back of Kemper's van.

On August 18th, they were passing through Travis County, Texas when they noticed a distraught teenage girl wandering down the road. At Erin's urging, they picked her up and it was clear that she had been deeply traumatized by something. The girl was quite insensate, but flew into a panic when she noted that they were driving back towards the place she had just escaped from. Unwilling to revisit any of the terrors she was previously forced to endure, the girl produced a revolver from under her dress, placed the barrel in her mouth and blew her brains out.

In addition to having giant hole in the back window of the van, Kemper now had to worry about what to do about the body. Through the course of conversation, Erin learned the truth about her boyfriend's purchases in Mexico. Frustrated, he took the marijuana-filled pinata and threw it into a field.

The group drove along until they came upon the first business establishment they could find - the Cele Community Center. Kemper informed the proprietor of the store, Luda May, that a teenage girl had committed suicide in the back of their van. asked her to dial the local sheriff and she told him that doing so would cost him 10 cents. Using the telephone behind the counter, she called whom the others believed to be the sheriff, but it was actually Charlie Hewitt. She gave him the location of the incident as told to her by Kemper, which occurred some five miles west of their location. After hanging up, she told Kemper and his friends that the sheriff would be tied up for the next two hours and that he asked if they wouldn't mind driving the body to the Old Crawford Mill. Kemper was flabbergasted and angrily stated that he was not going to drive around town with a dead girl in the back of his van.

They had little choice however, but to drive on to the Old Crawford Mill. When they arrived there, they found the place had been largely abandoned, although it was decorated with all manner of strange and macabre bric-a-brac. A young boy named Jedidiah emerged and they asked him where the sheriff might be. The boy told him that he was home getting drunk.

Kemper drove on and their journey eventually brought them to the Hewitt residence. They had no idea that this was actually the home of Charlie Hewitt, who had been masquerading as the town sheriff for the past four years. The only one at home was an elderly paraplegic named Monty Hewitt. Erin and Kemper asked him if they could use his telephone to report the suicide. Monty let Erin into his house, but wave Kemper back.

Kemper eventually got tired of waiting on Erin, and decided to sneak into the house himself. As he was skulking about, the gigantic psychopath known as Thomas Hewitt emerged from behind and clubbed him over the back of the head with a mallet. He then took Kemper down to his work shop where he finished him off, and then skinned his face. Thomas turned Kemper's face into a hideous skin mask, which he wore.

Later, after Erin had discovered that the entire Hewitt family were a bunch of cannibal psychopaths, she ran into Thomas Hewitt and screamed when she realized that he was wearing her lover's face.

Luda May Hewitt
Luda May was working at the Cele Community Center off Route 17, which was a gas station and general store. On August 18th, a group of five youths came into the store in a state of duress. A man named Kemper informed the old woman that a teenage girl had committed suicide in the back of their van. Luda May declared that "when something like this comes along", she said, "...it makes you realize how crazy the world is at times". Kemper asked her to dial the local sheriff and she told him that doing so would cost him 10 cents.

Using the telephone behind the counter, she called whom the others believed to be the sheriff, but it was actually Charlie Hewitt. She gave him the location of the incident as told to her by Kemper, which occurred some five miles west of their location. After hanging up, she told Kemper and his friends that the sheriff would be tied up for the next two hours and that he asked if they wouldn't mind driving the body to the Old Crawford Mill. Kemper was flabbergasted and his friend Morgan made some sarcastically rude comments in the woman's direction. Kemper angrily stated that he was not going to drive around town with a dead girl in the back of his van, to which she replied, "Young man, what you do is your own business". Frustrated, the men left the store.

Later that evening, Henrietta Hewitt visited the general store and brought with her a recently abducted child. Luda May and Charlie cooed over the blonde-haired girl, at which point, a truck driver named Big Rig Bob came to to the front door of the store exclaiming that he just picked up a hysterical woman caked in blood. Luda May stayed at the front to address the man, while Charlie went outside.

Monty Hewitt
Monty Hewitt was an elderly man with no legs, and one of the main residents of the Hewitt family farmhouse. Although he was confined to a wheelchair, he also carried a walking cane with him. Monty owned a mangy pet dog, who would often sit on his lap.

In 1973, Monty allowed a young woman named Erin entrance to his home so she could make a telephone call. However, he wouldn't allow her boyfriend Kemper access to his home. While Erin busied herself with the telephone, Monty went to the bathroom. He then asked her assistance in getting up off the bathroom floor and into his wheelchair after relieving himself. At which point, he took advantage of the woman's attractiveness in order to cop a feel.

Erin left, but returned shortly thereafter with her friend Andy in search of Kemper, who had gone missing. While Erin kept Monty distracted, Andy sneaked into the house through a different entrance. When Monty found out what they were doing, he screamed at both of them, and began banging his cane on the floor, summoning Thomas to come upstairs to deal with them.

Morgan
Morgan was a dark-haired young man who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s. He wore glasses, had a bit of facial hair and was generally affable, though he did possess a sarcastic personality, which seemed to irritate those around him from time to time. In August, 1973, Morgan and his friends, Kemper, Erin and Andy took a vacation to Mexico. The real purpose behind this journey was to purchase two pounds of marijuana, which they made great use of on their drive back through the United States. They got the drugs through customs by concealing it within a pinata. On their way back from Mexico, Morgan and the others were passing through El Paso, when they picked up a hippie hitchhiker named Pepper.

The next leg of their journey involved driving too see the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert, for which they had front row seats. Unfortunately, for all of them, they never made it to the concert. While driving through the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas, they picked up a distraught young teenage girl whom they found stumbling down the road. The woman was suffering from exposure and dehydration and was rambling on about having escaped from the "bad man". Morgan was extremely high at this point, and admitted that he was having trouble taking in the woman's strangeness. When the woman realized that they were driving back towards the direction of her captors, she grew insanely hysterical, produced a .357 revolver from under her dress and shot herself in the head. The group pulled off to the side of the road to collect themselves and process what they had just seen. Morgan grew frantically paranoid, screaming, "Why the fuck did we have to stop?!" During Morgan's exclamation, he announced about how they had been carrying two pounds worth of drugs with them. Erin was previously unaware of this, and was quite upset with Kemper for having lied to her about why they had really gone to Mexico.

The group continued to drive along looking for a place where they could take the poor woman's body. They eventually found the Cele Community Center. They went inside to ask the proprietor for some help contacting the local sheriff. She made a telephone call and then told them that it would be another two hours before the sheriff could free up some time. Morgan was astonished and asked her how often girls blew their heads off in this "shithole" town. The woman then advised them to drive the body over to the Old Crawford Mill where the sheriff would meet them. Left with no other options, they had no choice but to make the drive. When they got there, they found no sign of the sheriff. Morgan posited the unpopular idea of just leaving the girl's body, reminding everyone that they had front row seats to see a big concert in their immediate future. Clearly, his priorities were different from the others. As they explored the inner workings of the mill, they came upon a strange little boy named Jedidiah. Andy asked him if he knew anything about the sheriff and the boy told him that he was at home getting drunk. Morgan seemed comfortably resigned declaring, "If the sheriff doesn't give a shit, then why should we?" Jedidiah then told Kemper and Erin how to get to the sheriff's house, and they walked along leaving Morgan and the others back at the mill.

While they were gone, Sheriff Hoyt (whose real name was Charlie Hewitt) arrived at the mill. Andy and Morgan explained the situation and showed him the body. The sheriff wrapped saran wrap around the girl's bloody head and then had Andy and Morgan help him load her into the trunk of his squad car. The sheriff left and Erin returned shortly thereafter, but without Kemper. They began poking around some of the abandoned cars found on the lot. Morgan found a glass jar filled with liquid and a black and white photograph of a family inside. When Kemper failed to turn up, Erin and Andy went back out to search for him, leaving Morgan and Pepper with the van.

Erin returned at nightfall in a frantic state. She told them how a masked killer had attacked them and that Andy was still at the house. Sheriff Hoyt arrived and Erin tried to explain the situation, but he dismissed her. He was more concerned about the marijuana joint he found on the dashboard of the van and forced them all out of the vehicle and onto the ground. Hewitt then dragged Morgan back into the van where he began psychologically torturing him. He forced him to go through the motions of what the girl did when she committed suicide, even having him place his own revolver into his mouth. Terrified, Morgan then turned the gun back on the sheriff, but it was unloaded. Hoyt couldn't believe that the boy was stupid enough to think that he would hand him a loaded gun. He then arrested Morgan and began driving away with him. Sheriff Hoyt was drinking a bottle of liquor while driving back to his house. He took the nearly empty bottle and smashed it against Morgan's face, busting out some teeth and causing severe lacerations.

He brought him back to the Hewitt residence, where Morgan discovered that the sheriff was part of a family of psychotic cannibal serial killers. He handcuffed him and left him down in the cellar of the house. Erin found him as she was trying to escape from the chainsaw-wielding maniac, Thomas Hewitt. The two fled from him and ran deeper into the bowels of the property. Jedidiah showed up and offered to help them escape, leading them through an underground tunnel. Thomas Hewitt continued to chase after them and as he attacked Erin, Morgan did the one heroic thing he ever did in his life. He threw himself at the monster to protect Erin. Hewitt ran him through the back with his chainsaw killing him, but his sacrifice enabled Erin the chance to escape.

Pepper
Pepper was a hippie girl from Arizona who was hitchhiking through West Texas in 1973. On August 18th, a van of youths including Kemper, Erin, Morgan and Andy picked her up in El Paso on their way back from Mexico. Pepper developed an attraction to Andy and felt that their meeting up was "synchronicity". As the group traveled on to Travis County, Pepper and Andy spent most of the time in the back of the van making out.

On August 18th, the group picked up a hysterical teenage girl walking down the road. They were all fairly concerned about her appearance, and the situation only worsened when the girl produced a revolver and blew her brains out. Everyone freaked out, but Pepper seemed to take it the worst, and was either too high, or too emotionally unstable to contain herself.

The group stopped at the Cele Community Center in the hopes of getting some help, or at the very least, reporting the incident. Pepper and Erin also tried to avail themselves of the outhouse out back, but after seeing how filthy it was, decided otherwise. Pepper then sprayed down the inside of the van with air freshener.

She journeyed along with the group to the Old Crawford Mill, where they had hoped to find the local sheriff to aid them. Instead, all they found was a strange little boy named Jedidiah, who told them that the sheriff was at home getting drunk.

The group eventually found themselves at the Hewitt residence. One by one however, each of them began turning up missing. It wasn't until nightfall that Pepper realized that the family was a group of psychotic cannibal serial killers. When one of their clan, Thomas Hewitt, came after Erin and she, they tried to escape in Kemper's van, but this proved fruitless. Pepper tried running away from him, but Thomas caught up to her, and ran a chainsaw through her back while she was lying face-down in the dirt.

Sheriff Hoyt
Charlie Hewitt fielded a telephone call from Luda May, telling him about the van filled with five youths and the body of a dead girl. Charlie relayed a message for them to meet him out by the Old Crawford Mill for him to file a report. He eventually arrived there, but was less than hospitable with the three people present, which consisted of Andy, Morgan and Pepper (the two others, Kemper and Erin had gone on to find the sheriff on their own). He inspected the body of the girl in the back of Kemper's van and recovered the handgun she had used to blow her brains out. Tucking the gun into his sock, he then wrapped the woman's head with saran wrap and had Andy and Morgan move it into the trunk of his squad car.

Later that evening, Erin returned to the scene in a state of hysteria. She got into the van and told Sheriff Hoyt that a maniac had attacked her friend and was even then in the process of killing him. Hoyt dismissed her concerns in favor of pointing out a marijuana cigarette sitting on the dashboard of the van. Erin pleaded with him to listen to her, but ignored her cries. He pulled Erin, Morgan and Pepper out of the van and made them lie face down in the dirt as he questioned them. He then picked Morgan as the target of his next psychological torture.

He forced Morgan back inside the van and made him sit in the exact same spot where the teenage girl shot herself. Feigning a lack of imagination, he had Morgan pantomime the process of her suicide, even to the point of handing him a gun and gesturing for him to place it in his mouth and pulling the trigger. Morgan couldn't take any more of this and turned the gun on the sheriff. He pulled the trigger, but the chamber was empty. Hoyt was not stupid enough to give this man a loaded gun, but now that he saw that the boy was willing to kill a police officer, he had even less sympathy for him.

Hoyt arrested Morgan and threw him in the back of his squad car. As he was driving back towards his home, he took a nearly empty whiskey bottle and smashed it across Morgan's face, busting out several teeth and leaving severe lacerations across his nose and lip. He brought him back to the farmhouse and had Thomas Hewitt bring him to the basement.

Later that evening, Sheriff Hoyt went over to the Cele Community Center, which Luda May operated. a relative named Henrietta was there with a child she had stolen. Hoyt and Luda May both cooed over the blonde-haired girl, at which point, a truck driver named Big Rig Bob came to to the front door of the store exclaiming that he just picked up a hysterical woman caked in blood. Luda May stayed at the front to address the man, while Charlie went outside. He knew that this was Erin, who had apparently escaped from the house. Charlie went over to inspect the rig, but in the intervening time, Erin had gotten out of the truck and hot-wired the sheriff's own car. She plowed the vehicle into him, then backed up, and hit him again until he was dead.

Tea lady
Almost nothing is known about this individual, even her name. What is known was that she was a dark-haired woman in her forties who was morbidly obese. She lived in the town of Fuller in Travis County, Texas in the 1960s and 70s.

It is possible, even likely that the tea lady may have been a member of the murderous Hewitt family, or perhaps she was simply an associate. It appeared as if she was aware of the Hewitt family's more distasteful practices, but she never gave voice to any of it, neither condoning nor condemning their murderous ways. The tea lady was often seen in the company of Henrietta Hewitt as well as Luda May Hewitt.

In August of 1973, she was visiting Henrietta's trailer when a woman named Erin frantically began pounding on the door, begging for help. Erin warned them about the maniac that had been chasing her, but the tea lady insisted that they were all perfectly safe.

Teenage girl
The teenage girl was an unidentified female teenager who lived in Travis County, Texas in the early 1970s. The true identity and background of this individual is shrouded in mystery. What is known about her is that she was a member of a family that had an encounter with the Hewitt family of the town of Fuller. The Hewitts were a close-knit clan of cannibal serial killers that abducted, terrorized and ultimately consumed those who crossed them or learned too much about their activities. It is known that this girl suffered great emotional torture at the hands of the Hewitts. It is also possible that she may have been the mother of a child that was abducted by Henrietta Hewitt.

On August 18th, 1973, the teenage girl managed to escape from her captors. She took a .357 Magnum with her, which she concealed within her vagina. She stumbled out onto Route 17 and began walking away in a daze. Exposure and dehydration eventually began to overtake her. A van filled with five youths drove along the road and spotted her. They picked her up, and the girl rambled on about the "bad man". When she realized that they were heading back in the direction she had just escaped from, she had a complete mental breakdown. She pulled the revolver out from under her dress, placed it in her out and blew her brains out.

The passengers of the vehicle all freaked out. They drove her to the first destination they could find, which happened to be the Cele Community Center. They asked the proprietor of the shop, Luda May Hewitt, to telephone the sheriff for them. After doing so, Luda May told them that the sheriff was tied up and that he requested that they bring the body to the Old Crawford Mill. Frustrated and dismayed by this, the five hippies felt they had little choice but to concede. They eventually met up with the sheriff, who was actually Charlie Hewitt, one of her captors. Charlie forced two of the men, Morgan and Andy to help him pull her out of the van and place her inside of his squad car.

Thomas Hewitt
Thomas generally preferred to stay in his work shop beneath the house, but could monitor activity taking place in the living areas of the home by way of a spy hole in the center of a sliding metal door. Tommy spotted a man named Kemper sneaking about the house. He came up behind him, bashed him over the head with a mallet, and then dragged him downstairs. He placed him on a table where he then skinned his face and turned it into a mask.

While he was still putting the final touches on his mask, he heard his uncle, Monty Hewitt, banging on the floor upstairs with his cane, and knew that his presence was required. He grabbed his trusty chainsaw and entered the living room where he found two more intruders named Erin and Andy. Erin ran and Andy tried to block Tommy's blows with a tire iron. He then chased Andy outside and they ran between two adjacent structures on the property before he caught up with him. Thomas sliced through Andy's leg with his chainsaw, cutting it off. He then dragged the screaming man back into the house and brought him to the cellar where he then impaled him on a meat hook. He packed his severed stump with ice and wrapped it in paper to keep him from bleeding out.

As night fell, Hewitt caught up with Erin again and chased her around the property with his chainsaw. It was actually Erin's friend Pepper who became his next victim however. Paralyzed by fear, Pepper just didn't have what was needed to escape from him and she fell into the dirt. Tommy descended upon her and skewered her through the back with his chainsaw.

Resuming his pursuit of Erin, he chased her through the woods and tracked her to a nearby trailer home, which was occupied by family member Henrietta, and her friend the tea lady. Henrietta drugged Erin with some poisoned tea and Thomas brought her back to the main house. Erin awakened and managed to escape, along with her friend Morgan, who had been captured earlier by Charlie Hewitt. Tommy revved up the old chainsaw and chased them through the tunnels that ran beneath the house. He caught up with Morgan first, whose movements were impaired due to being bound. He impaled him through the back with his chainsaw and hefted him into the air, letting the rotating chain run until he died. A young relative named Jedidiah blocked Tommy's path, but he backhanded him and resumed chasing Erin.

He followed her to the nearby Blair Meat Co. slaughterhouse. Erin hid inside of a closet as Thomas stalked through rows of hanging cattle searching for her. She made a desperate gamble and picked up a meat cleaver, whacking him multiple times in the arm, ultimately hacking it off. Thomas howled in pain, but still mustered the strength to continue chasing her.

The following day, Federal and county authorities raided the Hewitt residence and found the recent victims, as well as human remains from past victims. Sheriff Adams explored the lower sections of the house, but when approached the aperture leading towards the underground tunnels, Thomas Hewitt leaped out and attacked him.

Locations[]

Texas
Texas is the main setting for this film. The events of the film take place in Travis County in the fictional town of Fuller in August, 1973. In the film, a van filled with five youths are driving en route to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas, when they pick up a hitchhiker who subsequently commits suicide in their van. Looking to report the crime, the youths run afoul of the evil Sheriff Hoyt, who is actually the head of a family of psychopathic cannibals. The most dangerous member of the family, Thomas Hewitt, murders people with a chainsaw and skins his victims' faces to make masks.

Travis County
One of the primary sources of industry in Travis County was the Lee Bros. Meat Processing Plant in Fuller. The plant was formed in 1929 and became a staple of the cattle industry for over forty years. In July, 1939, a pregnant worker named Sloane gave birth to a deformed infant and then died moments later. The plant supervisor, disgusted by the baby's disfigurement, threw it into a trash dumpster where it was then discovered by a scavenger named Luda May Hewitt. Hewitt adopted the boy and named him Thomas.

Beginning in 1968 and going on through 1969, West Texas suffered from severe droughts, which caused illnesses in cattle. The Lee Bros. Processing Plant continued to cut beef, seemingly ignoring potential hazards, until an epidemic of stomach infections began spreading across the region relating to diseased meat. On Friday, June 9th, 1969, health inspectors declared the processing plant as condemned and it was shut down, leaving hundreds jobless. The last employee of the facility to leave was Thomas Hewitt. However, he did not go quietly. Insulted by his supervisor, Hewitt flew into a blind rage and bludgeoned him to death with a sledgehammer.

By this point, most of the residents of Fuller had abandoned their dying homes and fled to other locations. As the world found itself in the grip of the Vietnam War, Travis County continued to wither and die. A man named Charlie Hewitt, murdered the last remaining law-enforcement officer in Fuller, Sheriff Hoyt, and took his uniform and name for himself.

Fuller
Located in Fuller are the Fuller Gas Station, the Hewitt homestead, the Blair Meat Co. and the old Crawford Mill. Beneath the town is a network of interconnecting tunnels that make up a portion of the Travis County sewer system, and temporary refuge for the fugitive Hewitt family.

Blair Meat Co.
The Blair Meat Co. is a cattle slaughterhouse located in the town of Fuller in Travis County, not far from the Hewitt residence. It is possible that the Hewitt family worked and/or operated this facility during the 1970s. It is a possible successor to the Lee Bros. Meat Processing Plant, which shut down in 1969. In August, 1973, a young woman named Erin was fleeing from the murderous Thomas Hewitt and sought shelter at the slaughterhouse. Hewitt searched for her inside as Erin hid inside of a closet. When the opportunity arose, Erin sprung from the close wielding a meat cleaver and hacked away at Hewitt's chainsaw-arm multiple times until it came off.

Cele Community Center
The Cele Community Center is a gas station and general store located in the town of Fuller in Travis County, West Texas. It is operated by an elderly woman named Luda May Hewitt and is a perfect representation of the kind of quality and lifestyle one might expect to find in fuller. The place is old, drab, run down and filthy. The store front side of the main building boasts deli filled with rotting animal parts. A large moose head is mounted on the wall behind the cashier's station as part of the decor. There is also an outhouse behind the building, which is equally filthy and makes even the most wretched port-o-potty seem like a decadent palace by comparison. For reasons unknown, the wooden door to the outhouse is secured with a padlock.

Hewitt residence
The Hewitt residence was a large patch of land located North of Route 17 in the town of Fuller, in Travis County, West Texas. It was located a short distance from the Blair Meat Co., which the Hewitt family operated in the early 1970s. The estate consisted of a large manor house, as well as several other structures, including barns, cattle pens and a junkyard. The basement of the house led into a furnace room, which exited into an underground passageway that led to an opening near the slaughterhouse.

The main residents of the Hewitt residence between 1969 and 1973 consisted of Charlie Hewitt, Luda May Hewitt, Monty Hewitt and Thomas Hewitt. Another family member who was often seen scavenging about the house was Jedidiah Hewitt, though he seemed to spend most of his time at the Old Crawford Mill.

Another structure located on the estate was a trailer, which was owned by a young waif of a woman named Henrietta, who bore some connection to the Hewitt family, though her exact relationship with them is unclear. Henrietta was often visited by a corpulent tea-drinking lady, who also spent time at the main house conversing with Luda May.

Old Crawford Mill
The Crawford Mill, generally referred to as the Old Crawford Mill, was located in the town of Fuller in Travis County in south central Texas. Presumably it was founded and once operated by a man named Crawford. By the early 1970s however, the mill had been shut down and fell into severe disrepair. It became one of many decrepit "playgrounds" for members of the psychotic Hewitt family. The exterior of the mill was filled with old abandoned automobiles of various makes and models. The inside of the mill was decorated with bizarre fetishes and forgotten heirlooms including children's toys. Young Jedidiah Hewitt would often play here.

On August 18th 1973, Charlie Hewitt, who had been masquerading as the town's sheriff's for the past four years, instructed a van filled with five youths to come to the Old Crawford Mill so they could file a report on a teenage girl who had committed suicide in their vehicle. Kemper, Erin, Andy, Morgan and Pepper arrived at the mill, but found no sign of the sheriff. After inspecting the macabre interior of the place, they came upon a Jedidiah Hewitt. Jedidiah told them that the sheriff was actually at home getting drunk.

Kemper and Erin took off to find the sheriff's home, leaving Andy, Morgan and Pepper behind with Jedidiah. Andy had to keep the strange child from poking at the dead girl's body with a stick. Charlie Hewitt eventually arrived and acted surly and inhospitable to the three remaining people. He wrapped the dead girl's face in saran wrap and then had Andy and Morgan move her body into the trunk of his car.

Later that evening, the sheriff returned to the mill where he found Erin rambling frantically about a man who had tried to kill her. The sheriff took note of a marijuana cigarette in Kemper's van and forced Erin, Morgan and Pepper out of the vehicle and made them lay face down in the dirt. After which, he pulled Morgan back into the van and visited his own brand of psychological torture on the boy before placing him under arrest. The sheriff drove off with Morgan in the back of his squad car.

Route 17
Route 17 was a road that ran north to south through West Texas, passing through the town of Fuller in Travis County. It was a narrow stretch of road, but one of the few streets that passed near the Hewitt residence. The Blair Meat Co. was also located on this road. The posted speed limit on Route 17 was 50 miles per hour.

In June, 1969, a group of young motorists were traveling through Texas en route to an Army recruiting station when they were terrorized by a group of bikers. While trying to evade the aggressive motorcyclists, the driver of the car, Eric, inadvertently hit a cow that sent the car off the road. A man calling himself Sheriff Hoyt arrived on the scene and killed one of the bikers, before terrorizing the injured motorists.

On August 18th, 1973, a van driven by five youths named Kemper, Erin, Morgan, Andy and Pepper was passing through Texas from Mexico on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Erin through the butt end of a joint out onto the highway.

They found a young woman stumbling down the highway and picked her up. The woman was incoherent and babbled on about the "bad man". When she realized that they were driving her closer to the place where she had only recently escaped from, she produced a .357 Magnum from her vagina and shot herself in the head. They pulled the van off the side of the road to discuss the matter. During the course of heated comments, Kemper grew frustrated over a previous argument about buying a pinata filled with pot while in Mexico. He walked the pinata off the side of the road and threw it into a cow pasture. The cows were very happy.

Kemper and the others eventually had to get off Route 17 in order to find help. Ultimately, they fan afoul of Sheriff Hoyt.

Items[]

Chainsaw
Thomas Hewitt used a chainsaw to chop off the leg of a fleeing boy named Andy. He later used it to skewer a girl named Pepper as she had fallen onto the ground. His next chainsaw victim was a man named Morgan, whom Thomas impaled through the back. Following this massacre, Hewitt's chainsaw was recovered by Federal and state law enforcement officials and entered into evidence.

Knife
Erin uses a knife to perform a mercy killing on her friend Andy, who has been impaled on a meat hook and left to die.

Mallet
Leatherface uses a mallet to bop Kemper over the bean before dragging him down to his work shop to skin his face off.

Meat cleaver
While hiding from Leatherface at the Blair Meat Co., a woman named Erin grabs a meat cleaver and attacks Leatherface, hacking at him several times until ultimately cutting off his arm.

Organizations[]

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in cooperation with members of the Travis County Sheriff's Department, made a gruesome discovery on August 19th, 1973. The bodies of several victims were discovered at the Hewitt residence in Fuller, Texas. As Sheriff's department officers inspected the crime scene, members of the F.B.I. cataloged evidence and loaded bodies into body bags.

Hewitt family
The Hewitt family can trace their lineage back six generations, when they settled in the rural community of Fuller in Travis County, Texas. The Hewitt family worked in the meat industry and operated and/or worked at notable local slaughterhouses such as the Lee Bros. Meat Processing Plant and the Blair Meat Company. It has been suggested that amongst their more well-known unsavory practices, the family line continued along as a result of inbreeding. The most notable members of the family earned themselves some recognition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to everything else, the Hewitts evolved into a family of cannibals. The main members of the family consists of Charlie Hewitt, Luda May Hewitt, Monty Hewitt and Thomas Hewitt. Thomas Hewitt was actually the son of a meat inspector named Sloane, who was adopted by the Hewitts in 1939 after Luda May Hewitt found the infant in a dumpster moments after it had been born. Tommy would one day come to be known as the chainsaw-wielding maniac called Leatherface.

Travis County Sheriff's Department
Charlie Hewitt had been masquerading under the alias of Sheriff Hoyt for four years, though he was not a duly elected official of the county.

On August 19th, 1973, members of the Travis County Sheriff's Department, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, responded to a situation taking place at the Hewitt residence. Sheriff Adams and several other officers on site, discovered evidence of a gruesome massacre, and found the remains of four young victims, as well as older human remains from previous victims.

Adams had a cameraman present to record his inspection of the Hewitt residence, which initially appeared to be empty. He brought the crew down a staircase, which led into a furnace room and work shop in the cellar of the house. While narrating to the camera, he came upon the blocked entrance way leading to an underground tunnel. The maniacal serial killer known as Thomas Hewitt burst through the blockage and attacked Sheriff Adams, presumably killing him.

Animals[]

Cows
Cows only made a minor appearance in this film. Kemper throws a pinata filled with marijuana into a cow pasture, earning the attention of a nearby animal. That cow was trippin' balls for days.

Dogs
Old Monty Hewitt kept a mangy small-breed dog as a pet. The animal usually sat on his lap, which was often as Monty was confined to a wheelchair.

Flies
A bunch of flies are buzzing about the rotting head of a pig in a meat deli counter at the Cele Community Center.

Opossums
While scrounging around the Old Crawford Mill, a man named Kemper comes upon an opossum sleeping in an obscure area. The animal's presence greatly startles Kemper and his friends.

Pigs
Three pigs were seen rooting about inside the living areas of the Hewitt residence. Considering the maniacal nature of the family that lived there, its safe to say that they likely didn't live long. A rotting severed pig's head was also seen in the deli counter at the Cele Community Center.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Actor Role
Jessica Biel Erin
Jonathan Tucker Morgan
Erica Leerhsen Pepper
Mike Vogel Andy
Eric Balfour Kemper
David Dorfman Jedidiah
R. Lee Ermey Sheriff Hoyt

Supporting cast[]

The full cast list in the end-title credits is in a different order than the cat list that preceded the end-title credits.

Actor Role
Andrew Bryniarski Thomas Hewitt
Lauren German Teenage girl
Terrence Evans Old Monty
Marietta Marich Luda May
Heather Kafka Henrietta
Kathy Lamkin Tea Lady in trailer
Brad Leland Big Rig Bob
Mamie Meek Clerk
John Larroquette Narrator

Uncredited cast[]

Actor Role
Scott Martin Gershin Leatherface (voice)
Harry Jay Knowles Victim on a silver platter
Unknown Sheriff Adams

Notes[]

  • The tagline for this film is, "What you know about fear... doesn't even come close."
  • This motion picture is inspired by actual historical events. However, certain of the characters, events, scenes and dialogue portrayed in the motion picture were created for the purposes of fictitious dramatization, and any similarity to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
  • Although the movie markets itself as being based on a true story, it is in fact a fictionalized account loosely based on the life of real-life serial killer Ed Gein. His crimes, which he committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, garnered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein was used as the inspiration for the character of Leatherface as well as Norman Bates from the Psycho franchise and Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb from the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. Gein was also the subject of two true-crime films and numerous documentaries. The character of Ezra Cobb from the 1974 film Deranged is largely based on Gein and he was also the titular character of the 2000 film Ed Gein.
  • Actor John Larroquette provides the opening narration of the film, which is a paraphrased version of the original opening narrative from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Larroquette also provided the narration on the original film.
  • Includes a cameo appearance by Harry Knowles as a victim on silver platter. Knowles is best known as a movie reviewer, blogger and the creator of the "Ain't It Cool" news and film review website.

Stunt doubles[]

In addition to stunt coordinator Anthony P. Cecere and other stunt performers, the following professionals were stunt doubles for certain characters.

Bloopers[]

  • In the beginning of the film, the five youths are singing "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The events of this film take place in August, 1973. "Sweet Home Alabama", was only recorded two months earlier. It wasn't released until June, 1974. A live version of the track on the compilation album Collectybles places the writing of the song during the late summer of 1973, as the live set available on the album is dated October 30th, 1973. Regardless of when the song may have first been made public, it was not available during the events of this film.

Explicit material[]

Body Count[]

Character Method
Teenage girl Commits suicide by shooting herself in the mouth.
Kemper Bludgeoned by Tommy, then has his face skinned.
Pepper Cut up by Tommy with his chainsaw; off-panel.
Andy Leg cut off; impaled and tortured; Mercy killed by Erin.
Morgan Impaled by Tommy with his chainsaw.
Sheriff Hoyt Run over by Erin with his own squad car.

See also[]

External Links[]

References[]



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