The Total Bastard Database

The greatest killers, madmen, monsters and maniacs in horror movie history

SPOILER WARNING!!

All entries in the TBDB are likely to carry spoliers so if you ain't seen the movie they relate to don't read 'em!

LEATHERFACE

AKA

Gunnar Hansen, Andrew Byniarski, Bill Johnson, Robert Jacks, R. A Mihailoff

Was a bastard in:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986),TCM 3 (1990), TCM The Next Generation,
(1994),The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A New Beginning (2005)

Who the hell is he?

The precise details of who Leatherfaceactually is vary from film to film. In the 2003 remake his real name was Thomas
Hewitt though in earlier films it had been stated that his name was W. E Sawyer.

Other details are also similarly pliable through the series like who exactly is who in Leatherface's odd little family and of course the little issue of people who die in one instalment appearing in the next as though nothing ever happened...

What is definite however is that Leatherface is one twisted freak of a killing machine. He is a man-child who hides his face behind a mask sewn together from the skin of his victims. He does not seem capable of speech commmunicating only in a series of
demented whoops and bellows. Despite his unfortunate habit of horrifically killing people and wearing parts of their anatomy whilst eating other parts (mmm long pork)
Leatherface is as innnocent as it is possible for a mass murdering serial killer to be. He does not really understand his own actions and all he really wants is to be left alone to his butchery and cross dressing - oh yeah I didn't mention that did I? He's also got a bit of a mother fixation and attempts to dress as a woman sometimes even going so far as making himself a female human skin mask to complement his regular one.

That's not a knife..

Can you guess what Leatherface's weapon of choice is? That's right, those who said chainsaw have a cookie those who didn't, consider yourself an idiot and pay more attention to movie titles in future.

Leatherface wields a bloody big chainsaw with glee and has even choreographed himself a nice little dance number which involves swinging it around in the balmy light of the Texas sunrise whilst doing a merry jig in the middle of the road. A little odd maybe but you can't deny its cinematic appeal.

Why for the love of God, why?!!?

Leatherface's rather violent approach to life is a bit of a family tradition, all of whom are just as psychotic as he is (though they usually leave the killing to the big ol' powertool lovin' lug). As mentioned above, just who these family members are kind of depends on which movie you are watching. What remains constant is their love of killing people, using corpses for interior decorating and their taste for human flesh which they sometimes use to make into award-winning chili. Nice.

What's the damage?

All of Leatherface's kills are horrifically violent of course but perhaps the one which provokes the strongest reaction is the poor girl he impales on a meat hook through her back and leaves to hang in bloody helplessness.

It's a million to one chance but it might just work...

Due to the peculiar nature of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films the Leatherface charcter has died several times (as have other characters) only to pop up in the next film as if nothing ever happened. Other than being really big and really insane however Leatherface is just as vulnerable to harm as anybody els, as is shown when he falls over and hacks into his own leg with his chainsaw - the oaf.

Words of wisdom:

"eeeheehh!!"

By Matt Compton

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