Texas Chainsaw 3D (released on home media and stylized on-screen simply as Texas Chainsaw) is a 2013 American slasher horror film directed by John Luessenhop, with a screenplay by Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan and Kirsten Elms. It is the seventh installment in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise and was presented in 3D. The film serves as a direct sequel to the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and was originally intended as the final chapter of the franchise (ignoring the events of the subsequent installments). The film stars Alexandra Daddario, Dan Yeager, Trey Songz, Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Thom Barry, Paul Rae and Bill Moseley, with Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns, who had appeared in the original 1974 film. The story centers on Heather, who discovers that she was adopted after learning of an inheritance from a long-lost grandmother. She subsequently takes a road trip with her friends to collect the inheritance, unaware that it includes her cousin, Leatherface.
Texas Chainsaw 3D was released on January 4, 2013, and grossed $47.2 million on a budget of $20 million, and received negative reviews from critics. It was also the last film both Burns and Hansen starred in before they both died in 2014 and 2015, respectively. A prequel that takes place before the original 1974 film, titled Leatherface, was released in 2017.
Plot[]
Following the events of the original film, the town sheriff arrives at the Sawyer house demanding for Leatherface to surrender. The family initially refuses, but eventually comply. The people of Newt, Texas, led by Mayor Burt Hartman (Paul Rae), then arrive and burn down the farmhouse of the murderous Sawyer clan in an act of vigilante justice. The arsonists are proclaimed heroes of the community, and the entire Sawyer family is killed. However, an infant with a burn mark on her chest, is found by one of the townsmen, Gavin Miller, who promptly murders her dying mother, Loretta Sawyer. Gavin and his wife Arlene take the child into their care and raise her as their own daughter.
In the future, Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario) receives a letter informing her that her grandmother, Verna Carson, has passed away, much to her surprise. When she confronts her parents about it, she discovers that she was adopted from a family in Newt, Texas. Heather, her boyfriend Ryan (Trey Songz), her best friend Nikki (Tania Raymonde), and Nikki's boyfriend Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez) travel to her grandmother's home to collect her inheritance. Along the way, the group picks up a hitchhiker named Darryl (Shaun Sipos). Upon arriving, Heather is given a letter from Verna's lawyer that she neglects to read. As the group explores the house, they decide to stay the night. Heather and her friends leave to buy food and supplies, leaving Darryl behind to look after the house. Darryl begins stealing valuables and discovers a metal door in the wine cellar that he is unable to open; as he tries to enter he is killed by Leatherface (Dan Yeager).
While grocery shopping, it is revealed that Nikki and Ryan have slept together. Heather meets Deputy Carl (Scott Eastwood) and Mayor Burt Hartman. Heather and her friends return to find the house ransacked. While Kenny is preparing dinner, he goes downstairs to the cellar where Leatherface impales him on a hook. Nikki tricks Ryan into going outside to the barn, then seduces him. Heather finds her grandmother's decomposing body upstairs and is attacked by Leatherface in the kitchen, but she manages to escape while he kills Kenny with a chainsaw. Heather runs to the graveyard outside the house and hides in a coffin which Leatherface saws through. Nikki and Ryan draw the attention of Leatherface, while Heather gets in the van and picks up her friends. Using his chainsaw, Leatherface cuts through one of the tires, which causes the van to crash, killing Ryan on impact. After wounding Nikki, he then chases Heather to a nearby carnival, where Deputy Carl is patrolling the grounds.
While at the police department, Heather begins digging through the files on the Sawyer family, and learns of the family's murderous history and how they were killed. The sheriff and Hartman send an officer to investigate the Carson estate. Over the phone, the officer reports his findings. He finds Nikki hiding in a freezer but accidentally shoots her in the head before he himself is killed by Leatherface. Leatherface skins the flesh from the officer's cadaver and uses it to create a new flesh mask.
Enraged by the officer's findings, Hartman vows to end the remaining Sawyers. Heather leaves the station and meets with her lawyer at a bar. He tells her that Leatherface is her cousin, who survived the burning of the farmhouse. Heather escapes the bar when Hartman finds her and runs into Deputy Carl in his patrol car. As they drive away, Carl reveals himself as Burt's son. He kidnaps her and takes her to the Sawyer family's old slaughterhouse, ties her up and gags her. Listening over the deceased officer's police radio, Leatherface learns of Heather's location and goes to the slaughterhouse to kill her. Before he is able to do so, he sees a Sawyer sygil birth mark on Heather's chest and removes her gag. Heather tells him that she is his long lost cousin and he releases her. Leatherface is then attacked from behind by Hartman and his friend Ollie. Heather takes the opportunity to escape. As Hartman and Ollie prepare to kill Leatherface by throwing him into a meat grinder, Heather returns having had a change of heart, kills Ollie, and tosses Leatherface his chainsaw. In the struggle, the sheriff arrives but hesitates to stop Leatherface from killing Burt. Leatherface uses his chainsaw to force Hartman to his death in a meat grinder. The sheriff lets Heather and Leatherface go. Afterwards, Leatherface and Heather return to the Carson Estate, where Heather reads the letter from Verna. It informs her that her real name is Edith Rose Sawyer, that Leatherface lives in the basement behind the metal door and that he will protect her for the rest of his life, but it also requests that she take care of him in return. Leatherface finally buries Verna's body. Heather accepts how Leatherface's mental state drove him to commit his crimes and graciously accepts him as her only family.
In a post-credits scene, Heather's adopted parents show up at the Carson estate to visit Heather, intending on greedily splitting her assets. As they wait in front of the door, Leatherface comes through the door with his chainsaw in hand.