If a recent jaunt to a haunted corn maze in October, complete with buzzing chainsaws and screams from the unseen dark, has you ready for a horror movie marathon, then there’s no better way to go than with old Leatherface. Here’s the ultimate Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movie watch order.
What’s the best order to watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies?
Since its release in 1974, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has not only helped define the modern slasher genre but has also been rebooted, sequelled, and prequelled multiple times. Much like the Halloween franchise, it’s one of those horror series that refuses to die. While the timeline is less tangled than Halloween‘s, we’ve still broken down this list by era.
Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre Saga Watch Order (1974–1995)
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre continuity spanned four films:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
No one could have predicted that a handful of indie filmmakers working with just $140,000 would create a film that would redefine horror and unleash decades of slasher cinema. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) introduced audiences to the ultimate freakshow of Leatherface and his family of deranged cannibals. The film’s plot follows a group of friends on a road trip across rural Texas. When they stumble upon an isolated farmhouse, their trip turns into a fight for survival. There are plenty of terrible choices on the part of these characters in the movie, but it’s absolutely the best in the series.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
It took over a decade for a sequel to arrive, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) ultimately proved to be one of the most polarizing entries in the franchise. Trading the slightly docu-style realism of the original for a very 80s sloshy, over-the-top horror-camp. The story follows radio DJ Vanita “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams), who is in a fight for her life, and a Texas lawman, “Lefty” Enright (Dennis Hopper), seeking revenge as he sets out to hunt down Leatherface and his cannibalistic family.
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
Technically, the movie ratings start to dip as the series goes on, but we do get some standout performances, including a young Viggo Mortensen as Tex. As is typical at this point, a couple traveling through Texas ends up stopping for gas on the creepy Texas backroads near the Sawyer home. When the gas station owner starts beating up a hitchhiker, the couple flees, gets a flat tire, and ends up being chased by Leatherface and his deranged family. From there, things go from bad to worse.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)
In The Next Generation (1995), a group of high school students — including a fresh UT Austin grad, Renée Zellweger — get into a car crash on prom night and end up fighting for their lives against Leatherface and his family. It also stars a very charming and totally psychotic Matthew McConaughey as Vilmer, who completely steals the show.
2000s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Remake Saga Watch Order (2003–2006)
As a word of warning, the following movies produced during this era are often considered the most gory and violent of the franchise films.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), the franchise gets a full-blown early-2000s makeover. Produced by Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes, this Reboot gave Leatherface a fresh (and much bloodier) start. Like in TCM films of yesteryear, a group of friends traveling through rural Texas pick up a traumatized hitchhiker. Of course, this decision sets off a violent chain of events that leads them straight to Leatherface and his deeply disturbed family. Though the remake doesn’t hold up compared to the original, it was successful enough to inspire a remake era for early 00s horror films.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Taking us back to 1939, when a woman dies while giving birth in a slaughterhouse. The supervisor throws the baby in a dumpster, where he’s found by a young Luda Mae Hewitt, who takes the baby back and raises him with the family. We jump forward 30 years, picking up in 1969 when a group of travelers gets stranded in rural Texas and…well, you know. TCM: The Beginning was directed by Jonathan Leibsman, who only signed on when he found out the film was a prequel. While less interested in giving us motives for the crazed family, Leibsman focused on making the movie feel like the beginning of hell. And it does.
2010s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Reboot Watch Order (2013–2017)
After Platinum Dunes decided not to pursue a third film, Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate purchased the rights from New Line Cinema. If you’re going with this era, start with the original, then jump to:
Texas Chainsaw (2013)
There was a brief period when 3D movies were all the rage, and Texas Chainsaw, formerly called Texas Chainsaw 3D, was part of that wave. It was a little over the top, but fans probably knew what they were signing up for when buying a ticket. It goes without saying that there was bound to be plenty of 3D blood splatter. Ignoring all of the other sequels and prequels, this film jumps straight from the events of the original 1974 movie. It follows Heather (Alexandra Daddario), the last surviving relative of the Sawyer family, who travels with friends to Texas to claim her inheritance. Unfortunately for the group, they find themselves targeted by a grown-up Leatherface and the rest of the murderous clan.
Leatherface (2017)
We also got a different kind of prequel that takes us back to 1955. Directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo and written by Seth M. Sherwood, Leatherface opens on a rural Texas road where a couple comes across a wounded young boy, Jedidiah Sawyer. What starts as an innocent encounter quickly turns horrific when the boy leads a young girl, Betty, to a rundown barn where a brutal killing takes place. After the police intervene, Jedidiah is taken to a mental institution. Years later, much like Halloween, he escapes, setting off a chain of violent events that ultimately shape him into the Leatherface we know. While it does have some satisfying character-driven storytelling, this film is particularly grisly and violent.
2020s Legacy Texas Chainsaw Massacre Era Watch Order (2022–)
Though everything is still speculation and in-production talks at the moment, Deadline did report on the potential for the next installment, which could be lurking in the near future. In the meantime, the most recent Netflix-distributed film is:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Though Lionsgate originally planned to produce seven Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, they ultimately stopped after two and let the rights lapse. Legendary Pictures later picked them up and delivered the latest installment, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). Set nearly 50 years after the original, bringing Leatherface into the present day can feel jarring, especially with the hyper-modern dialogue and colloquialisms. Still, director David Blue Garcia gives us a different take on a classic. Does it need to exist? Questionable, though that could be said of almost every sequel in the franchise. This particular one follows a group of young real estate entrepreneurs who head to the nearly abandoned town of Harlow, Texas, to start a business venture. Unfortunately, they find out firsthand that it’s not the place to invest in real estate.
