This follow up to
the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre takes place prior to the events of that film. Set in 1969, 2
brothers, who are about to be drafted into the army to serve in Vietnam, are going on one last trip with their girlfriends.
Unfortunately, whilst passing through a small Texas town, they cross paths with a group of unsavoury bikers, which brings out
the local lawman, Sheriff Hoyt (R Lee Emry).
However, as the town is now largely abandoned, the rest of the locals having moved out following the closure of the towns meat packing plant, nobody really knows that "Hoyt" is not actually the Sheriff, but the murderous Charlie Hewitt, who killed the real Sheriff and assumed the role.
Having dealt with the bikers, Hoyt forces the group back to his home where they soon discover just how the Hewitt clan continue to get their meat, despite the collapse of the local cattle industry and why Hoyt's nephew Thomas is called "Leatherface".
Virtually the entire cast from the previous film reprise their roles for this, including Andrew Brynyarski as Leatherface and R Lee Emry as the bogus Sheriff. Overall, this is quite a good prequel, which fills in the back story showing how Leatherface was abandoned as a baby, owing to a rare skin infection, and adopted by the Hewitt family and how they ended up turning to murder and eventually cannibalism as a means to survive once the towns meat packing plant closed. However it does create a few more questions, like how come the slaughterhouse was functional again in the later film and how come the state police never rumbled who Hoyt really was.
These quibbles aside though, this is an extremely fun and gory horror film. If you liked the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, you should also enjoy this
