Leatherface
Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
- horror
- thriller
The story
A young nurse is kidnapped by a group of violent teens who escape from a mental hospital and take her on the road trip from hell. Pursued by an equally deranged lawman out for revenge, one of the teens is destined for tragedy and horrors that will destroy his mind, moulding him into a monster named Leatherface.
What it’s like
Gritty, sun-bleached Texas grindhouse: dusty highways under a flat white sky, sweat-soaked close-ups, and the grimy, hand-held chaos of a road movie gone wrong. Long stretches of empty two-lane blacktop give way to sudden lurches into cramped, sodium-lit diners, derelict farmhouses, and the rust-red interiors of a rundown slaughterhouse, with the camera often jostled close to the action. The score leans on pulsing synth and industrial clangs, while the chainsaw's whine cuts through the desert silence like a warning. The vibe is feverish and bleak, a late-summer sweat rather than a cozy chill, and it suits a late-night slasher marathon or a hard-edged double bill with the genre's classics. Violence is frequent and graphic, with gore, brutal torture, and a persistent sense of cruelty; there is sexual menace and peril, and fear comes from relentless threat more than jump scares. Built for viewers who want unrelenting prequel-style dread, practical gore, and a grim look at how a boy becomes a monster, not for anyone seeking gentleness.
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