The numbering of the movies:
1: The Texas Chain Saw [sic] Massacre (1974).
2: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986).
3: Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990).
4: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995).
5: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).
6: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006).
7: Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013).
8: Leatherface (2017).
9: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022).
In the seventh movie, Leatherface was called, “mentally stunted with the emotions of an eight year old.” He was insulted and labelled disgusting by the cops for being transgender (still pathologizing), and gets called the r-word… again. This one differs little from the majority of the franchise except to state that Leatherface is intellectually disabled. This one also got a sequel, which was infinitely worse.
The eighth movie is about Leatherface’s severe abuse and PTSD and how it caused him to become a murderer. While they attempted to create some sympathy for the character, they did a lot of harm. There is a serious and dangerous stereotype that people (particularly people who are amab, masc, or men) with PTSD are violent, and this movie perpetuates that stereotype to an extreme extent. Furthermore, the movie showed Leatherface’s grandfather as having an intense headwound in the first scene, adding to the violent stereotypes around neurodivergence. The movie uses the slur “pinhead,” has a very long scene with incessantly flashing lights, and one of the two main villains has burn scars on most of her body. After all of that, the movie ends with Leatherface creating the mask: half male and half female. The character puts on lipstick then smashes the mirror upon seeing the reflection, pathologizing queerness yet again. This franchise has tried so hard to make queer and disabled people the villains, and they couldn’t even make this movie accessible.
The most recent remake has diverse protagonists and, as far as I can tell, ended the sexism, ableism, and queerphobia of the franchise. However, they also didn’t acknowledge this or, for lack of better words, apologise for it. Considering that next year will mark five decades of this franchise (frequently intentionally) spreading violent bigotry, I need that apology before I can ever enjoy or appreciate the series.
While the more recent movies attempt to move in the right direction by attempting to show the problem isn’t the disability but the hatred of the disabled person, it’s still extremely disturbing that the villain needs to be disabled. The disability representation has drastically worsened over the years. In the first movie, the victim was disabled. Not only is there no reason to drop the disabled victim, but there was also no reason to add a disabled villain. Yet, they did, even though it would have been easier not to. The fact that a movie made in 2013 using the r-word and explicitly vilifying transgender people got an even more ableist sequel is possibly the worst part of this all. The ADA didn’t exist when the first several movies came out, and the Rehabilitation Act had passed the year prior to the release. Somehow, the more legal rights that disabled people have, the more ableist the franchise gets. Again, it would literally be easier to not make the villains disabled and instead focus on “evil begets evil” instead of “this guy is one of the most famous fictional serial killers of all time and he did it purely because he’s intellectually disabled.”
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