This Is One of the Best Horror Movie Trailers of All Time (Even If the Movie Stinks)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still one of the greatest horror movies ever made. 50+ years later, it’s still a masterclass in chilling filmmaking, the rare motion picture that really communicates terrifying, tangible madness. Original director Tobe Hooper followed up this masterpiece a little over a decade later with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a feature that enthralled by embracing a wildly new, farcical tone. Tragically, after two winning initial installments, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has only disgraced Leatherface’s creative legacy.

In the 21st century, especially, Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies have become synonymous with subpar cinema. The 2000s remakes kickstarted a dreadful trend of Platinum Dunes horror movie updates, while 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Netflix movie was more torturous to sit through than actually being tormented by Leatherface. The less said about Texas Chainsaw 3D and its lines like “Do yer thing, cuz!”, the better. At least the 1990 installment Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III – though a dismally received film – had the decency to deliver one of the all-time great horror movie trailers.

What Was This Texas Chainsaw Massacre III Trailer?

Naturally, this teaser for a 1990 Texas Chainsaw Massacre skewered a sequence from the 1981 fantasy epic Excalibur. This short trailer starts with a long tracking shot that ends on a towering figure (Leatherface) standing next to a lake. Suddenly, from this watery zone emerges a lady’s hand wielding this killer’s chainsaw. She tosses the item to Leatherface, who holds it high into the air where lightning strikes the weapon. Then he turns around, preparing to slaughter some more innocent souls. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III‘s title comes up on a tight close-up of Leatherface’s face and the trailer draws to a close.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III sits alongside The Hills Have Eyes 2 in the pantheon of teaser trailers that are way more visually and atmospherically creative than the horror movies they’re promoting. Going in a bizarre direction like spoofing a nearly decade-old horror movie is a bold choice that immediately signifies that this horror movie wants to be an unexpected concoction. Meanwhile, juxtaposing glossy epic fantasy with Leatherface’s grisly rampages is about as far as you could get from the original grimy 1974 film.

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This teaser held the potential for this third Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be as different from its predecessors as the second Massacre was from the title that started the saga. On top of all that, taking the time to shoot footage exclusive to this teaser is just a glorious joy that no longer exists in the modern movie marketing landscape. It used to be common for blockbusters like Spider-Man and smaller movies alike to kick off their respective promotional campaigns with a teaser centered on footage that would never make it into the final film. It’s hard not to look back on this Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III teaser with extra fondness as a fun relic of the past.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III Couldn’t Measure Up to Its Teaser

Making this Leatherface teaser extra special is how its depiction of the titular serial killer, particularly in the character’s mask, is so radically different from the final film. Unfortunately, Leatherface’s appearance in this feature from distributor New Line Cinema was crummy in all the wrong ways and seemed to hail from a direct-to-video feature. The disparity between the Leatherface mask in this movie’s teaser and final cut exemplifies how Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III could never measure up to its initial teaser trailer.

Other later installments in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre saga, like The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, have secured cult followings based on their bold creative choices. Even the Platinum Dunes remakes have their share of defenders claiming that these Massacre movies are at least better than Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street horror remakes from the same era. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, meanwhile, was just a limp retread of the previous two Massacre movies, only with a less distinctive atmosphere and a severe lack of gross-out deaths.

Providing such a hollow and scare-free reworking of superior Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies has ensured Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III’s incredibly low standing amongst fans, even in a franchise tragically full of clunkers. It doesn’t help that its creative teaser suggests a more audacious movie willing to go in unexpected directions, even down to what motion pictures it pays homage to. Still, scary cinema fans can always cling to this extraordinary horror movie trailer as one nice byproduct that came from such an underwhelming sequel. That’s more than Texas Chainsaw 3D provided, at least.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is now available for rental or purchase from digital retailers.