In 50 Years, There's Only Been One Truly Great Leatherface, and a New Doc Explains Why
Dinner with Leatherface chronicles the life and career of the original Leatherface, Gunnar Hansen, who starred in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
In 1974, Tobe Hooper changed horror forever with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. While John Carpenter's Halloween gets all the credit for the slasher boom and the epitome of the final girl, Hooper did it four years earlier with a strong final character in Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and the birth of an iconic villain named Leatherface. Unlike Halloween, Friday the 13th, and countless similar slashers, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is about much more than a guy in a mask. It's a deeply political film, and it also has multiple villains, but over half a century later, it's still Leatherface who gives us nightmares. There have been a plethora of sequels and Leatherface portrayals in the decades since, but as shown in the new documentary about his life, Dinner With Leatherface, none can match the original, Gunnar Hansen. In the first film, his killer wasn't just a guy with a chainsaw, but one who was deeply — and tragically — human.
