This makes his masks his identity, emphasized further by the fact that he has different masks for whatever role he decides to perform. Unlike the other killers mentioned, there is no surprise unmasking of Leatherface his true face is never revealed. Obviously the fact his masks are made out of other people’s faces is meant to instill a similar brand of fear, but the masks are almost characters themselves. His masks don’t serve the typical utilitarian purpose of obscuring his face as a way to seem more than man-it does the opposite. The most iconic mask worn in his on-screen debut is used for his procuring and preparation of his victims, the “Grandma” mask is briefly shown and is worn during housework, and the “Pretty Lady” mask is for dinner. His first diversion from the now-prototypical masked slasher is the three distinct iterations of this mask each corresponding with the task he’s performing. Arguably, Leatherface also started this mask trend with his grotesque creations of dried skin. Michael Myers has the modified Shatner, Jason Voorhees has the hockey mask, all the killers in the Scream cinematic universe don the Ghostface mask. Having a masked killer in a slasher movie is pretty much guaranteed. However there’s another aspect to Leatherface that separates him from other slashers of his ilk: his masks and how he uses them throughout his onscreen appearance. I use the term antagonist sparingly because Leatherface and his two brothers-later named the Sawyer family-are forced into cannibalism due to the 1973 recession that impacted rural areas significantly hard this combined with the verbal attacks thrown at Leatherface by his older brother make him a more sympathetic, human killer than his later counterparts. Arguably its most obvious contribution to the cultural zeitgeist is the main “antagonist” Leatherface: a large, lumbering wall of pure survival instinct and raw power wielding a massive chainsaw used to prepare human prey for meals. It’s been the subject of countless academic studies-most famously Carol Clover’s analysis in Men, Women, and Chainsaws-and inspired several popular horror franchises. It’s credited with being the start of the boom in the slasher subgenre. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Tobe Hooper’s debut feature The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is known for being a seminal work in the horror genre. Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather.
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