As Halloween season descends again, one grisly horror franchise fright fans always want to indulge in is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hailed as one of the most disturbing horror films of all time and featuring one of the scariest villains in Leatherface, the long-running series has delivered some of the bloodiest and most brutal fatalities the genre has ever seen.
In addition to the gruesome chainsaw action that Leatherface inflicts on his victims, several other extremely gory death modes have been featured in the series that are not for the squeamish or faint of heart. For hardened horror heads, they're quite the treats indeed!
Kirk's Mallet To The Head - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
After a half-hour of moody atmospheric dread, the first death in the entire TCM franchise comes with a shocking amount of intensity. Nosy Kirk (William Vail) wanders up to the Sawyer abode in search of gasoline, only to be brutally bludgeoned twice in the head with a sledgehammer by a hulking figure called Leatherface, wearing a human skin mask. Leatherface's introductory salvo is chilling to the bone, especially with the sharp sound effect that comes when he slams the door shut.
In addition to setting the standard and establishing Leatherface's frightening lethality, it's the aftermath of seeing Kurt's corpse hacked into pieces through the eyes of Sally (Marilyn Burns) that makes the death so disturbing.
Pam Meat Hook Impalement - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
In terms of sheer visceral terror, TCM's crowning achievement will always be Pam's meat hook impalement in the middle of the movie. While Tobe Hooper does not actually show the hook stabbing Pam (Teri McMinn), the power of suggestion creates a far more alarming image in the mind of its viewers.
Aside from showcasing Leatherface's brute strength and sadistic M.O., the lead-up to the death as Pam stumbles around the ultra-creepy Sawyer house adorned with ornamental human bones is doubly disturbing. Just when Pam makes it to the porch, Leatherface reels her back in and turns her into a piece of meat for the slaughter in one of the all-time great horror movie death scenes.
Franklin's Chainsaw Slaughter - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Although Franklin (Paul A. Partain) is so annoying that viewers actually may wish for his swift demise, when it finally comes in the face of his sister Sally, it's far more unsettling than anyone could have imagined. To wit, it's the first time in the franchise Leatherface uses his trusty chainsaw to kill a victim.
What makes the death so upsetting is Franklin's inability to defend himself, leaving him as a sitting duck who Leatherface barbarously slashed five times in the midriff with the revving blade. The emotional impact the death has on the final girl increases the dramatic stakes.
Leatherface's Chainsaw Impalement - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
While Tobe Hooper took the horror franchise in a new direction with the darkly comedic sequel, the film features some of the most gruesome deaths in the series. However, the absolute showstopper comes when Lieutenant Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper) gets into a mano-y-mano chainsaw fight with Leatherface (Bill Johnson). Strangely, Leatherface loses to one of his strongest enemies.
While Leatherface ultimately resurrects for future sequels, his so-called death in TCM 2 is extremely hyper-gory overkill. After being impaled in the stomach with a giant chainsaw that disembowels his entrails, Leatherface has a hammer thrown at his head before being blown up with a grenade. While over the top, the breadth of violence incurred on Leatherface (who is rarely victimized) will get anyone's heart pounding.
Andy's Hang-Up - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
The merciless torture inflicted upon Andy (Mike Vogel) in the 2003 TCM remake is one of the most painful and protracted series of fatalities. The unsuspecting victim has his legged sawed off by Leatherface, who carries him to his shop and hangs him on a meat hook to bleed out.
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What really ups the intensity quotient is when the final girl Erin (Jessica Biel) finds Andy's mutilated body still alive and makes the hard but merciful decision to end Andy's suffering by taking his life. Far from expected, Erin is the one who flays Andy's chest cavity, which comes with a staggering level of emotion.
Eric's Slaughter - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
From top to bottom, TCM: The Beginning arguably has the most vicious of graphic violence in the entire series. It may also have the scariest Leatherface other than the original. Take Eric's savage slaughter for example. He has his arms flayed with a knife, his sternum punctured with a running chainsaw, and his face carved with a knife for good measure. The amount of blood alone is enough to warrant a barf bag.
Beyond seeing this through the eyes of the final girl Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), it's the kinetic shaky-cam framing and tight shots of gory geysers strewn all over Eric's face that make viewers recoil in horror.
Bailey - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Immediately following Eric's grisly demise, Bailey (Diora Baird) suffers a similar fate in the 2006 prequel. In a scene redolent of the horrific dinner table dynamic in the original film, Bailey somehow survives being hung up on a meat hook, only to be dragged from the back of a tow truck, strapped to a dinner table, and have her throat slashed with a giant pair of shears.
The sheer punishment Bailey endures is hard to take, especially when glimpses of her survival are hinted at. Just when it seems she might make it out, she's viciously slaughtered onscreen in a gulping moment of despair.
Kenny Sliced In Half - Texas Chainsaw 3D
The luxuriating gratuity of Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sanchez) being sliced in half from the waist down in Texas Chainsaw 3D is the definition of torture porn. Purely meant to pander to the most craven of gory appetites and pay homage to the series as a whole, Kenny gets stabbed in the back with a crowbar, taken into a basement, impaled on a meat hook, and slowly sawed in half by Leatherface's chainsaw.
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The elongated, nearly slow-motion shot of Kenny's midriff being slowly chewed in half as buckets of viscous gore pours on the floor and splatters on the walls is meant to be as excessive as imaginable. It succeeds and then some, especially when seen through the eyes of the final girl Heather (Alexandra Daddario).
Burt's Meat Grinder - Texas Chainsaw 3D
As one of the bloodiest and most unique of fatalities in the series, Texas Chainsaw 3D ends with Mayor Burt Hartman hanging on to the edge of a huge industrial meat grinder, only to have his hands sawed off by Leatherface and his body torn to gory shreds as he falls into the giant rotating blades. Think Steve Buscemi in Fargo times ten.
Meant to give the audience one final jaw-dropping moment of intense violence, the exorbitant death scene literally has a cliffhanger feel to it as Burt struggles to grasp the ledge. Suspenseful, original, and wildly gruesome, it's a fantastic fatality in a not-so-good horror sequel.
Hal's Evisceration - Leatherface
Speaking of the Hartman family, Leatherface involves the backstory of not only the titular terror but also the relative Hal Hartman (Stephen Dorff), a vengeful lawman out to end the reign of violence. Failing gloriously, Hartman is barbarously eviscerated by a teenage Leatherface is one of the most visually disturbing deaths of the entire series.
Part of the pain comes from the surprise of the protagonist being killed off instead of the other way around. However, the amount of screen time dedicated to the grisly mutilation, the smoking chainsaw, the gushing sound effects, the size of the blade, the amount of bloodshed, and the sinister satisfaction seen in young Leatherface's eye all amount to the most intense series fatality.