Warning! SPOILERS for Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Here’s a look into how Leatherface might have survived the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022. Netflix’s legacy sequel to Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre brings millennials into the mix, who bear the brunt of Leatherface’s killing rampage after they arrive in Harlow to revamp the place. The film introduces sisters Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), all of whom face Leatherface at some point - with most of them not surviving the encounter.
After the death of Virginia — the owner of Harlow orphanage and the sole caregiver for Leatherface — the latter is pushed to killing everyone in his typically gory way once again, as evidenced by the way he butchers Ruth and the officers in the cornfield. After being dormant for 50 years, Leatherface kills again, and not out of obedience to a cannibalistic family but rather out of a need to avenge his dead caregiver. However, the potential emotionality behind this reason soon wears thin, as Leatherface butchers an entire group of youngsters mindlessly, relentlessly chasing after Lila and Melody.
By this point, Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré) arrives at the scene, but she seems more hell-bent on revenge than ensuring the safety of the two girls. Despite holding her own grudge against Leatherface, she is brutally chainsawed and thrown aside, leaving Lila and Melody to fend for their lives on their own. Lila, a school shooting survivor and resultantly a strong advocator of anti-gun policies, is forced to pick up the rifle and go after Leatherface after her sister is grievously injured. After being shot multiple times and being nicked by his own chainsaw by a wounded Melody, Leatherface falls into a body of water, presumably drowning, allowing the girls to escape. Of course, this is not the end, as Leatherface survives.
Considering that Leatherface is a much older man now in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that he has sustained multiple injuries throughout the film, it is baffling as to how he returns in the end just to saw Melody’s head off. The reason for the same can simply be chalked up to plot contrivance, as well as the need for him to survive for the sequel. However, this is a rather disappointing explanation. With this, it is probable that Leatherface’s physical endurance is much stronger than the average human, given the circumstances under which he had grown up all these years. This, of course, conjures comparisons to Michael Myers, who almost always never dies, although Michael’s “immortality” can be partly explained by the fact that he stands for a special kind of evil that never dies, along with the Thorn Cult storyline of the reboots.
With this in mind, are the makers of 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre attempting to portray Leatherface as a particularly strong-bodied killer or someone borderline unkillable (like Michael Myers)? Hopefully, it is the former: this theory lines up with the fact that he is seen shuffling towards the old Sawyer house in Texas Chainsaw Massacre's post-credits scene, which means he is grievously injured and is probably going to be reunited with an estranged family member who can provide him medical assistance. As most antagonists in slashers almost always come back to life somehow, perhaps the same logic can be applied to Leatherface, who seems to be just getting started (again).