Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Texas Chainsaw Massacre
In Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022, Leatherface’s titular weapon is hidden inside the wall of an orphanage, prompting many fans to wonder why this was the case. For fans of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, Leatherface’s chainsaw is as iconic a weapon as Freddy’s razor-fingered glove or Jason’s machete. However, this did not stop Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 from trying to separate the character from his eponymous killing machine, only to reunite them after a key development.
Like Michael Myers in director Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022’s Leatherface doesn’t need any weapon to attack and kill anyone he encounters. He is a massive, unbelievably powerful killer who can snap a man’s arm in two with one hand and proceed to slit their throat with their exposed wrist bone. As a result, the chainsaw of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 is somewhat redundant, but this doesn’t stop Leatherface’s caretaker Mrs. Mc from endeavoring to keep it out of bounds. About halfway through the action of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022, Leatherface’s elderly caregiver Mrs. Mc has died and the hulking horror antagonist has returned to the abandoned orphanage he has called home for some fifty years. There, he finds his chainsaw hidden inside a wall in Mrs. Mc's bedroom. Just as Halloween 2018 reunited Michael Myers with his mask, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 gives Leatherface his chainsaw back now that the only person able to curb his lethal impulses has passed on, and it’s not long before he’s wreaking brutal vengeance on the town of Harlow’s new inhabitants.
The obvious question, then, is why Mrs. Mc kept the chainsaw on the premises at all, since hiding it inside the wall didn’t do much to deter Leatherface from his rampage once the killer was revved up and ready to kill. Before finding his famous weapon, Leatherface has already killed a sheriff and his deputy, and two of the movie’s main characters, proving that he doesn’t need this specific weapon to cause gory damage. The answer is likely that the belated sequel needed to live up to its title promise and thus, like Alien Vs Predator: Requiem's Predalien before it, the movie wanted to give the famous franchise’s most important element a dramatic introduction.
However, in the context of the movie, it does arguably make sense that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022’s Mrs. Mc would have kept the offending weapon around. Leatherface’s caregiver is quick to point out that she still owns the deed to the orphanage and says she has had trouble with the bank attempting to repossess her home before the sequel’s events, so the odds are good that she knew someone would eventually attempt to take the house from her. As such, Mrs. Mc must have kept Leatherface’s chainsaw around as collateral, effectively ensuring the events of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 took place by letting the killer defend his home with as much violence as he saw fit.
Throughout earlier installments of the long-running slasher saga, the chainsaw itself has needed considerably less explanation than the psychopathic antagonists'. However, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022's decision to keep the chainsaw in the wall does add up, even though the choice not to throw out the famous weapon after Leatherface’s first massacre years earlier caused most of the movie’s gory mayhem. Both from a narrative and stylistic perspective, keeping back one of the most iconic implements in moving history arguably helps build some much-needed tension.