Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III

"Leatherface: The Texax Chainsaw Massarce III" is not just a ripoff of other works.

It's both a sequel and a ripoff.

The carryover aspect here is the character of the title, "Leatherface," who wears a mask made from human skin, the skin of victims he and his family chop up to make chili.

Isn't that charming?

But for some reason the family, with the exception of "Leatherface," has changed from the first two films. Maybe "Leatherface" was put up for adoption. It's nice that another family of cannibals took him in.

Anyway, they live in the backwoods of Texas, a swampy area that for some reason always seems to attract innocent young women who run into the family and then scream for 90 minutes as they are chased in the dark.

In the case of "Chainsaw III," the young woman in question is chased through a dark swamp, thereby allowing for lots of mud to be smeared all over the actors. The other main character is a local survivalist who somehow never ran into these freaks before.

Meanwhile, Leatherface himself has become Jason and Michael, the killers in the "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" pictures. Like those characters, Leatherface has no personality. He's merely the faceless killer who cannot be killed. (And it's already been announced that "Chainsaw IV" is in the works.)

To its credit, "Chainsaw III" is not the gore-fest most horror movies have become these days. There is gore, just not as much.

But there's also no story and no interesting character development.

Believe it or not, even horror movie fans like some meat in their stories. You should pardon the expression.