Leatherface: The third saw is my favourite saw

The last few Texas Chainsaw Massacre films have been trapped in recycling mode, hitting the same old beats as all the rest, but my biggest hot take on the series is that Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is the best of them all.

Everybody knew about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was a kid. It was meant to be the worst of the worst, and everyone knew it. It was hard to find on video in our part of the world, so all we had to go on was that glorious name and concept, spoken in whispers and third-hand accounts. 

When my dad finally got a copy, I was about 12 or 13, and he refused to let me see it. His verdict was: 'It was all right, I suppose'.

The second movie turns everything up to 11, into something epic, and there is something awesomely apocalyptic about the last few moments of the film. But it was the third I saw first - after I got it from the new release shelf at my local video store in 1991  - and I thought it was magnificent. 

It's just a high quality splatter movie of its era. It had the slick sheen of that time, when even sordid little horror movies looked beautiful on film with the proper lighting, and it looked as slick as a Lethal Weapon. 

It was the same Chainsaw story - a group of slightly obnoxious young people take the wrong goddamn turn and end up in hell on earth - but it was also ruthlessly entertaining, with great performances all around.

It's most notable these days for a young Viggo Mortensen - he was obviously too good for this kind of thing, but still charming and nasty in equal measures. And it also gave the mighty Ken Foree a meaty role, after he was so good in the original Dawn of the Dead - he has a pleasing 'I can't believe I have to deal with this white boy shit' vibe going on, and I will never forget the way he spits out "You're toast, fuck!" at the end.

It's the one Chainsaw film I've seen the most. When I finally saw the original, it was messy and dark, and while I do appreciate the gritty grotesqueness of that first film, it's still the third that I'd always watch again, for all the thrills and chills.