Texas Chainsaw Massacre is arguably the messiest horror franchise in terms of continuity. The original film took over a decade to receive a sequel, and even then, it was loosely connected. Most of the sequels serve as soft reboots of the original, while others more or less stand on their own. Starting in 2003, more Texas Chainsaw entries were made than in the previous three decades.

Update October 20, 2023: With Halloween right around the corner and the 20th anniversary of the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre having passed, this article has been updated with more information.

Similar to Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has many diverging timelines. Yet the films are not as fondly remembered, and the overall plots or kills are not as memorable as those found in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. With the 50th anniversary right around the corner, now is a good time to jump into the franchise. Here is how to watch every film in order of release.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movies in Order of Release

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The film that started it all was released four years before John Carpenter's Halloween supercharged the slasher genre. Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was very low budget, having been made for only $140,000. The film went on to make a staggering $30 million worldwide and became one of the most important horror movies of all time.

Its low budget very much works in its favor; the dingy and almost unprofessional quality seems less like a legitimate film, and more like a disturbing documentary, something its 'ripped from the headlines' opening is very intentional about. As a result, filmmaker Mark Borchardt (the subject of the documentary American Movie) refers to the film as "Something you'd see in science class."

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre follows Sally Hardesty, her brother Franklin, and their friends as they visit the grave of the Hardesty's grandfather, which has been vandalized. While searching for gas, they discover the homestead of the Sawyer family, a mistake they pay for with their lives. The Sawyer clan consists of Nubbins (a hitchhiker they encountered earlier in the film), Drayton, Grandpa, and Bubba (aka Leatherface). The cannibalistic family torment and kill the group of friends, save for Sally, who narrowly escapes with her life.

Many filmgoers may be surprised to see that the movie isn't nearly as gory as its reputation leads them to believe. Most of the kills happen off-screen, and the chainsaw is barely used. This would-be-exploitation film far exceeded anyone's expectations and heavily fueled the horror boom throughout the '70s and '80s. Despite his iconic status, Leatherface isn't the film's main killer. In fact, he is simply the dimwitted pawn for the rest of the Sawyer family. His menacing demeanor, mixed with the chilling fact of wearing his victim's faces, cemented him as a legend. Besides this, fans would have to wait 12 years to see him return.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)

When Halloween hit the scene in 1978, the slasher floodgates were opened. Nearly every year throughout the '80s, a slew of both popular and underseen slasher movies were made to cash in on the new craze. It wasn't until 1986 that one of the earliest slasher stars returned to the silver screen: Leatherface. Tobe Hooper returned to direct the sequel; Hooper knew he couldn't top his original film in terms of scare factor, so he opted to go a different route.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 is a black comedy focusing on humor and scares. Hooper also claims there was dark comedy in the original film, but the gritty nature overshadowed it. One look at the film's poster proves this, as it is clearly a parody of the famous Breakfast Club poster. The film follows Radio DJ Stretch as she gets captured by an infatuated Leatherface and his family. Along with Leatherface, his brother Drayton also returns once again, played by Jim Siedow. The corpse of Nubbins is also present as Leatherface drags him along for the ride.

A new character is also present, Leatherface's other brother, Chop Top, played by a phenomenal Bill Mosley. Chop Top has developed a fan base all his own and in some circles, is more popular than Leatherface. Denis Hopper rounds out the cast as Lefty, a former Texas Ranger hunting the Sawyers down for revenge. Lefty is the uncle of Sally and Franklin Hardesty and is just as insane as the Sawyers. He even arms himself with not one, not two, but three chainsaws.

The film's higher budget removes the gritty nature of the original, and Hooper keeps to his promise of making the film funnier. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is an '80s cult classic and, in some cases, has more fans than the original. Most horror fans, however, wished the film was scarier. The rights were sold to New Line Cinema, which sought to bring the series back to its horror roots.

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Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

When Part 2 failed to live up to expectations, the Cannon Group sold the rights to New Line Cinema, which released Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III four years later. New Line enjoyed massive success in the horror genre with the Nightmare on Elm Street series and looked to add Leatherface to their ranks. What made many of the slashers of the time so famous was that each had a big name behind them, such as Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers.

New Line wanted to turn Leatherface into something similar, so he has a much larger presence in the story. In fact, his name was the title of the movie, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre III being a subtitle. Despite having a number in the title, this was the first attempt at a soft reboot. Outside an uncredited cameo by Caroline Williams reprising her role as Stretch, there is no connection to the previous two films.

The movie follows a new group of people who have the misfortune of crossing paths with the Sawyers. The only returning family member is Leatherface himself; everyone else (except the corpse of Grandpa) is new. This film is much gorier than the previous entries and famously received an X rating before being cut down to an R. The movie certainly tries to recapture the feel of the original, but most agree it fails. With a big studio like New Line backing it, the film was too polished to capture the original's gritty tone. The movie focuses more on making Leatherface a bankable character than making a good film. The movie has a cult fanbase, but upon release, it was the lowest-grossing film in the franchise to date.

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

The fourth film in the series is where things began to really go off the rails, in the worst way. Originally receiving a very limited release as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the movie stars then-unknowns Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger. Two years later, when these two actors became stars, the film was re-released as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation to critical and financial failure.

The film was written and directed by Kim Henkel, who wrote the screenplay for the original film. The opening narration states the events of the previous two films were two "similar yet seemingly unrelated incidents," making this movie supposedly follow the original. Besides this revelation, the film has no connection whatsoever to the first film. The actor who played the original film's final girl, Marilyn Burns, has an uncredited cameo as a patient at the end of the film; there is speculation this is Sally Hardesty, but that is up in the air.

The movie, once again, sees a group of unknowing teens cross paths with a family of insane killers. The film is criticized for poorly attempting to blend humor and horror. The family is even revealed to be controlled by a secret society, a plot point fans hated. The film bombed so hard that many fans didn't even realize it existed until years later. Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger choose to mostly ignore this movie, although the former has discussed his crazy audition. This movie killed the franchise for years until a proper remake came in 2003.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

The 2000s saw a surge of remakes of classic horror properties. One of the first and most successful was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003. It is fitting this was one of the first, as this was the series that arguably needed a revamping the most (and perhaps helped to kickstart the modern slasher craze, to begin with). The film was successful in taking everything back to basics. The movie still clearly had a large budget, but it had a similarly grainy quality and was scary enough. The family was once again put in the forefront, with Leatherface being the muscle of the group. This time, the clan is renamed the Hewitts, and Leatherface's name was changed to Thomas as opposed to Bubba.

A group of friends is on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. After an incident with a hitchhiker, they find themselves the targets of the Hewitt family. R. Lee Ermey plays Sheriff Hoyt, the head of the family who pulls the strings. Hoyt is arguably scarier than Leatherface and is one of the best parts of the movie. This remake went on to be the most successful film in the series since the original. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre once again implies most of the gore, although a fair amount of gruesome imagery is shown. For the first time in decades, it seemed the franchise was once again a force to be reckoned with. The production company, Platinum Dunes, went on to produce several other remakes, including 2009's Friday the 13th and 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Set four years before the last previous film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning shows just how twisted the Hewitt's truly are. One such revelation is that Hoyt is not actually the sheriff; in fact, his name isn't even Hoyt. The real Sheriff Hoyt is killed by R. Lee Ermey's character, who then assumes his identity. Other than showing the origins of the family in the last film, the plot is much of the same. A group of friends travels through the wrong side of Texas and encounters the cannibalistic family.

The family is more of the focus here, so when they are shown, the film is entertaining. Most fans criticize the group of victims as being much of the same. The film was still relatively successful, even though it brought in nowhere near the box office numbers as the last film. While not as poorly received as most of the other films, New Line was still disappointed with Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. This led to the rights bouncing around between different studios and scripts. A new entry wouldn't be released until 2013, and most agree it wasn't worth the wait.

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Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the 3D gimmick returned big; one such film to adopt the gimmick was Texas Chainsaw 3D. The film serves as a sequel to the original movie, ignoring everything in between; as such, it is a bit ahead of its time, as legacy sequels are currently paving the future of horror. The film opens shortly after the events of the first film, where the Sawyers are all killed except for an infant. Years later, that infant's name is Heather, and she is traveling to Texas to discover who she is and collect some inheritance.

She eventually finds out her cousin is Leatherface, who also survived the assault at the beginning. The family dynamic is missing, and Leatherface is portrayed as a full-on slasher villain. This film was received very poorly and was a massive critical disappointment. While there are many things wrong, one of the most glaring issues is the laughable special effects. When seeing the film in standard 2D, seeing a chainsaw thrown directly at the screen is nothing but silly. The film was supposed to be the saga's final chapter, even though the door to a sequel was left open at the end. Texas Chainsaw 3D was still a financial success, meaning a new film was put into production. The next entry would be yet another prequel, a prequel that many fans don't even realize exists.

Leatherface (2017)

Leatherface is a prequel to the original 1974 film. The movie endured troubles almost immediately. The film was shot and completed in 2015; for unclear reasons, Lionsgate shelved the film after it was completed. The film was finally released two years later, but in an odd way — instead of being released theatrically or straight to video, it was instead released straight to DirecTV. Only those with a DirectTV subscription could see the film, and that wasn't many. Some people didn't even know the film existed until it was released on home video.

The movie follows a group of teenagers who escape a mental hospital with a nurse. One of them is named Jebidiah Sawyer, who would later become Leatherface. Those who did see the film are split. Some claim it is a decent enough origin story and an interesting movie told from the villain's perspective, while others say it is just a basic horror movie. The film's troubled production and odd release strategy hurt its success, but it does have a cult following of sorts, though not nearly as massive or loyal as some other entries.

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Following in the footsteps of 2018's Halloween, a new chapter in the Texas Chainsaw series looked to once again ignore every film after the original. Like Leatherface, this film also had a troubled production. The movie was announced to be released theatrically and even received a promotional website. However, between this announcement and the actual release, a lot changed. Directors were replaced, the entire script was rewritten, and the film was bought by Netflix to be released on their service. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is arguably a better legacy sequel than Texas Chainsaw 3D, but it has fans split.

The film sees a group of friends encounter Leatherface, who has been dormant for decades. There is no family dynamic, once again making Leatherface a run-of-the-mill slasher villain. The Sally Hardesty character returns as a Texas Ranger seeking revenge on Leatherface. Most fans agree this character is wasted and is a poor copy of Laurie Strode. This is the goriest film in the series, and while the film wasn't a total flop, it wasn't the rejuvenation the franchise is in need of. As of now, it is unknown if there will be a sequel or if the franchise will once again come to a standstill.

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