Leatherface (2017)

Carl Mazzocone

Les Weldon

Mainline Pictures

Verna Sawyer

Leatherface Sawyer

## Overview

In 1955, couple Betty Hartman and Ted Hardesty are driving down a country road when they come across the seemingly wounded child Jedidiah Sawyer. In an attempt to help him, Betty follows him to a dilapidated barn, where she is promptly killed by his murderous and sadistic family. Her father, Sheriff Hartman, is called to the crime scene, where he is shocked to find his daughter deceased. Despite the efforts of matriarch Verna Sawyer, Hartman responds by taking Jedidiah into custody as retribution against the Sawyers, sending him to a mental institution known as the Gorman House Youth Reformery.

Ten years later at the Gorman House, where inmates are renamed to avoid their dangerous families, nurse Elizabeth White forms a bond with a boy named Jackson. Verna later shows up to the institution with an injunction to allow family visitation, only to be rejected by the director of the facility, Doctor Lang. On the way out, she violates security, causing an escape riot in which many of the nurses and patients are killed. Elizabeth is saved by Jackson, who gets her outside where they are taken hostage by escapees Ike and Clarice.

The group arrives at a rest-stop diner after ditching their Gorman House uniforms. In an altercation with waitress Tammy, Ike and Clarice begin a murder spree within the diner which forces them to flee. Hartman arrives on the scene and pieces together that one of the escaped inmates is in fact Jedidiah Sawyer. That night, the escapees take refuge in an abandoned mobile home. Believing that everyone is asleep, Elizabeth tries to escape but Ike stops her from doing so. He then becomes engaged in a fight with Jackson and insults Bud, leading to his demise. The next morning, Clarice notices Ike is missing and heads off to find him. She searches the woods and is consequently apprehended by a patrolling Hartman. Upon disparaging both him and his dead daughter, he impulsively kills her as the others watch from a distance. Horrified, Elizabeth flees with Jackson in tow. As a police car passes, she screams for help, causing the deputy to notice them.

The deputy attempts to call for backup, resulting in the killing of Bud in the ensuing struggle. An enraged Jackson kills the deputy. Panicking, Jackson and Elizabeth steal his vehicle and try to reach safety, but are pursued by the deranged Hartman. He opens fire on them and one of the bullets severs Jackson's face, while another injures Elizabeth, causing the vehicle to careen off the side of the road. Later that night, Elizabeth regains consciousness at the barn where Betty Hartman was murdered, discovering that she and Jackson are being held hostage by Sheriff Hartman. Planning to kill them, he gleefully tells Elizabeth that Jackson is really Jedidiah Sawyer. However, the Sawyer family arrives to save the helpless Jedidiah, beating Hartman into submission and taking all three of them into captivity.

Back at the Sawyer home, Verna stitches the remnants of Jedidiah's face and applies a muzzle to hold them together. She then leads him into a room where his siblings are holding Elizabeth and Hartman captive. Verna gifts Jedidiah with a chainsaw and Elizabeth watches in horror as he bisects Hartman to death. As the family celebrates, Elizabeth flees into the woods while the Sawyers give chase. She nearly escapes, only to be caught in a bear trap. Elizabeth attempts to appeal to Jedidiah's sympathy, while Verna encourages him to kill her to protect their family. Unable to recall events prior to his injury, Jedidiah begins to listen to Elizabeth's pleas, but kills her after she insults Verna. The next morning, Verna burns the evidence of the prior night's events and the other Sawyers feed the remains of their victims to the pigs. In the house basement, Jedidiah crafts the faces of Hal Hartman and Elizabeth into a mask, donning it in front of a mirror as he applies lipstick. The film ends with him smashing the mirror at the sight of his reflection.

## Cast

* Stephen Dorff as Texas Ranger Hal Hartman
* Vanessa Grasse as Elizabeth "Lizzy" White
* Sam Strike as Jedidiah Sawyer / Jackson
* Lili Taylor as Verna Sawyer
* Chris Adamson as Doctor Lang
* Finn Jones as Deputy Sorells
* James Bloor as Ike
* Jessica Madsen as Clarice
* Sam Coleman as Bud

## Villains

* Clarice Moseley
* Ike
* Verna Sawyer
* Leatherface Sawyer