The 2017 Leatherface Prequel

Lore & Background

The 2017 prequel reimagines the early life of Jedidiah Sawyer, the boy who would become Leatherface. Born into the degenerate Sawyer clan—a family that treats murder like a Sunday chore—Jedidiah is forcibly removed by authorities after a violent incident and locked away in the Gorman House asylum for nearly a decade. There, stripped of his name and subjected to brutal electroshock therapy, his fractured psyche is hammered into something hollow and dangerous. The film reveals that Leatherface's iconic masks aren't just trophies; they're a desperate attempt to forge a new identity from the faces of his victims, a grisly craft inherited from his family's butcher shop. Each mask is a new skin, a new self, stitched together with the same cold precision his mother used on cattle.

Reader's Guide

The film opens with a young Jedidiah Sawyer witnessing his mother's brutal butchery of a cow—a casual lesson in violence that sets the family's tone. After a local girl is killed, Jedidiah is taken by authorities and placed in the Gorman House asylum, where he is renamed 'Jackson' and subjected to electroshock therapy that leaves him drooling and near-mute. Years later, on his 18th birthday, a riot erupts, and Jedidiah escapes with a group of inmates, including the sadistic Bud and the manipulative Clarice.

They go on a killing spree across Texas backroads, eventually returning to the Sawyer property. There, Jedidiah is reunited with his family, who embrace his violent nature like a prodigal son. In the climax, he kills his tormentors and, under his mother's guidance, creates his first human-skin mask—stitching the face of a victim over his own, finally becoming Leatherface. The film ends with him wielding a chainsaw, ready to continue the family's legacy of terror, setting the stage for the 1974 film.

Did You Know?

• The film was originally intended to be a direct sequel to the 1974 original, but was reworked into a prequel during development.
• Actors from the original 1974 film, including Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns, were considered for cameo roles but did not appear.
• The character of Clarice was inspired by the real-life killer Clarice 'The Pig Lady' from Texas folklore—a woman who allegedly kept a herd of pigs that feasted on human remains.
• The film's title was simply Leatherface, omitting the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' branding in some international releases, making it feel like a standalone horror flick.