Four patients escape from mental hospital. They are Leatherface, a teenage boy, together with his four inmates. While committing an escape, they kidnap a young nurse who seems to be happy to get out of hell. But an insane lawman follow them to get revenge.
Although French directing duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury add some extra griminess and the central mystery is clever enough, Leatherface never truly escapes just how pointless and misaligned its whole set-up is.
Two decades after co-starring in one of the defining mid-'90s indie films, Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff ended up in Bulgaria yelling at each other and getting covered in sticky Karo syrup and having more fun, I hope, than I did.
While the account is not terribly original, [Alexandre] Bustillo and [Julien] Maury bring a joie de mort giddiness to Leatherface. It's great to see their French New Wave/splatterpunk sensibilities come alive once again...
the film becomes a kind of whodunnit, or whowilldoit, as we try to second-guess which character will eventually put on the skin mask, and come of age from juvenile delinquent to adult family butcher and human meat chef.
