Though it's spawned a handful of sequels, it took more than 30 years for Tobe Hooper's ever-potent horror classic to get an "origin" story. Why is Leatherface so angry' Whose face does he wear as a mask' How did his family get their taste for human flesh' A 2003 remake revisited the original film, painted with post-millenial gloss by former music video director Marcus Nispel. For his second feature, director Jonathan Liebesman (DARKNESS FALLS) follows suit, though wisely eliminating the heavy rock soundtrack of the remake.

The film opens with the 1949 birth of the child who would become Leatherface--to an obese slaughterhouse worker. She dies during childbirth and the deformed baby is later found in a dumpster by his adoptive mother. Twenty years later, Chrissy (Jordana Brewster), Dean (Taylor Handley), Bailey (Doira Bird), and Eric (Matthew Bomer) are driving cross country before Dean leaves for his second tour of duty in Vietnam. A run-in with some bikers leads to an intervention by crazed cannibal clan leader Hoyt (R.Lee Ermey), who has just killed the sheriff of the dwindling Texas town and taken on the mantle himself. The chainsawing begins soon after.