#only to get barraged by niche homestuck analyses LMFAO

[nekropsii]

hey wait a second thomas hewitt is a valid troll name

Yup!! He’s also literally the most Vriska-type Slasher to ever exist. It’s actually pretty interesting. I’m going to infodump about Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies largely unprompted, now. Should this be put on my literal dedicated Horror blog instead? Yes. But for now, it’s a relevant topic to this blog, so who cares.

Content Warning: References to/Conversation About Violence, Gore, Self Harm, and Cannibalism.

Ok. Nerd rant time.

His life sucks so fucking bad that you can really see how and why he got to where he is now, and you really want to root for him, but… He descends into doing some things that are so sadistic that you really get emotionally torn between whether or not you should like him, lol. Personally, I love him to pieces. He’s prime Leatherface. They really nailed down the core of what makes Leatherface such an interesting character, while also getting super dark, violent, and serious with it. I recommend his Timeline if you can stomach some pretty gnarly gore. And when I say pretty gnarly, I mean it’s really fucking gnarly. They went a lot farther with it than the Original Timeline, and the name Texas Chainsaw Massacre fits here more than ever.

I think the really heavy gore and violence suits it, though. The change from the Sawyers to the Hewitts definitely did the story well- the Sawyers are kind of hard to take seriously, they’re really goofy, and the bulk of their strengths as individual characters and as a family lie in comedy. This is why Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the best movie in the fucking world.

The Hewitts, though…? Jesus fucking Christ. Not only is taking them seriously not a challenge, they’re downright terrifying. Their shared overt sadism goes above and beyond whatever was going on with the Sawyers, and that sadism takes itself much more seriously. This shift in tone is best shown by comparing both of these Timelines’s versions of Leatherface.

Fun fact, for the uninitiated. Leatherface is often touted as the “Big Bad” of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He is the iconic Slasher to come out of the franchise.

Now, what if I told you Leatherface isn’t who you should really be afraid of? Because Leatherface isn’t a “Big Bad” or anything. Yes, he’s definitely large- consistently clocking at over 6 feet tall, and built like a literal god damn fridge- and he’s definitely… Well, trying to kill and eat people, but he’s not at all the scariest person in the franchise by any means. Leatherface is designed to be kind of a sympathetic character, actually. He’s consistently a troubled disabled man who gets pushed around and bullied/abused by his family members constantly. He usually kills because he’s either scared, or ordered to do it.

You can see this the most in the first iteration of Leatherface, named Bubba Sawyer. Bubba is genuinely… Really fun to watch. I say this in the least infantilizing way possible, but he’s kind of adorable. He’s the softest one in the family, and acts as a “Mother Hen” type character. Despite his staunch loyalty to the family, they still really treat him like shit. He’s afraid of the outside world, because he’s been locked away from it his entire life. Threats to the family drive him into a panic, and if he fails to protect them, he spirals into a breakdown. He’s a sweetheart, if you ignore the whole “Murder and Cannibalism” thing!! I couldn’t fix him and I don’t want to, but god knows he’s a neat little dude.

Thomas Hewitt, on the other hand? He’s a different case entirely.

His backstory is fucked up, but very sympathetic. Mother died in childbirth, and he was thrown in a dumpster and left to die. He was then found by the Hewitts, who adopted him and raised him as their own. He has a pretty severe skin condition that led to him getting bullied really, really badly growing up, and now he has such a high level of self hatred that he’s noted to have a “penchant for self mutilation.” You can see his self harm scars in TCM: The Beginning, if you look. Him getting treated so horribly by everyone around him, as well as his family being… Well, the Hewitts, led him to develop a rather interesting trait for a Leatherface- actual real Sadism. He is so, so interesting to watch.

Sympathy is at the heart of Leatherface as a character. He’s never the worst person in the family by a long shot, and oftentimes is intentionally written in a way where if you take a moment to try to view the movie from his own perspective, he’s just terrified and trying to protect himself and his family. He’s desperately, horribly afraid of losing everything he’s ever known. He’s the only Slasher I’m aware of that acts not out of Malice, but out of Fear.

Tommy really likes to test that notion of Sympathy, and that’s why he’s so god damn fun to think about for me. Every element for a perfect Leatherface portrayal is there, they just took the aspect of Sadism in the entire family and cranked it up to fucking 100. I love this bitch so much. He does some severely fucked up things, but you almost want to root for him? They level the playing field really well by making the Victim Cast consist of genuinely pretty mean and intolerable people.

You want to root for the Final Girl, because the situation she’s in is genuinely fucked up to hell and back, but you also want to root for Tommy, because he’s been through the god damn meat grinder and you can tell he’s got no other choice… You don’t want to root for the Final Girl, because the Victim Cast consists of insufferable people, but you don’t want to root for Tommy, because holy shit some of the stuff he does is unnecessary. But also you do, because his design is so kickass it makes up for everything, but also you don’t, because his family sucks and doesn’t deserve to win, but also you do, because you want him and him alone to win. It’s complicated!! I’m absolutely obsessed with it.

Another Slasher with a valid Troll name is Leslie Vernon. I fucking love Leslie Vernon. Do not ask me about Leslie Vernon. Do not ask me about Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon in general. We will be here for several hours, and I’ve already reached my maximum amount of Horror Movie Autism for the day on this blog.

#at this point I use my horror blog to post about my OCs way more than I do to post about slashers and stuff #I’ve been using this blog for posting about existing horror WAAYYYY more than my horror blog #it’s almost comedic actually lol #i guess there’s just something really fun about infodumping to new people and introducing them to new media!! #I’m not gonna ‘main-tag’ this- I don’t need horror/slasher fans following thinking this is something I plan on posting here regularly #only to get barraged by niche homestuck analyses LMFAO #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms #horrorposting #<== tacking that onto any post involving horror movies now