- "You don't like playin' with me anymore 'cause I'm a pussy, that's what you said. Well my nephew Tommy ain't no pussy, maybe you wanna play with him for a little while."
- ― Sheriff Hoyt, to Eric.[src]
Thomas Brown Hewitt, also known as Leatherface, is the main antagonist of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and the secondary antagonist of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.
Biography[]
Leatherface's given name is Thomas Brown Hewitt and after his mother Sloane died giving birth to him in August 1939 at the Blair Meat Co., a slaughterhouse where she worked, and her uncaring boss leaves the infant to die in a dumpster. A lady named Luda Mae Hewitt found him and took him home to raise him. The Hewitt's worked at and owned the Blair Meat Co., but after losing their jobs they switched to kidnapping people, murdering them (often by chainsaw or meat hook) and butchering their flesh, as family member Charlie Hewitt claims that he got the idea from eating human flesh in the Korean War after he became a prisoner of war.
Leatherface in this continuity suffers from facial disfigurement, a skin disease, that caused severe deformities and tumors to his face. Due to this disfigurement, other children bullied the boy. He wore a small leather mask to cover up his deformity, and worked at the same slaughterhouse where he was born, for the same boss as his mother and the same man who had left him for dead. He has a very large build and is believed to stand at 6’7". He also had a tendency toward self-mutilation.
In July 1969, after health inspectors shut the factory down, Hewitt's boss and a reluctant co-worker ordered him to leave. When Hewitt didn't, the boss and the co-worker bullied him, calling him a "retard" and a "dumb animal". Acting on a long-burning rage, Hewitt killed his boss with a sledgehammer. He later discovered the chainsaw he used as a weapon after searching the now abandoned factory. When Winston Hoyt, the local sheriff, tried to apprehend him, Thomas' brother/"Uncle" Charles "Charlie" Hewitt Jr came to his aid and killed the sheriff with his own gun. Charlie later assumed the sheriff's identity.
Hewitt later made masks of human skin by slicing off the faces of his victims.
Although Leatherface's family still manipulate him in this interpretation, they do show themselves somewhat more caring for him and less abusive than in the original film. Before killing the sheriff, his brother/uncle Charlie even defends him by saying, "He's not retarded, he's misunderstood." The cruelty he suffers at the hands of his peers, in part, inspires his murderous behavior, however it's his brother/"Uncle" Charlie who encourages his anti-social behavior and impulse.
On August 18, 1973, a survivor, Erin Hardesty cuts off Leatherface's chainsaw-wielding arm with a meat cleaver, and Erin is able to escape him, though Leatherface survives the attack. Leatherface escapes after police discover his ranch house and find the remains of 33 people. The police fail to secure the crime scene properly, allowing Leatherface to attack and kill two officers. Leatherface then escapes and disappears, and the case remains open.
Appearances[]
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Grind
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Fearbook
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2007 comic series)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Raising Cain
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: About a Boy
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: By Himself
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Cut!
- New Line Cinema: Tales of Horror #1
- Mortal Kombat XL (Cosmetic appearance only; "Butcher" variation)