Here's How You Can Watch Every Movie In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Series
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is one of the most durable and dubious horror film series. The 1974 original is a classic, while the subsequent seven sequels, prequels, and reboots have a wide and wild spectrum of quality and tone. Some are better than others, but none of them have the transcendence of Tobe Hooper's based-on-true-events original, which introduced the chainsaw-wielding, skin mask-wearing psycho killer Leatherface, one of the most influential and terrifying movie villains ever. But you can't blame them for trying. When a movie makes millions on a budget of thousands, producers are always going to try to squeeze some more juice out of it (see also: the just-announced Paranormal Activity reboot).
If you feel like watching every Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, maybe because you're a completist or maybe because you want to determine how each installment in the franchise measures up against the original, we're here to help. We've compiled a handy compendium of where each Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie is available to stream, from the original through the most recent, 2017's Leatherface.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is easy to find
The late Tobe Hooper's franchise-starter, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is available to watch in many different places. It's available to stream for free with ads on IMDb TV (which is also accessible via Amazon) and Tubi, and with a subscription on the horror-focused streaming service Shudder and the classic cinema streaming service the Criterion Channel. It's also available to rent or buy on Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes.
The film tells the now-familiar story of a group of young people who, on a trip along Texas backroads, stumble upon a family of cannibals. The family's hunter is a hulking brute called Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who picks the travelers off until only one, Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), remains. They torture her and prepare to eat her, but she escapes, and the film's final, unforgettable image is her scream-laughing in the back of a pick-up truck taking her away while Leatherface manically twirls and waves his chainsaw in the air in rage and bloodlust while the sun rises behind him.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is on Starz
The second installment is less widely available. The only subscription-based streaming service it's available on is Starz, though it can be rented or bought on iTunes.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 came out 12 long years after the original. Director Tobe Hooper returned, but the sequel he made is drastically different from the original: it has a bigger budget, is much gorier, and has a lot more (really dark) comedy. It stars Dennis Hopper as Lefty Enright, a former Texas Ranger who has spent the past decade-plus trying to figure out what happened to his nephew, the first film's Franklin Hardesty. He gets more than he bargained for when he discovers the murderous Sawyer family, which now includes another memorable psycho, Chop Top (Bill Moseley), in addition to Leatherface (now played by Bill Johnson). This movie came out the same year Dennis Hopper was in the classics Blue Velvet and River's Edge and was nominated for an Oscar for Hoosiers. That was quite a year for Hop.
The next two are only available to rent
Installments three and four, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, are available on Amazon, YouTube, Fandango, and Vudu, but only to rent or buy. They're not available on any subscription or free streaming service.
Leatherface came out in 1990 and has the traditional TCM plot of travelers being terrorized by Leatherface (now played by R.A. Mihailoff) and his family of cannibals. It features a young Viggo Mortenson as Tex, one of Leatherface's relatives. The film is famous for initially being rated X for its violence and then being trimmed by several minutes in order to receive a theatrically viable R rating, according to director Jeff Burr. The movie itself is not especially good, but its trailer is insane and awesome.
The Next Generation is the weirdest movie in the franchise, a self-referential black comedy in which Leatherface (now played by Robert Jacks) and his family prey on a group of teenagers on prom night. Also known as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it stars Renee Zellweger as Jenny, the final girl, and Matthew McConaughey as Vilmer, Leatherface's psychotic brother. It was originally released with little fanfare in 1994, then re-edited and re-released in 1997 after Zellweger and McConaughey became big stars, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The two after that are their own thing
The franchise got a hard reset in 2003 with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a remake of the original starring Jessica Biel. It's set in 1973, and follows a group of young people who are on their way through Texas to buy weed in Mexico when they encounter Leatherface (now played by Andrew Bryniarski) and his family. It's a pretty standard early '00s slasher movie, but it's a little better than you'd expect it to be. It's available to rent or buy on Amazon, YouTube, Fandango, iTunes, or Vudu.
The remake got a prequel with 2006's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which showed the origin of Leatherface, once again played by Andrew Bryniarski, the only time the character has been played by the same actor in subsequent films. In the film, Leatherface makes a mask out of Matt Bomer's face. If you're going to take someone's face, Matt Bomer's is a good one! This movie has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in the franchise, a dismal 13% "Fresh." It's available to stream on Max Go, the Cinemax streaming service, and can be rented or bought on Amazon, YouTube, Fandango, iTunes, or Vudu.
Texas Chainsaw is all over the place
The next iteration is Texas Chainsaw, also known as Texas Chainsaw 3D, which was released in 2013 and served as a direct sequel to the original. It's available to stream for free on Tubi and The Roku Channel, with a subscription on Prime Video and Fubo, and can be rented or bought on Amazon, YouTube, Fandango, iTunes, or Vudu.
Texas Chainsaw stars Alexandra Daddario as Heather Miller, a young woman who travels to Texas in order to claim the inheritance left to her by a grandmother she didn't know about, as her parents never told her she was adopted. She and her friends (who include singer Trey Songz and Lost's Tania Raymonde) encounter Leatherface (now played by Dan Yeager), who has no family left and has been living alone in the ruins of the family home for 30 years. It attempts to make Leatherface into a sympathetic character with a psychological backstory.
Leatherface is still out there
The most recent film in the franchise, 2017's Leatherface (not to be confused with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, which is also called Leatherface), is available to stream on Peacock, and can be rented or bought on Amazon, YouTube, or Vudu.
This prequel is another take on a Leatherface origin story. This time, he's a young mental patient named Jackson (Sam Strike, who was meant to play Roland on the aborted The Dark Tower TV series) who escapes from the asylum and returns home to assume his birthright as a member of the sadistic, cannibalistic Sawyer family. The cast also includes Stephen Dorff as Texas Ranger Hal Hartman, who makes bringing down the Sawyers his mission as a lawman, and Lili Taylor as Verna Sawyer, the family matriarch. According to an iHorror interview with the film's writer, Seth Sherwood, the film is the first story chronologically in a trilogy of Leatherface, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Texas Chainsaw 3D.