- There's a second alternate ending in which the heroine escapes the swamp and keeps running throughout the night and eventually stumbles upon a police station. Once she makes it inside, the sheriff pretends to want to help her.After a few moments, it's revealed that he's hiding a chainsaw under the desk and attacks her with it. It was implying that the whole town is involved with the Sawyer family.
- The uncut, unrated version released by New Line Cinema runs 85 min. (4 minutes longer than the theatrical cut.)
- New Line's "uncut" release includes the following changes:
- an additional shot of the gas station attendant cutting up the girlie magazine
- added gore in the woman's death in woods
- we see Michelle's hands nailed to the chair
- some added closeups involving Ryan hung on the hooks
- Leatherface puts lipstick on Michelle's face before revving his chainsaw
- the machine-gunning scene is more violent
- Momma dies onscreen during the "I'll be in Hell for breakfast" scene
- additional hits to Leatherface's head with the rock (11 total)
- The laserdisc edition also presents the alternate ending and sledgehammer scene used for the roughcut and not included in the film itself. The ending is as follows: Benny is killed in the lake in a more graphic shot. A burnt Tex then grabs Michelle as she tries to leave, and she pushes him up against a trap, where he is impaled. Michelle then is caught by Leatherface and hits him in the head with the rock. After falling asleep by a tree, she staggers down the road the next day and is passed by a police car. Flagging it down, she stops when she sees the little girl in the backseat, laughing. Michelle begins to cackle and collapses in the road; the last shot is of a "Don't Mess with Texas" bumper sticker. This ending is very rough, edited from both film and videotape sources. At one point you can hear crewmembers talking in the background. A counter is barely visible in videotaped shots, almost entirely matted out by the lower black bar. The sledgehammer scene goes as follows: the little girl suddenly walks into the kitchen and begs Tex to let her kill Ryan. He agrees and boosts her up on the counter, where she grabs a metal ring hanging from the ceiling. On the count of three, she pulls and a sledgehammer flies towards Ryan's head (the impact is still offscreen). The girl then catches his blood in a mug as she did for Michelle and puts the mug on the table. This scene is shown unmatted and from a somewhat worse film element than the movie. The music used to introduce the girl also plays in the background here.
- There is reportedly another alternate version, other than the uncut released by Newline: a roughcut that features deleted scenes and the original ending. The bulk of the deleted scenes contain the following:
- A scene where Tex, badly burned, is impaled by the spiked trap.
- The little girl releasing the sledgehammer that kills Ryan.
- Some alternate dialogue excluded from the theatrical print.
- The laserdisc version with all the extras is available on video and also has a different epilogue.
- First banned in Sweden in 1990, running time was 76 min. Passed 1 month later with 2 min of distributor cuts.
- The 85 min version was rejected (banned) in the UK, though it has been screened several times uncut on the cable/satellite channel 'Bravo' in the UK.
- Just as the first two had ratings problems (TCM was made for the "PG" rating but was given an "R", TCM 2 was made for "R" but was given the "X" and then released unrated), this movie was intended for an "R" rating and the Ratings Board insisted on "X", but with sufficient cuts it received the "R".
- The unrated version featured on New Line's Region 1 DVD has the original version of the sledgehammer scene put back in the movie where the little girl is shown participating in the murder. The unrated laserdisc had this scene as an extra in poor quality from a workprint.
- Some versions of the unrated version of the film still contain the reference to O.J. Perhaps after time the cut was reinstated or it was just changed for distribution in some areas.
- Passed uncut in the UK on 18 March 2004, running 84 mins and distributed by Entertainment in Video Ltd. Quote from BBFC's website (www.BBFC.co.uk): "This is the full version previously rejected on film in May 1990."
- The UK R2 DVD release has both the "director's cut" (DC) and "R Rated" (RR)versions as well as an alternate ending and various deleted scenes. The DC runs 4 minutes longer than the RR. About 2 mins of this extra footage is the build up to the murder of the guy by a wired-up sledgehammer. In the RR, "Tex" describes the device and then there is a rapid cut to a close-up of a hand pulling the rope setting the sledgehammer off. In the DC after Tex describes the device the little girl appears and asks the others to let her use it; they agree and Tex puts her on a counter and talks to her and then she pulls the string. There is also footage of her draining blood from the victim into a cup and taking this to Leatherface who is seated at the table. The rest of the additions consist of various gore shots - especially (a) the RR deletes all close-ups of the screws which have been nailed into Kate Hodge's hands including the extended shot of her freeing one hand by pulling it through the screw (b) several shots eliminated when Ken Foree machine-guns the cannibals including a shot of fingers being blown-off (c) several shots removed when Leatherface kills his first victim up against a tree. The deleted scenes section of the DVD reveals that this scene was intended to be more graphic but the special effects shots didn't really work (d) footage of Leatherface marking a "x" with lipstick on Kate Hodge's forehead prior to him reviving up his chainsaw is missing from the RR (e) close-up of the stabbing of Kate Hodge in the leg by the little girl also removed from the RR (f) footage detailing the skinning of William Butler have been removed from the RR as well as a couple of shots when he is strung up. (g) when the gas station attendant pulls a severed head out of his bag and throws it in the swamp the DC has additional footage of him kissing it (prior to him spitting at it). The alternate ending is the one described above (in which Ken Foree is killed and Kate Hodge sees the little girl in the back of the police car).
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What is the French language plot outline for Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)?
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