Thomas Brown Hewitt, also known as Leatherface, is the secondary antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism with his adoptive family.
Biography[]
Thomas Brown Hewitt was born in 1939 and abandoned in the trash after his mother died from childbirth. A lady named Luda May Hewitt found him and took him home to raise him. His family owned a slaughterhouse, but after losing their jobs they switched to kidnapping people, murdering them and eating their flesh, as family member - Charlie - claims that he got the idea from cannibalism in the Korean War.
Leatherface in this continuity suffers from a disfigurement, that caused severe deformities to his face. Due to this disfigurement, his muteness and mental disability, other children feared the boy. He wore a small leather mask to cover up his deformity, and worked at the same slaughterhouse where he was born. He also had a tendency toward self-mutilation, and a doctor diagnosed him as suffering from a type of neurodegeneration at age 12.
Although Leatherface's family still abuse 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 ain't retarded, he's misunderstood." The cruelty he suffers at the hands of his peers, in part, inspires his violent behaviour.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre[]
When Kemper goes inside the farmhouse to look for Erin, Thomas "leatherface" Hewitt emerged from behind and clubbed him over the back of the head with a mallet. He then took Kemper down to his work shop where he finished him off and then skinned his face. Thomas turned Kemper's face into a skin mask.
Meanwhile, Hoyt arrives at the mill, and disposes of the hitchhiker's body. After Erin discovers that Kemper is missing, she and Andy go back to Monty's house, and Erin distracts him, while Andy searches for Kemper. When Monty realizes that Andy is inside, he calls upon Leatherface, who murders him with a chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods, but Leatherface severs Andy's leg, and carries him to the basement, where he is placed on a meat hook.
Erin and Pepper are tracked down by Leatherface, who is wearing Kemper's face as a mask, and when Pepper attempts to run, she is killed by Leatherface. Erin runs and hides in a nearby trailer, belonging to an obese middle-aged woman known only as the Tea Lady, and a younger woman named Henrietta, who give her drugged tea. Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house, surrounded by the entire family: Leatherface, his mother Luda May, Hoyt, Monty, and Jedidiah. Luda Mae explains to Erin that Leatherface was tormented his whole life, because of a skin disease that left his face disfigured, and she felt that no one cared for her family besides themselves.
Erin is thrown in the basement by Leatherface, where she finds Jedidiah and an injured Morgan. Jedidiah leads them out of the house, and distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned shack in the woods, and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks Leatherface, who hangs him from a chandelier by his handcuffs, and cuts through his groin with the chainsaw. Erin escapes into the woods with Leatherface in tow. She finds a slaughterhouse and attacks Leatherface with a meat cleaver, severing his right arm and giving her enough time to escape. Two days later, two investigating officers are killed by Leatherface while doing a crime scene investigation of the Hewitt residence.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning[]
In 1939, a woman dies while giving birth in a slaughterhouse, and the manager disposes of the baby by leaving him in a dumpster outside. When young Luda Mae Hewitt, finds the child, she takes him back to the Hewitt residence, names him Thomas, and takes him as her own son.
In 1969, Thomas, works in the slaughterhouse under the same manager that left him in the dumpster. When the plant is shut down by the health department, he refuses to leave until the manager makes him do so. Thomas later returns to murder his manager, and finds a chainsaw, which he takes with him. When Sheriff Hoyt attempts to arrest him, Luda Mae's son, Charlie Hewitt, kills him, and assumes his identity. He then takes his body back home to use for meat.
Chrissie finds Dean, while Holden takes Hoyt hostage, and orders him to take him to Alex. Hoyt calls out to Thomas for help, and he kills Holden with the chainsaw. Chrissie finds Eric in the basement, but is unable to free him, and hides when Thomas returns. Thomas inspects Eric's face before killing him with the chainsaw. He then skins his face, and wears it as a mask.
Chrissie is about to flee when she hears Bailey's screams, and decides to go back and save her. She finds her upstairs, but Hoyt catches her and brings her downstairs for dinner, along with Bailey and an unconscious Dean. Leatherface slits Bailey's throat and tries to take Chrissie to the basement, but she stabs him in the back with a screwdriver, and jumps out of a window. Chrissie enters the slaughterhouse, and after noticing that Leatherface has followed her, she grabs a knife and cuts his face, but he overpowers her. Dean intervenes, but Leatherface kills him with the chainsaw.
Chrissie escapes, hijacks an abandoned car, and drives off. She sees a state trooper in the distance, but as Chrissie pulls over, Leatherface appears in the backseat and impales her with the chainsaw, causing her to lose control and run over both the trooper, and the man he pulled over. Leatherface then exits the car and walks along the road back towards the Hewitt house.
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