| Director | John Luessenhop |
|---|---|
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $47.3 million |
In 1973, after her friends and older brother were brutally murdered by a mysterious man in a human skin mask, Sally Hardesty escapes from the murderous Sawyer clan's farmhouse and gives a statement to the police. The people of Newt, Texas, led by Burt Hartman, arrive and burn down the Sawyer farmhouse in an act of vigilante justice. The arsonists are proclaimed heroes of the community, and the entire Sawyer family is killed. However, an infant with a burn mark on her chest is found by one of the townsmen, Gavin Miller, who promptly murders her mother, Loretta Sawyer. Gavin and his wife take the child into their care and raise her as their own daughter.
In 2012, a woman named Heather discovers that she was adopted after receiving a letter informing her that her grandmother, Verna Carson, has died. Heather, her boyfriend Ryan, her best friend Nikki, and Nikki's boyfriend Kenny travel to her grandmother's home to collect her inheritance. Along the way, the group picks up a hitchhiker named Darryl. Upon arriving, Heather is given a letter from Verna's lawyer, Farnsworth, that she neglects to read. As the group explores the house, they decide to stay the night. Heather and her friends leave to buy food and supplies, leaving Darryl behind to look after the house. Darryl begins stealing valuables and is killed by Leatherface when he unlocks the door to the basement, freeing him.
Heather and her friends return to find the house ransacked. While Kenny is preparing dinner, he goes downstairs to the cellar where Leatherface impales him on a hook, before slicing him in half with a chainsaw. Heather finds Verna's decomposing body upstairs and is attacked by Leatherface in the kitchen, but she manages to escape. Nikki and Ryan draw the attention of Leatherface, while Heather gets in the van and picks up her friends. Leatherface cuts one of the tires with his chainsaw, causing the van to crash, killing Ryan on impact. He chases Heather to a nearby carnival, where Deputy Carl is patrolling the grounds.
While at the police department, Heather begins digging through the files, learning how the Sawyer family was killed and empathizing with them. The sheriff and Burt send an officer to investigate the Carson estate. Over the phone, the officer reports his findings. He finds Nikki hiding in a freezer, but inadvertently shoots her dead before he himself is killed by Leatherface with an axe. Leatherface cuts the skin from the officer's face and uses it to create a new mask. Enraged by the officer's findings, Burt vows to end the remaining Sawyers. Heather leaves the station and meets with her lawyer at a bar. He tells her that Leatherface is her cousin, Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer, who survived the farmhouse's burning. Heather escapes the bar when Burt finds her and runs into Deputy Carl in his patrol car. As they drive away, Carl reveals himself as Burt's son. He kidnaps her and takes her to the Sawyer family's slaughterhouse and ties her up to lure Leatherface.
Listening over the deceased officer's police radio, Leatherface learns of Heather's location and goes to the slaughterhouse to kill her, but releases her after seeing a Sawyer sigil birthmark on her chest. Leatherface is attacked from behind by Burt and his friend Ollie. Heather takes the opportunity to escape. As Burt and Ollie prepare to throw Leatherface into a meat grinder, Heather returns and kills Ollie, and tosses Leatherface his chainsaw. In the struggle, the sheriff arrives but hesitates to stop Leatherface from killing Burt. Leatherface severs both of Burt's hands with the chainsaw, causing him to fall into the meat grinder.
The sheriff lets Heather and Leatherface go. Afterward, Leatherface and Heather return to the Carson Estate, where Heather reads Verna's letter. It informs her that her real name is Edith Rose Sawyer, that Leatherface lives in the basement behind the metal door, and that he will protect her for the rest of his life, but it also requests that she take care of him in return. After seeing Leatherface burying Verna's body with great care, Heather accepts how his mental state drove him to commit his crimes. She also notes how elderly he's become and accepts him as her only family.
In a post-credits scene, Heather's adoptive parents arrive at the Sawyer estate to visit her, only to be met with a chainsaw-wielding Leatherface as he answers the door.