Dinner with Leatherface (2024)
Directed by Michael Kallio
Featuring Gunnar Hansen, Jeff Burr, Bruce Campbell, Barbara Crampton, Kane Hodder, John Dugan, Allen Danziger, Bob Elmore, Michael Felsher, Danielle Harris, Kim Henkel, Del Howison, Gary Jones, R.A. Mihailoff, Edwin Neal, Daniel Pearl, Debbie Rochon, and so many more

When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hit theaters in 1974, nobody had expected to witness the birth of a new horror icon. Four years before Michael Myers made kids scared on Halloween and a full decade before Freddy made people afraid to go to sleep, there was this giant, crazed, mountain of a man hiding behind a bloody apron and a facemask of human skin . . . someone else’s skin. And his name was Leatherface. And he was played by 27-year-old Gunnar Hansen.

Hansen life is a strange tale because of the single role that made him a name is about as far away from the person you can get. Now that can be said about a lot of actors known for darker and disturbing roles, such as Robert England or Kane Hodder. But Hansen wasn’t one of those that was desperately trying to be an actor, taking on whatever roles he was offered to continue his rise. And he could have done just that. But the beauty of Hansen, and we really learn this in this new documentary, is that Hansen had more interests in life than acting. One of them being writing, especially writing poetry. Not what immediately comes to mind when you think of Leatherface, does it?

This documentary truly is a love letter to this gentle giant, showing all sides of him. We get to hear from all sorts of people, from fellow co-stars, other icons in the industry and even the people he worked with in the low and even lower budget films he worked on during the later part of his life. It really shows you the heart of this man, and once he was in the film, he was just one of the cast members.

It also shows, which I was thrilled to see, just how funny Hansen could be onscreen when given the right material. In the 2007 film Brutal Massacre, by Stevan Mena, Hansen plays a local who has rented his property out to a film crew who is making a horror film. Honestly, I always felt that Hansen was the best part of that movie and that every single time he comes on screen, he completely steals the scene. Shame he wasn’t given more roles like that.

The only negative thing I can say about this documentary is that it is a bit too long. Now hear me out. I understand they interviewed a LOT of people, and they wanted to get everyone’s stories in there, which I agree with. But as a documentary feature, there are a lot of the same stories, or the same feelings being told by multiple people. We all know they loved Hansen and miss him now, since a lot of these interviews were done after his passing in 2015. But there can be a bit too much of a good thing before it starts to feel like it is just going on and on. The feature runs 106 minutes and could have easily been edited down to 90 minutes.

But that’s the beauty of Blu-ray releases now, because all of that other footage could be added into the special features. They already have extended interviews and such in the special features, including almost another 20 minutes from associate producer Michael Felsher. There is another 6 minutes with director Jeff Burr, and close to another 20 minutes of “Tales of Gunnar”. All of these are great stories and needed to be archived, but I just didn’t feel it needed to be that much in the actual documentary, especially when a lot of the sentiments were the same.

None the less, I would highly recommend anybody that is a fan of the original TCM and of Hansen. He was definitely not the same cut of meat as most of the other guests you’d ever meet at a convention. If you never got a chance to meet him before he passed away way too soon, at least this documentary will give you a lot more insight into the man behind the apron.