What actually happens
A hitchhiker who knows how this goes
On August 18, 1973, five young adults are driving to a concert after a trip to Mexico to buy marijuana: Erin, Kemper (her boyfriend), Morgan (her brother), and their friends Andy and Pepper. A traumatized hitchhiker walking in the road gets into their van. She tells them they are going the wrong way, talks about a bad man, and then kills herself with a revolver she had hidden in her dress. Next the group looks for a gas station to call the police from, and the owner, Luda Mae, sends them to meet Sheriff Hoyt at the Old Crawford Mill. There they meet a boy named Jedidiah, who says Hoyt is home drinking. Erin and Kemper walk to the house, where Monty, an amputee, lets Erin in to call for help. Kemper follows and gets a sledgehammer to the head from Leatherface, who pulls him down to the basement.
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Sheriff Hoyt finds the marijuana
Hoyt comes to the mill and takes the hitchhiker's body. Erin and Andy return to Monty's house to look for Kemper, and Erin keeps Monty talking while Andy searches. Monty calls Leatherface up from the basement, and Leatherface comes up swinging a chainsaw at Andy. Andy holds him off at first, but Leatherface catches him again and saws off his left leg. He carries Andy to the basement and hangs him on a meat hook. That is the scene people dread most, and it happens in the middle of the movie. Back at the mill, Hoyt finds marijuana on the dashboard, orders Erin, Morgan and Pepper to the ground, and makes Morgan reenact the hitchhiker's suicide with her gun, which turns out to be unloaded. He handcuffs Morgan and drives him to the house.
Tea with a side of sedative
Erin and Pepper hot-wire the van, but its wheels come off, and then Leatherface shows up wearing Kemper's face as a mask. Pepper is killed while trying to run. Erin hides in a trailer belonging to the Tea Lady and a younger woman named Henrietta, who gives her drugged tea. Erin finds that they have kidnapped the hitchhiker's baby, then passes out. She wakes up at the house with the whole Hewitt family around her. In the basement she finds Andy still hanging and, because she cannot lift him down, ends his suffering with a knife. She finds Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub, and they run. Jedidiah, who disagrees with his family and was made to stay outside with their dogs, helps them get out and distracts Leatherface. Erin and Morgan barricade themselves in a shack, but Leatherface breaks in and hangs Morgan from a chandelier by his handcuffs. He kills him with the chainsaw.
The slaughterhouse and the baby
Erin runs from Leatherface into a slaughterhouse and cuts off his right arm with a meat cleaver. Outside she flags down a trucker, who stops at the gas station instead of driving away. Erin sees Luda Mae and Hoyt talking to him while Henrietta watches the baby. Erin takes the baby from the eatery while Henrietta is outside, puts her in Hoyt's car, and hot-wires it. When Hoyt tries to stop her, Erin runs him over until he is dead. Leatherface appears on the road and takes his chainsaw to the car, but Erin keeps going with the baby. Leatherface kills two officers who come to investigate the house two days afterward, and nobody closes the case.
The ending, explained
Erin is the only member of the group who survives. Kemper, Andy, Pepper and Morgan are all dead. She escapes the slaughterhouse after cutting off Leatherface's right arm, takes the kidnapped baby from the gas station, and runs over Hoyt repeatedly until he dies. Leatherface slashes her car with the chainsaw as she drives away, but she gets out with the baby. The case is still open when, two days afterward, Leatherface kills two officers who come to look at the house.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed either way whether there is a scene after the credits. If you want to be sure, stay until the end.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies, and the family's dogs are not harmed.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre scary?
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. The fear comes from long chases, a family that has no intention of letting anyone leave, and a lot of violence.
How does The Texas Chainsaw Massacre end?
Erin is the only member of the group who survives. She escapes with a kidnapped baby after running over Sheriff Hoyt, and Leatherface later kills two officers who visit the house.
Does the dog die in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
No dog dies in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The family keeps dogs, and Jedidiah is made to stay outside with them, but none of the dogs is harmed in the story.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
Nobody has confirmed either way whether The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a post-credits scene.
Who is the family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
They are the Hewitt family: Leatherface, his mother Luda Mae, Sheriff Hoyt, Monty and Jedidiah. They live in a plantation house in the Texas countryside and have kidnapped the hitchhiker's baby.
