'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' ending explained: Is Lila successful in killing Leatherface? (Spoilers)

Netflix gave its slasher-loving audience a brand new installment in the famous franchise of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Directed by David Blue Garcia, the film revolves around Lila, her sister Melody, and their entrepreneur friends, who visit the small town of Harlow, Texas, with hopes of renovating it. They come face-to-face with the deadly Leatherface and reach an unfortunate fate.

Without further ado, let's dissect and understand the ending of the slasher horror film.

Note: This article contains spoilers.

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Analyzing the end of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

The final act of Texas Chainsaw Massacre sees Sally shoot Leatherface and stab him in the gut. But he strikes back with his chainsaw and puts it through her torso. Melody tried to ram him with Sally's truck but crashed instead, although she begged Lila to run. Melody, scared of her own fate, tearfully apologizes to Leatherface for what they did to his mother.

The scene where Lila holds a gun sends an array of messages to the audience as she herself was a victim of a school shooting and has been traumatized by gun violence. Yet, she gathers all her strength and gets ready to take down Leatherface with a gun, who has murdered her friends. When she pulls the trigger, it doesn't go off and Leatherface goes after her.

Kudos to Sally and her Hail Mary move, she gets Leatherface with two more shotgun bullets and makes him run off. Lila then takes the weapon, but Sally dies, officially passing the torch to Lila. However, a haphazard scuffle transpires and almost drowns Lila. The masked murderer returns and tosses his chainsaw at her ankle, but Melody jumps on his back to distract him.

Lila then makes it to the shotgun and successfully fires off a round, which shoots the chainsaw out of Leatherface's hands. The bullet hits him right in the chest and Melody comes in with the chainsaw. She pummels him in the jaw, delivering a potential death blow as he falls into the pool and sinks slowly.

Shaking off the horrors, Lila grabs Sally's hat and the old polaroid of Leatherface’s original victims - Pamela, Kirk, Jerry, and Franklin - and joins Melody in Dante's Tesla. But considering that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a slasher horror movie, it has to abide by some rules, which include the return of the murderer himself.

Leatherface may have been shot four times, stabbed in the gut with a hunting knife, knocked out by his chainsaw, and left to drown, but he is still impossible to kill. He pops out of nowhere to smash the window of Dante's car and takes Melody. Unable to stop the car, Lila watches from the sunroof as her sister's head gets chainsawed.

She motors away, crying hysterically, and mirroring the tearful escape Sally Hardesty experienced five decades ago.

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What happens to Leatherface in the post-credits scene?

At the very end of the credits, Leatherface is seen limping down a dirt road with his chainsaw. He is heading towards a quaint little farmhouse with a windmill. This is the house that Texas Chainsaw Massacre fans might recognize - it's where he lived with his brother in the early 1900s, where the first 1974 film was made.

In the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface lived in that house with his brother and his grandfather, but his brother was killed in the first movie. While his return has been seen in future films, along with other members of Leatherface’s family, viewers should note that the 2022 version of the film was originally supposed to be a direct sequel to the 1974 film.

Catch Texas Chainsaw Massacre streaming on Netflix.