Dinner With Leatherface Blu Ray Review (Anchor Bay Entertainment)

Dinner with Leatherface is a 2024 horror documentary written, shot, produced, co-edited, and directed by Michael Kallio (Hatred of a Minute, Survive!, Mutant Swinger from Mars, Inner Demons, The Scout, Lizard People: The Truth About Reptilians, and Koreatown). Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Demon Lover, Campfire Tales, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Brutal Massacre: A Comedy, Freakshow, Texas Chainsaw, and Mosquito) was much more than just being the original Leatherface in 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s time to really meet the man behind the mask. His friends, colleagues, filmmakers, and fellow actors all share their personal stories and they discuss the dichotomy between the maniacal chainsaw-wielding character he played on-screen and the very intelligent, creative, soft-spoken man he actually was in real life!!!! Dinner with Leatherface is a very fascinating documentary about the horror icon. Director Michael Kallio shows you a more personal side of Gunnar Hansen that most people do not know about. Yes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Leatherface are heavily covered in this but that’s expected. It’s one of my all time favorite horror films so I’m always down to learn more about it. It has some never before seen footage of images from it here. Dinner with Leatherface features a variety of people that worked on the classic such as John Dugan, Allen Danziger, Teri McMinn, Edwin Neal, William Vail, Kim Henkel, and Daniel Pearl. Everyone goes into great detail about their experiences, collaborations, and relationships over the years from it. He tried to be in the sequel but they refused to pay him anything decent for it and they just treated him like another guy under a mask. Gunnar Hansen was actually offered a big role for the original The Hills Have Eyes but he turned it down. He didn’t act again until for a few more years with The Demon Lover. Gunnar was a talented writer that loved doing poems and he wrote some books over the years. He took a 12 year break before returning to the screen with Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. After that, he decided to make a career out of it. This lead to the actor doing horror conventions. I can speak from personal experience, he was a very nice guy in person. He instantly connected with fans and he enjoyed catching up with all his old friends there. Dinner with Leatherface has interviews with Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead franchise), Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th franchise), Danielle Harris (Halloween franchise), Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp franchise), Debbie Rochon (Terror Firmer), Tiffany Shepis (Tromeo and Juliet), Brian O’Halloran (Clerks franchise), Jeff Burr (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), Fred Olen Ray (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers), and many others. This full length feature covers basically Gunnar Hansen’s entire career which is very impressive considering lots of these way smaller and damn near unknown. It highlights his normal life and all his great qualities as a human being. They all share their dinners and memories with the big man with even bigger heart. It didn’t bother me because I’m such a huge fan but I can see casual viewers thinking it was probably about 20 minutes too long. Regardless, this is one of better documentaries that I’ve seen in awhile. You can tell it was a passion project and everyone involved generally cared about Gunnar Hansen. Dinner with Leatherface was very fun and it was really entertaining when getting to know about the actor. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Anchor Bay Entertainment! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer looks great on blu ray especially considering how many different sources it took to put together all the different interviews for this documentary. It has an English: Dolby Digital 5.1 on the disc. The solid audio for this type of feature generally won’t blow anyone away but it still does the job. All of the interviews are very clean, the stories are elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH and Spanish subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with director Michael Kallio and editor Josh Wagner. It has an almost 20 minute “Extended Interview” with filmmaker and historian MIchael Felsher. He chats about going to conventions just to hang out with Gunnar. He talks about his friend and shares his own experiences with him. He brings up his amazing skills at telling stories. It has a little over 6 minute “Extended Interview” with director Jeff Burr. He chats about how he first met Gunnar. He actually wanted to talk about The Demon Lover and that was something different for the horror icon at the time. He mentioned Peewee Herman being brought up when it came to him at a club and Hansen always teased him about it. He goes over trying to get him to be in his Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel but it unfortunately never worked out. It has the 6 minute “Convention Chat” with actress Danielle Harris. She chats about her interactions with Gunnar at horror conventions. She shares video footage of her interviewing him at a con with a variety of questions. It has the “Southern Hospitality Trailer”. It has the almost 20 minute “Tales of Gunner Hansen”. This has all kinds of cut and unreleased conversations from Dinner with Leatherface with so many different people. It has some really interesting stuff that didn’t make the final version. A possible special edition or extended version is teased at the beginning. This is a must own and it should be in every horror fan’s collection. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!