A staple of a good slasher film or franchise, is an amazing villain. They have to be someone the audience can hate, but also root for. In the conversation around these iconic villains, a big topic is their evilness. They're nasty, they're cold to the core, evil and soulless. A good, long-lasting villain though, has to be more than that. They have to have an interesting enough back story to make people care enough throughout a franchise. And sometimes as the pieces are put together, it's revealed that the big bad villain may have been a victim all along.
There are some elements of this in Friday the 13th as Jason's backstory does make him sort of sympathetic, but ultimately that doesn't last too long. The franchise that really leans into this, to the point where it almost makes it seem like their killer is a true victim, is the one that kind of started it all. One of the original slasher series, with the original masked silent brute: Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The very first film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise was directed by Tobe Hooper and released in 1974. It's lauded as one of the best and most influential horror films of all time. It is also often credited as the real start to the slasher trend, and the first film to feature a silent, overpowered, murderer similar to Jason Voorhees or Michael Meyers. It follows a group of teens on a road trip to a family gravesite, and they decide to stop in at an old family property. There they, meet the insane Sawyer family and are terrorized by them. Specifically, the chainsaw-wielding Sawyer named Leatherface. One by one they are attacked and killed off.
Leatherface is huge and brutal. He doesn't talk or have too much of any personality. He doesn't even really have a consistent name, as it's changed multiple times throughout the franchise. And he definitely knows how to kill. Certainly, he is menacing. His mask of skin alone is incredibly frightening. And his murders, as well as the subsequent cannibalism, are nothing to think lightly of at all. However, it's clear from a few scenes in the franchise that he may not be doing this of his own volition. Even many scenes from the first film alone point to this, and upon a few rewatches the viewer even starts to feel sympathetic to Leatherface and his situation.
The way that Leatherface has been brought up and treated by his family is objectively very sad and unfair. In the first film, the way they speak to him is just very sad. Though he continues to kill people throughout the movie, and all the others, the vibe is kind of that he is a product of his family and not acting on his own account. It may not be explicitly said, but he seems to have some sort of mental disability making him easy to manipulate. And the Sawyer family takes advantage of this, as they do his large stature, and make him do their dirty work.
Throughout all of the films, starting with the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre this is evident. His family treats him like a baby though he is clearly a grown man. They are mean to him, and they yell at him and tell him what to do. He actually comes across as quite scared. All of this not only adds to a sympathetic angle to the character, but it gives the film some depth and complexity that makes the situation a bit more than it originally seems. This is a sinister plot on many levels.
Leatherface is a victim of his family just like everyone else who falls to them in the series, it's just shown a different way. He isn't killed by them, but he is abused by them. They do become physical at some points by hitting him, but it's mostly psychological. He is made to feel scared, and he is made to feel like he isn't worthy of thinking for himself. It's ultimately very tragic and makes him the tiniest bit less scary (though surely this wouldn't be the case if he was coming after you with his famous weapon). This does make things kind of complicated because, even if he is a victim, at the end of the day he is killing people and he doesn't stop. Which makes saving him somewhat of a lost cause, adding to the tragedy.
The character of Leatherface may be largely silent, but so much goes into his character that he really is one of the best-written villains. He is complex, and a figure that a lot of people feel a lot of sympathy for even though he's a murderer. Whether this was always intentional by the filmmakers is unknown, but the intention is kind of irrelevant when the majority see it this way. Looking at the series this way provides a new light that is deeper and more interesting than "Leatherface is nothing but an evil killer." With a new The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film on the way that is meant to feature the character even more, there's a good chance they will explore more of this.