It all started in 1974 when a man wearing a human mask made of skin began horrifying audiences with a cheap suit and a chainsaw. Nobody truly knows what it was that caused Leatherface to become the menacing horror icon he is today. Maybe it was the human skin masks, maybe it was the creepy dysfunctional family, or maybe it was the fact that he swung around a giant chainsaw to kill people.

Leatherface, circa 1974 and his more updated look in 2006.

Well, regardless of Leatherface’s chainsaw revving legacy, the chainsaw itself saw a decline in its horror-like appeal during the 80’s and 90’s, that is, until its recent menacing revival in the video game industry over the last few years.

Exhibit A) Resident Evil 4 & 5

I’m not sure which one’s scarier… a man wearing a potato sac over his head and a chainsaw, or a woman with a serious case of leprosy and a chainsaw? 50/50?

They were so pleased with the addition of the chainsaw villager(s) in RE 4 that they decided to release an actual chainsaw controller for both the Gamecube (pictured above) and PS2.

Resident Evil 4 marked the triumphant return of the chainsaw to its former horrifying glory. If you’ve played the game, which I highly recommend, then you should remember the very first time you heard the initial rev of the chainsaw in the opening village. Leon enters a Las Plagas infected village where the people are more interested on seeing what his insides look like than they are in his questions concerning the whereabouts of the president’s daughter. Leon proceeds by eradicating the hostile villagers with guns blazing. Everything seems to be fairly easy, and despite the anxiety from the swarming villagers, Leon can hold his own. However, the player suddenly hears a gas powered chainsaw rev up in the distance and automatically begins to panic. It doesn’t matter where you are in the village because the chainsaw maniac with a sac over his head (very reminiscent of Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13^th: Part 2) will find you and sever your head off. What’s even more unsettling than the wildly wielding chainsaw man is the fact that normal pistol bullets don’t necessarily halt his attempts towards you, and he seemingly never dies. I remember the first time I played the game, I sat there with my shotgun and unloaded shell after shell and he just kept getting back up with that damn chainsaw.

Resident Evil 5 hits store shelves sometime in Q1 of 2009. Watch out for flesh eating villagers and another giant chainsaw wielding guy. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Resident Evil 5 saw a lot of lime light at this year’s E3 and as a result we were rewarded one of the first glimpses at the new chainsaw bearer. Unlike sac-head from RE 4, this chainsaw man is tall, dark and eerily skinny, not to mention incredibly terrifying. I can only imagine that he’s faster, stronger and harder to kill than his RE 4 predecessor. I guess we’ll just have to wait until early next year to see this Leatherface wanna-be in action.

Exhibit B) Gears of War (series)

You probably can’t see from the ridiculous amount of blood in this screen shot, but that is in fact a Locust getting chainsawed…Ouch?

You can say whatever you want about how awesome Gears of War was, and I’ll let you say what you’re looking forward to most about G of W II; however, deep down in your heart you know that the coolest thing about this rather new franchise was the inclusion of the chainsaw gun. You know the feeling of injuring your opponent just enough to finish them with the chainsaw or sneaking up on them and anticipating the future satisfaction of unleashing the chainsaw upon their unbeknownst self.

Gears of War quickly became the 360’s flagship game in 2006. Its mission was to satisfy gamers until 2007’s release of Halo 3, yet the franchise became something entirely bigger than itself. Later this year, gamers will have another great chance to get to chainsawing the helpless in full force and online in Gears of War 2.

Exhibit C) Mad World

Not much has been revealed about this mysterious game in development for the Wii, but one can see from this screen above that it looks particularly friendly. The game’s visuals are strictly black and white with a barrage of red that frequently paints the screen. Players assume the role of Jack, who as it seems has a thirst for blood and lots of it. There hasn’t been any news on the game’s plot or an in-depth view at the protagonist’s life. All people know right now is that Jack likes to kill people, and he likes to do it in several different ways – one of them being with a chainsaw, which just so happens to be built into his arm. This is a great addition because being as it is a Wii game, players will have the opportunity, nay, the privilege to personally wave their Wii remotes as if they were make-shift chainsaws – umm, yes!

So what was the leading cause to rekindle the dying fire of chainsaws in the media? And why did the video game industry choose to be the fuel to the fire? I haven’t the slightest idea, but I like it…I like it…a lot.

If you have any other chainsaw oriented games that I neglected to mention, feel free to shoot me a comment.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Dillon (D-Dub)