Directed by David Blue Garcia, the Netflix slasher movie “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” centers on Melody and Dante, two entrepreneurs who arrive in a Texas ghost town named Harlow with Melody’s sister, Lila and Ruth. The arrival of the four strangers awakens Leatherface, the brutal mass murderer. When Leatherface retrieves his chainsaw for a killing spree, Lila confronts the monstrosity of the cannibal killer. She stands between Leatherface and the life of her sister Melody, who is being chased by the former’s bloodstained chainsaw. If you’re curious about Lila’s fate, we’ve got you covered! FRONT SPOILERS.
Does Lila die?
No, Lila doesn’t die in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” When Melody is stuck at the orphanage, unable to leave due to Leatherface, Lila begins to search for her sister. She finds her in the basement of the orphanage and drags her outside. However, Lila’s actions to save Melody also lead Leatherface to spot her. While escaping the bus, Lila and Melody encounter Sally, who endangers the safety of the sisters for revenge. When Leatherface leaves Sally to die after seriously injuring her, the ranger asks Lila to kill Leatherface with her gun so as not to let it haunt her.
Lila, an activist who campaigns against the use of guns, is forced to pick up the shotgun to kill Leatherface. She chases him into a facility with the gun and tries her best to kill the cannibal, but fails. Leatherface overpowers her with his physique and drags her into a pool of water to kill her. Lila miraculously escapes drowning and defends herself from Leatherface’s strength and viciousness. She tries to get her hands on the gun but can’t.
As Leatherface heads towards Lila to kill her, Melody arrives unannounced and uses Leatherface’s chainsaw to kill him. The sisters leave him to die in the pool and get into their car; he returns and drags Melody out of the car and kills her. Lila can only helplessly stare at her sister’s decapitated head as the car drives forward.
Lila sees Leatherface – angrily holding Melody’s decapitated head – while being disappointed to leave Lila alive. Like Sally, the only survivor of the Leatherface massacre in 1973, Lila is forced to witness the death of her loved ones. Although she leaves Harlow alive, she carries with her the trauma of Leatherface’s murderous anger. Lila, a survivor of a school shooting, faces the riddle of using a gun as she encounters a murderous maniac in Leatherface.
The trauma of watching her friends die in the shooting and her anti-gun advocacy makes Lila reluctant to pick up the gun. However, she realizes the inevitability of killing Leatherface and accepts Sally’s gun when the latter offers it to her. As Lila leaves Harlow without killing Leatherface, she may deal with the trauma of her sister and friends’ deaths as well as the rage of leaving their killer alive.
Lila’s living escape from Harlow doesn’t necessarily mean she escapes Leatherface. The memory of the killer may haunt Lila for years as it haunted Sally until her presumed death. If so, she might be forced to take the gun back to exact revenge on her sister’s killer.
Read more: Who plays Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)?
