Drayton's malevolent nature is revealed later in the film, when he beats Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) unconscious and captures her after she approaches him seeking help when her friends disappear and her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) is killed by Leatherface.
Taking Sally to his home, Drayton torments her alongside Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and the Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) before deciding to let the family patriarch, Grandpa (John Dugan), kill her.
After Leatherface and the Hitchhiker bring Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist of the Friday the 13th franchise home, Drayton befriends him and inducts him in as an unofficial member of the Slaughter family.
[14] The comics expand on Drayton's back story, revealing that, though he aspires to gain fame and fortune using his culinary skills in the city, he stays in the Texan backwoods due to a vow he made to his younger sister Velma on her deathbed, promising he would always look after her children, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface.
The comics also portray Drayton as much more apathetic and lax towards his relatives murdering of people, with him, at one point, stating that he wishes the Hitchhiker and Jason, who had just delivered to him a freshly killed couple, had brought him some children as well ("their meat's so much more tender...").
When Sheriff Hooper arrives at the Sawyer house from which Sally escaped earlier that day, Drayton comes out with a shotgun and tries justifying his family's actions by arguing that the characters from the first film were trespassing.
[9] Edwin Neal portrays him as a mentally unstable and murderous cannibal and grave robber; he lives with his equally depraved family, the Sawyers, in the back roads of Texas, capturing, torturing, and feasting on unwary travelers.
[14] The miniseries expands upon the Hitchhiker's character, revealing that he owns a pet dog named Sparky (whom he killed by shooting in the head and treats as if it were still alive) and that he creates furniture and sculptures out of corpses.
The hassle that ensues with Grandfather's continued dropping of the hammer and his grandchildren's over-eagerness to help him allows Sally to break free of the Sawyer family and jump out a window, though he and Drayton do not attempt to follow her.
Grandpa (Ken Evert), now 137 years old, later appears in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, inhabiting an abandoned theme park named the "Texas Battle Land" with what remains of his family; when the film's heroine, Vanita "Stretch" Brock (Caroline Williams), is captured by his grandson Chop Top (Bill Moseley), Grandpa is brought forth to kill her (in the same way he tried to do to Sally) with help from Chop Top, unlike in the first film here he actually lands a hit, though he succeeds in only causing a minor head wound to her with a sledgehammer (and a second wound caused by an impatient Drayton).
[20] John Dugan reprised his role in Texas Chainsaw 3D,[21] in which Grandfather is shown sitting inside the Sawyer house with his relatives as they are confronted by Sheriff Hooper.
Another brother of Leatherface and easily one of the least sane members of the family, he has a transradial prosthesis hook in place of a right hand for unknown reasons and an affinity for machines, chrome and technology.
In the Leatherface comics, Tink is depicted as a former party loving hippie, like his brother Chop Top from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and is fixated with classic rock music and a "Chrome Machine God" he believes controls everything.
Anne's role is expanded upon in the Leatherface comics, which depict her as a stereotypical kindly old woman, capable of speaking under her own power and is also shown to be more dangerous than in the film.
Verna dies, leaving her vast estate to Edith Sawyer, now "Heather Miller" who she tracked down years before but decided would be safer away from Newt, Texas.
[9] Vilmer is a rage-filled, psychopathic sadist and head of a family of serial killers, which includes two brothers: the excitable Walter and the chainsaw-wielding transvestite Leather (unlike the other films in the franchise, The Next Generation does not call this character "Leatherface").
by Vilmer and Darla) is depicted as being fairly educated and highly cultured, continually quoting famous historical figures and works of literature, even while torturing people.
[citation needed] According to the original 1974 film's art director Robert A. Burns on the audio commentary for the special edition DVD, that the gas station/barbeque stand owned by Jim Siedow's character the Old Man, was named "W.E.
His remake family, the Hewitts, includes his mother Luda Mae, his uncle Monty, his older brother/"uncle" Sheriff Hoyt, and three other members, whose roles have never been explained, like his apparent sister Henrietta, the Tea Lady, a morbidly obese, older woman obsessed with tea, who lives with Henrietta in a small trailer on the Hewitt property and a possible nephew named Jedidiah, a little boy who does not take part in his family's evil exploits.
A member of the Hewitt family and brother to Leatherface and an unnamed, Drayton Sawyer-esque character (simply called "The Cook"), the Hitchhiker look-alike utilizes a sledge hammer and bolt stunner as his weapons.
For example, when he is called to investigate the suicide of a young girl in the first film, he leers at the corpse and cracks jokes about his predilection for "copping a feel" on dead female bodies.
In Avatar Press' The Texas Chainsaw Massacre comics, set between the events of the first film and The Beginning, Hoyt regularly appeared, most often having unwary travelers venture to the Hewitt home where he and family would butcher them.
Hoyt is depicted as exceedingly sadistic in the comics, regularly mocking and torturing victims to the point of mutilating them, justifying his actions under a "they got what they deserved"-esque pretense, as shown when he forces an escaped convict and drug dealer to snort cleaning chemicals.
After knocking them both out with a cattle-prod, Hank proceeded to torture and ultimately murder the cameraman in the same exact way that the animals were prepared (by slitting the throat and letting the blood drain, and then tossing him into a vat of scalding hot water before 'rendering' the meat) while the newswoman watched.
[27] On the commentary for the DVD release the writers revealed a cut plotline that, prior to the prequel's continuity, involved Leatherface's abusive father locking him in a woodshack for three years.
Prior to the events of the 1973 Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the 2003 remake, Henrietta lived in a trailer with her corpulent tea-drinking mother (name unknown) not far from the Hewitt residence.
He died before the events of the comics, after he and his brothers attacked a family out camping, during which Adam is shot in the eye by the couple's son and blindly stumbled into the campfire, burning to death.
After driving with his sister, Sally, and their friends to see if a family funeral plot was tampered with after a series of grave robbings, wheelchair user Franklin and the other motorists run out of gas by an old farmhouse in rural Texas only to become prey for the crazed Sawyer clan.
College student Michelle, while en route to California with her boyfriend Ryan to return a car to her father in Florida, encounters Leatherface and his deranged family.
The main female protagonist of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Jennifer and her friends encounter Leatherface and his family after ending up in a car accident on prom night.