Leatherface Slashes The Ethereum Blockchain With New 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' NFTs

The owners of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise have taken its iconic serial killer Leatherface into the Ethereum ETH/USD blockchain with a new non-fungible token (NFT) project.

What Happened: The NFT offering is dubbed “Leatherfaces” and features illustrations by appropriately named horror artist Skinner.

A total of 10,666 Leatherface avatars will be made available on Leatherfaces.io beginning on Nov. 13, but Leatherfaces is also selling 666 mint passes on Halloween, Oct. 31, for preferred pre-sale opportunities to NFT collectors with a penchant for gory horror.

“As a lifelong horror fan, it's an absolute honor to be able to bring Leatherface to the blockchain,” said John Hickman, founder of Ultra Rare, the U.K.-based digital collectibles, comics and games company coordinating the NFT offering.

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Why It Happened: The unlikely popularity of Leatherface began with the 1974 Tobe Hooper film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which was loosely based on the crimes of serial killer Ed Gein. Made on a $140,000 budget and released by the Mafia-connected Bryanston Distributing Company — which also released the 1972 porn classic “Deep Throat” — the film generated more than $30 million in ticket sales and was the 12th highest-grossing film of 1974.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” spawned a host of sequels, prequels and a 2003 remake. In August, Netflix Inc NFLX announced a franchise reboot with a new production directed by David Blue Garcia, who decided against shooting the film in Texas locations and opted instead for a production based in Bulgaria.

A release date for the Netflix film has not been announced, nor is it certain if it will be released in theaters or will only be seen on the streaming platform.

Photo: Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in the 1974 classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," courtesy Bryanston Distributing Company.