Caroline Williams reprises her role as Stretch from O Massacre da Serra Elétrica 2 (1986) in a cameo as a news reporter. Director Jeff Burr said he imagined Stretch becoming a reporter following the trauma she experienced in the second movie in an attempt to hunt down Leatherface.
The original script was much more brutal with explicit gore sequences. The producers objected to many of the scenes (one of which had a nude man being split down the middle while hung upside down) and demanded extensive changes to the script to reduce gore and violence. Further cuts had to be made to avoid an X-rating after the film was finished.
Director Jeff Burr was fired at the beginning of production. When nobody else accepted the job, he was rehired. He claims that he was probably the 50th director offered the job, as names like John McNaughton, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi,
Tom Savini, Scott Spiegel, Renny Harlin, and many others had all turned it down. He also claimed that New Line forbade him from talking to Tobe Hooper but never found out why.
Film trailer was done before they even had a director and before the production started.