“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise is one of the few film series whose name alone could make squeamish folks ill. There’s no way to consider it without facing the blood, sinew and gore erupting from the weapon of choice of Leatherface, the cannibalistic killer who ties things together. The gnarly reputation of the series was cemented by the 1974 microbudget indie that kicked it all off, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” directed, produced and co-written by horror legend Tobe Hooper. Despite it being a box office hit, sequels were oddly paced, often retconning, reconstructing and revising details decades after the original. To celebrate the release of the newest sequel-to-the-original, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Variety is ranking the films in this rambunctious and wildly uneven franchise.

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast