Luda May Hewitt
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| The Texas Chainsaw Massacre character | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Luda May Hewitt | |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Location | Texas |
| Enemies | Everyone but her family in general, but particularly the types of teenagers who were cruel to her son. |
| Portrayed by: | Marietta Marich Allison Marich (younger version) [1] |
Luda May Hewitt is a fictional character from the 2003 remake of the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. She is portrayed by Marietta Marich. In the prequel the spelling of her name was changed to Luda Mae for unknown reasons. [1]
[edit] The films
Luda May Hewitt is the matriarch of the Hewitt family and the mother of Sheriff Hoyt. She found the young baby who would later become Leatherface abandoned in a dumpster, and took him in to raise him, naming him Thomas Brown Hewitt. [1]
Luda May runs a local butcher shop in Texas and is the first member of Leatherface's family that the teenaged protagonists meet in the first film. Unlike in the original 1974 film, in which Leatherface's family was somewhat abusive to him, Luda May is fiercely protective of him. Part of her hatred towards the teenagers is due to the abuse that her deformed, mentally retarded son suffered as a child at the hands of bullies. [2]
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. Once her husband dies, Luda May vows that she had stood by long enough and decides to look after her son and take responsibility for his shortcomings. [3]
Marich has commented that "Luda Mae is the matriarch of what I like to call the 'killer brood'. I always make up a personal history of characters I play, so I suspect that Luda Mae was a homeless young woman who had to make her own way during the Depression. When she finds Thomas, she takes him home, even though he's disfigured and hideously ugly, and protects him as much as possible from the cruel people he encounters and the world at large. That's her main purpose, and the only reason Luda Mae sticks around." [4]
In the prequel, she, with the rest of the Hewitt family, are discovered to be cannibals, something only implied in the first film. [1]
[edit] The comics
Luda May is a prominent character in Wildstorm Comics's continuation of the movies. With the family exposed after the events of the first film, the comics finds the Hewitt family living in a series of tunnels in the sewers of Travis County.
In the comics Luda May has become, perhaps in light of Sheriff Hoyt's death, more of a leader figure to the family than she was in the films. She exhibits more depravity as well (at one point snapping a victim's neck to prepare dinner) but still believes what she does is necessary for her family's survival, and that outsiders don't understand what she's been through and have no right to judge her.
Luda May also appears in the one-shot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: About a Boy. Taking place in Leatherface's teenage years, the story has a concerned teacher meeting with Luda May. The teacher tells her about evidence of Thomas' various problems, such as disturbing drawings in his notebooks and skins made from animals he caught and killed himself. Throughout the conversation, Luda May remains apathetic, stating that "There's nothing wrong with my boy". When the frustrated teacher threatens to contact the city about Thomas, Luda May retaliates, bashing in the teacher's head with a shovel, once again proclaiming that there was nothing wrong with her son. [5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Jonathan Liebesman (Director). (2006). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning [DVD]. United States: New Line Cinema.
- ^ Marcus Nispel (Director). (2003). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [DVD]. United States: New Line Cinema.
- ^ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre commentary
- ^ Page Title
- ^ Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (w), Joel Gomez (p), Troy Hobbs (i). "About a Boy" The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vol. 1, #1 (2007-07-18) Wildstorm
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