I think I posted this specific topic on this thread already, but I wanted to add another note which popped into my mind, since it's relevant to the general symbolic question, "Why does Leatherface seem like Boogeyman?"
"Can Leatherface be killed?"
In every movie about him (thus far), he does not get fatally wounded, though he certainly gets injured.
Imagine a 'gung-ho' vigilante type (maybe some new age left-wing idealist who refers to himself happily as 'The Shadow') builds a camp right outside Leatherface's house and then lures him into a forest where he has laid out a giant hidden ditch filled with metal spikes. As Leatherface runs towards 'The Shadow,' the vigilante blows a deafening whistle and shines a blinding torch-light into the psycho's face to discoordinate him, and when the psycho falls into the ditch thinking he will reach 'The Shadow,' the vigilante douses him with corrosive acid. This 'kit-tactic' approach could work, since the brutish maniac is somewhat burdened by that heavy chainsaw he wields like Excalibur.
Seems like a 'straightforward plan' (!), but the point of this random suggestion is to posit the notion that the reason we can liken Leatherface to the Boogeyman is that he is simultaneously pseudo-immortal and eerily goofy.
Is 'goofy' a common feature of screen ghouls?
Goosebumps city!
