- "You got one choice, boy! Sex or the saw. Sex is, well, nobody knows. But the saw... The saw is family!"
- ― Drayton Sawyer, to Leatherface
Drayton Sawyer, or just simply The Cook, is the tertiary antagonist of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the main antagonist of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
He was portrayed by the late Jim Siedow.
Biography
Backstory
Virtually nothing is known about Drayton's early life. It's assumed that like the rest of the Sawyer clan, he used to work in the now-closed slaughterhouse in Newt, Muerto County, before opening the gas station he is found working at by the events of the first movie. It is of immediate note, that despite being said to be a brother to Leatherface and The Hitchhiker, he is much older than them. In fact, the original film neglects to name any villain other than Leatherface, and also never mentions Drayton, then "The Cook," as being one of their brothers, implying through behavior that he was meant to be their father.
1973
18th August
Drayton Sawyer makes his debut appearance in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, in which he first appears as the proprietor of a gas station and barbecue (with an unnamed car door window washer as an employee), where a group of teenagers stop while passing through the area. Drayton's malevolent nature is revealed later in the film, when he beats Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) unconscious and captures her after she approaches him seeking help when her friends disappear and her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) gets killed by Leatherface. Having been chased by Leatherface previously, she is highly hysterical after her shocking experience. Taking Sally to his home, Drayton torments her alongside his siblings, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and Nubbins the Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), before deciding to let the family patriarch, Grandpa (John Dugan), kill her. When Grandpa proves too decrepit to kill Sally with a hammer, Drayton, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface attempt to aid him, but only succeed in losing grasp on Sally, who flees out a window, he is the only one of the three brothers who does not pursue her choosing instead to stay behind with Grandpa.
1986
Drayton's Death
Drayton reappears in the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 , more than a decade after the events of the first film. The Sawyer family has since moved to Dallas and established themselves at Texas Battle Land, an abandoned amusement park outside the city, due to the intense police investigation that was sparked by the survival of Sally Hardesty, with what remains of his family, Leatherface (Bill Johnson), Chop Top (Bill Moseley) and Grandpa (Ken Evert). Now a competitive two-time award-winning chili cook, selling his food at a Chilli Cook-off (dismissing the bones and teeth as peppercorns), Drayton appears far more unhinged than in the previous film, happily joining in on his family's murderous frenzies, which previously disturbed him somewhat, though he still never kills anyone in the same brutal manner as his siblings.
In public, Drayton displays a very jovial personality, the same he did in the first film to lure the young adults to their deaths and most likely others. He seems to suffer from some form of mental illness that manifests when he's with his family, particularly around his brothers. He is an eccentric and emotionally unstable man throughout the film, and as time has passed since the 1973 incident, he has also become more business-savvy, taking his barbecue business on the road with an award-winning food truck service in an effort to both get as much distance from the police investigation as possible, and to expand his self-professed "chilli empire." Drayton dies, off-screen, at the end of the film, during the fight between Leatherface and Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper), he is accidentally struck in the rear end by Leatherface's saw and moments later, he detonates a hand grenade, planning to commit suicide and destroy the hideout with the explosion. In this film, Drayton also rambles about the plight of the small business man and how crooks, politicians and movie stars don't pay taxes, yet he and his poor family have to.
Legacy
Drayton's legacy in the third film
The only reference of Drayton made in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 was when Tinker Sawyer gave a large chromed chainsaw he crafted to Leatherface as a gift, in which its blade is engraved with a quote of Drayton's from the second film -The Saw is Family.
Personality
In all of his appearances, Drayton is a mentally unstable individual, who, as the new head of the family likes to boss everyone around. He seems to suffer from a mental disorder, possibly bipolarity or multiple personalities, as he is seen enjoying the torture of his family's victims, but at one point he flips personalities and is disgusted by the torment as his more empathic side surfaces. by the end his mentality seems to begin to get the better of him amongst all the screaming and hysteria, as shots of him at the table show him switching between laughing at Sally, then looking disgusted by the events, before going back to laughing about them all over the course of just a few seconds, implying that he's finally begun to lose control.
His multiple personality disorder has been discussed by Tobe Hooper several times, like on the audio commentary for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
Drayton often bickers with the rest of his brothers and is abusive towards them, and though he appears to be the head of the household, his brothers often mock and antagonize him and his authority. The more humane side of Drayton is revealed when he states "I just can't take no pleasure in killing" after his brother Nubbins accuses him of doing nothing but cooking while he and Leatherface do all the killing. This side seemed to have vanished in the second film, where Drayton is a much more violent and erratic character, at one point happily attempting to kill Lefty with a grenade he stuffed inside of Nubbins’ decayed corpse. He seems to have lost much of his wit and appearance of sanity in the first film, believing that a chainsaw wielding Lefty has been sent by a rival company to sabotage his business and rants about how the poor small business men like himself always “get it up the ass”.
The non-canon comics also portray Drayton as much more apathetic and lax towards his relatives murdering of people, with him, at one point, stating that he wishes the Hitchhiker and Jason Voorhees, who had just delivered to him a freshly killed couple, had brought him some children as well ("their meat's so much more tender..."). At one point in the comics, Drayton even attacks Jason with a meat cleaver and helps dispose of his body, which the Sawyer brothers dump into a lake. Drayton is also seen wearing an apron which reads "Kiss the Cook" throughout the series.
Appearances
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
- Jason vs. Leatherface
Trivia
- Drayton became the main head of the household, after Grandpa had become frail and weak over the years.
- He is the provider of the Sawyer Family.
- He is sometimes overlooked by his brothers, as they often mock him and his leadership, in which he attacks them verbally and physically for it.
- Drayton plays the role of a parent to his younger brothers, usually scolding them and their wrong doings which he perceives as silly and unnecessary.
- Drayton is a 2 time Texas-Oklahoma Chili Cook off Champion (1985/1986)
- The Last Chance Gas station is owned by Drayton.
