Luda May Hewitt is the mother of Charlie Hewitt, the adoptive mother of Thomas Hewitt and the tertiary antagonist of the 2003 remake and it's 2006 prequel.
She also appeared in the prequel film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning in 2006.
In both films, the character was played by Marietta Marich as Adult while Allison Marich played a young Luda May in the 1939 flashback from the prequel film.
Her Story[]
In July of 1939, Luda May Hewitt was found scrambling around bare foot near the Lee Bros. Meat Processing Plant scrounging for food. While picking through a dumpster, she heard the sounds of a baby crying.
She recovered an infant from the adjoining dumpster which suffered from severe birth defects.
Taking the child as her own, she brought him back to the Hewitt residence and presented him to Charlie Hewitt who declared that it was the "ugliest damn thing" he had ever seen.
Luda May thought that he was beautiful however. She named him Thomas and raised him as her own son.
On July 9th 1958, a school teacher named Mister Hansen comes to the Hewitt household to speak with Luda May.
He told her that the town school that Tommy attended was being shut down due to budget concerns and that the students were being transferred to a school in Lynchfield.
His main concern though was Thomas himself. He told Luda May that Tommy's physical and mental handicaps make him a target for ridicule and he felt that his diminished capacity for learning would be better served at a special school.
He said that he became aware of Tommy's predilection towards trapping and skinning small animals. Luda May listened quietly, but insisted that there was nothing wrong with her boy.
If Tommy's behavior seemed irrational, she states, it was because of those who tormented him.
Hansen told Luda May that he felt Tommy was dangerous and that he intended to file a report with the city. As he turned to leave, Luda May picked up a shovel and dashes him across the back of the head, killing him.
Afterwards, Tommy and Charlie returned to the house. Luda May didn't say a word about the dead teacher, but simply told the two to wash up for supper.
Luda May was working at the Cele Community Center off Route 17, which was a gas station and general store. On August 18th, a group of five youths came into the store in a state of duress.
A man named Kemper informed the old woman that a teenage girl had committed suicide in the back of their van. Luda May declared that "when something like this comes along", she said, "...it makes you realize how crazy the world is at times".
Kemper asked her to dial the local sheriff and she told him that doing so would cost him 10 cents.
Using the telephone behind the counter, she called whom the others believed to be the sheriff, but it was actually Charlie Hewitt.
She gave him the location of the incident as told to her by Kemper, which occurred some five miles west of their location.
After hanging up, she told Kemper and his friends that the sheriff would be tied up for the next two hours and that he asked if they wouldn't mind driving the body to the Old Crawford Mill.
Kemper was flabbergasted and his friend Morgan made some sarcastically rude comments in the woman's direction. Kemper angrily stated that he was not going to drive around town with a dead girl in the back of his van which she replied, "Young man, what you do is your own business". Frustrated, the men left the store.
Later that evening, Henrietta Hewitt visited the general store and brought with her a recently abducted child.
Luda May and Charlie cooed over the blonde-haired girl, at which point, a truck driver named Big Rig Bob came to to the front door of the store exclaiming that he just picked up a hysterical woman caked in blood. Luda May stayed at the front to address the man, while Charlie went outside.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Luda May Hewitt was created by director Marcus Nispel and screenwriter Scott Kosar.
- In both films, the character is credited under the name Luda May only.
- Even though Luda May seemed to do most of the cooking in the Hewitt household, she was also the only one who appeared visibly distressed at the notion of cannibalism. Or perhaps she just didn't like her own cooking.
- Both Luda May Hewitt and Monty Hewitt prided themselves on keeping a clean house, even though it was a perpetual pig sty.
- What became of Luda May after the events of the first film is cause for speculation. The comic book limited series The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by WildStorm Productions, expanded on events taking place after the film!which it is revealed that the surviving members of the Hewitt family escaped underground and remained on the run. Luda May Hewitt was counted among their number.
- The final fate of Luda May Hewitt is unknown. Given her apparent age at the time that the films take place, it is safe to assume that she would have died of natural causes in the intervening years. This of course assumes that she did not suffer a wrongful death through some other means.
- Playing Luda May Hewitt is Allison Marich's third film role and her first work in the horror genre.
- Marietta Marich is the mother of Allison Marich, who plays young Luda May in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.