Factual error: This movie states that it is during the year 1973, yet in the beginning of the movie when they are driving in the van they are listening to "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This song was not released publicly until 1974. (00:03:10)
Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning of the movie when they almost hit the hitch-hiker, you can see when the camera backs up it is a crew member driving the van. (00:07:31)
Continuity mistake: There is a shot of the girl right before she reaches into her dress and pulls out the gun. The shot is looking from her right side and you can see a lot of blood on her left leg. The shot switches to in front of her and she reaches for the gun, but there's no blood on her leg. The shot switches again, and the blood is back. This happens a few times during the scene. (00:10:00)
Revealing mistake: After the girl has shot herself in the teen's van and you see through the hole in her head, you can see it is a dummy when it falls back. (00:10:30)
Continuity mistake: After the girl shoots herself and two of the guys are arguing by the passenger side door, the front passenger door keeps changing between open and closed between shots. (00:12:15)
Continuity mistake: When the group is standing outside the building where they found Jedidiah, he says that the sheriff is getting drunk. Morgan starts to say something, and his arms are by his side. The shot instantly switches to in front of him (in the middle of his sentence, so no time passes) and you can see that his arms are crossed in front of him. You can't see his hands, but you can tell by his shoulders (and the parts of his arms that you can see) that his arms are crossed. He had no time to raise his arms and cross them. (00:24:45)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Sheriff is wrapping the suicide victim's body, he has a roll of plastic wrap. He is shown with the box, then as he begins to wrap the head, he has just the roll, and in the next shot it is back in the box again. He presumably would have left it out of the box the entire time, since the box would only get in the way of trying to wrap the body. (00:33:00)
Continuity mistake: After Erin & Andy are attacked at the house, Erin runs back to the van, jumps in and attempts to start the van. When she puts the key in the ignition it is on the left side of the wheel and she uses her left hand. However, there are 2 closeup shots of her hand turning the key and the ignition is now on the right side and it is her right hand turning the key. (00:46:30)
Continuity mistake: When the girl shoots herself her body is still sitting upright in the backseat, but when the van hits a bump in the road and the body falls onto its side. When the van stops in the next shot the body is sitting back up again without anyone moving it.
Continuity mistake: When Erin and Pepper are trying to hotwire the van, the window is rolled down. After Erin starts the van and twists the wires together, the window is rolled up.
Revealing mistake: When Erin gets into the truck, in the next shot the camera backs up a little and you can see that it's only raining on the truck.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the sheriff and Andy are rolling the girl up in plastic wrap, as they're lifting her out of the van, in one shot the plastic wrap completely covers her head, and in another the top of her head is exposed.
Other mistake: When Leatherface chops off Andy's leg with a chainsaw, Leatherface's shadow is seen through the bedsheets, and he is next to Andy. However, Andy runs by very quickly, and there is no way Leatherface would have had enough time to reach froward and chop off his leg.
Revealing mistake: When the kids are in the van and Leatherface is on top with his chainsaw, you can see in one cut that the mad magazine poster/cloth on the roof is already cut, just before Leatherface actually starts sawing into it.
Revealing mistake: When Erin runs over the sheriff, she is shown bouncing around, holding onto the wheel with both hands. As she's driving away, the camera pans to the baby, who's sitting straight up on a blanket (?) with no seat belt on. Highly unlikely position after all that erratic driving.
Continuity mistake: The blood stain on the rear window of the van is changing its size throughout the movie. One shot/scene, there is almost no blood around the hole, next shot/scene almost whole window is covered with blood. It happens before they have cleaned the van.
Continuity mistake: In the scene close to the end where the girl steals the sheriff's car and runs him over, you see him impacting the windshield and blood splattering on the windshield. After she hits him, she drives forward, stops, then reverses over him and right before she drives over him again, you see the windshield wipers wipe a whole bunch of untouched blood off of the windshield. The wipers had been on the whole time, they would have wiped most if not all of the blood of by then.
Continuity mistake: In the scene were Erin and Kemper are going to the killer's home to call the sheriff, they approach the house from the left side. However, when Erin and the other guy go back to the house to look for Kemper they approach the house on the right side. Later in the movie when Erin gets free from the killer she runs away from the house going to the right side (Erin's left).
Revealing mistake: On the three drivers licenses, the date of birth and address is the same on all of them. Also, their birthdays read 3-11-92, but the movie is set in '73.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning when the group is driving, only the driver is present in the van in a wideshot.
Answer: He wasn't a real sheriff - in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning it shows him shoot the sheriff and take his clothes and car.