The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Tobe Hopper's 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' is a landmark low budget horror movie which must be considered a modern classic. Hooper's subsequent career has ben extremely uneven, and frequently disappointing, but even if he never made another movie he would still be a legendary figure. As would Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his twisted family played by Edwin Neal and Jim Siedow, and immortal scream queen Marilyn Burns. These actors never have to set in front of a camera again, they'll never be forgotten by horror buffs worldwide! In this day and age of cynically conceived and marketed MTV-friendly teen slashers it's a revelation to see old school horror classics like this, Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead' and Craven's 'Last House On The Left'. Uncompromising movies, pure horror that makes no attempt to water themselves down and court a mainstream audience. This movie was one of the most controversial of the 1970s, censored or banned here in Australia, and in Britain, and despite the hundreds of horror movies released since, it is still powerful and fresh. There is an undercurrent of bizarre black humour underneath the film, a lot subtler than the sequel and other more obvious "horror comedies". The terror isn't compromised, the uneasy giggles make the extreme images even more difficult to dismiss. The cast, all unknowns at the time, and from what we know know paid diddley squat, are all pretty good, especially Marilyn Burns (who Hooper used in his underrated 'Eaten Alive' and who also appeared in the Charles Manson TV biopic 'Helter Skelter'), and whiny paraplegic Paul A. Partain (who went on to bit parts in 70s Drive-In faves 'Race With The Devil' and 'Rolling Thunder' and very little else). One would have thought both would have went on to bigger things watching their performances in this movie but sadly it wasn't meant to be. Gunnar Hansen is absolutely extraordinary as Leatherface. An amazing performance with his features obscured and no real dialogue to speak of. I don't think it's an exaggeration to compare it to Boris Karloff in the original 'Frankenstein'. Leatherface is a horror icon, and 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' is a landmark movie that remains essential viewing for every horror buff. It's a sensational movie that still has the power to confront, disturb and terrify audiences worldwide!

To say this movie had an impact on me when I watched it when I was younger would be an understatement. Not as gory as you may imagine and that's the true magic of this film. Its what you imagine. Who's coming around the corner, am I safe and so on.

Hooper does an amazing job of creating tension and tension makes horror, supported by the occasional actual brutality to remind us of the potential consequences.

Sure the gore has aged compared to what is often being produced these days, but the film still holds up really well.

I hated this film.

I still fail to see how it, along with F13, managed to acquire a cult following. TCM is critically acclaimed for its rawness, for its brutality, and for unrelenting portrayal of a warped family based on everyone's favorite psycho Ed Gein. And granted, it has perks and high points . . . but good God, did it ever annoy the hell out of me!

Maybe I'm just sick and twisted and desensitized by violence in the entertainment mediums, but I don't sympathize with the victims solely because they're about to be slaughtered in a 16mm slasher film. The TCM family of films was the first to show me this. I did not like the characters. Although, the characters in TCM did teach me a small lesson – I learned that even if I feel sympathy for someone who is physically disabled, that person can be so annoying that I'd ignore those feelings and want to see him crippled further (specifically, something to permanently incapacitate the jaw.)

"I'll cut you some slack, Franky, given the circumstance. But if you deserve a punch to the face, I don't care if you are in a wheelchair, you will get punched to the face."

Texas Chainsaw Massacre also taught me why other movies ignore the realism of having their characters not scream when they should. Sally, sweet Sally, what powerful lungs you have . . . she screams. And screams. And continues screaming. And I wanted more than anything for Leatherface to shut her up. For the love of God, end the scream before it goes on for another 30 minutes. Gramps? Please, maybe you can shut her up! Someone! Is there a competent killer in the house?

I hesitate to say Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a plot, just as I hesitate to say any slasher film has a plot. A "scenario" would be a better phrasing. It's a bit unnerving how vividly and accurately three words can describe the typical slasher scenario: "Kids. Isolated. Killer." If you need more than that, you've never seen a slasher film. If you expect more than that, you've never seen a slasher film. So I really can't criticize TCM for having any less of a plot than, say, Halloween. I *can* say the unsympathetic characters in TCM made me care that the scenario they were to enact was so threadbare.

Leatherface running around in an apron that eerily resembles a dress struck fear in me for all the wrong reasons, and I really did not need to see the cut scene on the DVD where he puts makeup and the Grandma's wig on the mask. Leatherface running through the woods with the chainsaw over his head while Sally screamed and screamed and ran, and went on way too long (much like the action films that would come 30 years later) – all of went to prove that without a doorway to pop out of, Leatherface is a pansy who can't shut up one girl.

Anyway, contrary to what I had written in my original review I did revisit Texas Chainsaw Massacre with hopes that perhaps I had let expectation get in the way of seeing the movie for what it was. Also contrary to what I wrote in the original reviews, I did check out all the sequels and even the remake. While my opinion has come away from the extreme hatred I initially held for the film, it didn't come away by very much. I still more or less feel the same way: it has some nice camera work early on in the film, wonderful colors in the dusk sky, and a sweet camera move as it glides under a swing. I'm still impressed that the movie for the most part refrains from dragging out its "stalking" sequences with false scares, and that Tobe gets some kills over and done with before the audience can blink. The music has never stuck with me, nor has much else.

Revisiting Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I still did not like characters, although I did find myself tolerating them a lot more. And actually, early on in the film I thought perhaps my opinion might – just might – have changed in the years since my last viewing. Alas, that glimmer of hope slowly faded until the bottom dropped out entirely at the sound of Sally's screams. Sally, sweet Sally, shut up already.

Oh well, looks like I'm going to continue to walk a part from the bandwagon on this one. I still feel that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is living breathing proof that shock-fest exploitation films lose their power to truly and rightly be considered classics. TCM shocked the generation who grew up on it, but I come from a different time where all of TCM's descendants have robbed it of what power it might have held – that first glimpse of 16mm terror that no one had ever seen before. Now it's just the first in a long monotonous line.

In closing: There's a difference between shocks and suspense, the latter gives a film its staying power. I still hold my breath watching Psycho. I still feel a rush of anxiety hearing Benny cue up his infamous strings, and I still feel a chill run down my spine as the camera pushes in on Norman Bates. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, by contrast, has no more shocks, thus has no power over me.

With the recent box-office success achieved by the latest remake of 1974's `The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' it's worth looking back at Tobe Hooper's original horror classic.

The movie tells a fairly simple tale at heart. A group of five teenagers driving through rural Texas happen upon a deranged, cannibalistic family. Psychological terror and chainsaws ensue.

Yet despite this simplicity, what is it about `The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' that continues to succeed so with its audience? Outside of one memorial scene involving a meet hook; the movie is not particularly gory by today's standards. The film's characters and actual scares are not that remarkable.

The power of `The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' lies in its atmosphere and in what H.P. Lovecraft called `the oldest and strongest kind of fear': the fear of the unknown. The later of these two staples of great horror is often cast aside in modern horror movies-especially in those churned out by the great Hollywood engine. Instead, every mystery must be explained away, every mask ultimately pulled from a monster's face, and not a moment of exposition is spared. It is interesting to note that the filmmakers behind the latest `Chainsaw' film chose to implement all three of these stylistic vices in their remake.

In the original, the feeling of dread and mounting paranoia creeps over the viewer in slow but steady waves. The first scene in the film depicts a desecrated grave with a voiceover of radio newscast, immediately followed by an opening credits sequence set against a backdrop of roaring solar flares. This, along with some idle astrological chatter on the part of one of the teenagers early on, leads to a feeling of cosmic disarray in the lonely Texas hills they traverse.

Questions about the villain's mask or the field of cars under camouflage netting are left for the viewer to answer on his or her own. At worst, in the loss of any acceptable answer, they are forced to ponder that terrible and limitless gulf of the imagination: the unknown.

In it's later stages, the film becomes a cacophonous world of throat-peeling screaming, blood-shot eyes, laughter, and grinding machinery. One is forced to recall the solar flares in the film's opening credits. In the climax of famous dinner scene, there is a feeling of cosmic forces pressing in on reality and warping it into some crude mockery of order, as if the world were but a TV or radio signal distorted into madness by flares on the surface of the sun.

In the 29 years since `The Texas chainsaw Massacre' hit theaters, there have been countless imitators and four additional films in the franchise, three of them remakes. Yet as loved and influential as the original classic has been, many who would seek to emulate its vision seem to overlook its true strengths.

Let me begin by saying that there are precious few movies that can actually scare the crap out of you, and this is one of them. The tension that this movie generates is overwhelming at times, and if you watch it with someone who's never seen it before, be sure to keep your eye on them. You'll probably notice a look of disbelief on their unsuspecting face.

Anyone who doesn't like being scared will end up being unable to finish this movie. People who have a taste for the brutally bizarre will probably hit play again after the credits roll. In light of all this, I must also say that in some respects, TCM's bark is much worse than it's bite. Being banned in so many countries for so long, and having a title that includes the phrase 'Chainsaw Massacre', has seemingly led many people to believe that there is an undue amount of gore in it. However, there simply isn't. Gore is not where the scares are in this one. The scares come from the absolutely brutal and bizarre scenarios that befall poor Sally Hardesty.

In closing, I'd also like to go out on a limb and make the following grandiose statement: TCM is the greatest horror film of all time! Not bad for Tobe Hoopers' first effort.