The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Absolutely Fantastic

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Love the scene where Leatherface snatches Pam. She had some sexy legs on her. Too bad they didn't have Leatherface do "more" to her after grabbed her pretty little ass and carried her back inside the house. I really love how she's screaming and struggling her hot legs as she's helpless to escape.

First off.. I purposefully created an account for imdb JUST so I can write this review.. NO JOKE.. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper is the scariest horror film I have ever seen in my lifetime. I first saw this recorded on a VHS tape back in 1998 when I was twelve years old from one of my older brothers who was a big film buff. I watched it alone and I heard and saw clips of it growing up earlier but I had not sat down and experienced it from start to finish. After watching it, the film would be forever ingrained in my subconscious going forward and only reinforced my love for filmmaking.In short, five young adults(or teens maybe) go out on an ideal summer day to visit an old family house, only to then find themselves being butchered and tortured to death by a chainsaw wielding, dead skin mask wearing cannibal. Thats it.. Literally.. There is no need to further explain any other details to this horror monolith. But here is why I want to explain to you why I think it's the scariest to me.1. ACTING: It is masterfully acted, the actors are not well knowns. LeatherFace, played by the late Gunnar Hansen, studied at a youths' handicap school(to my limited knowledge) to understand movements and noises by the mentally challenged. He produced an iconic performance that is at the level of movie monsters such as Dracula(1931) and Frankenstein(1932) of their time.2. MUSIC: The scariest if not one of the scariest set of tracks I have heard in other films. 3. UNKNOWN: There is not a reason to why these events transpired and happened to these youths, nor is there a reason to understand the point to it. But that leads us to understand that terrifying and horrifying things can and do happen to us people everyday without explanation. The UNKNOWN.4. MOTIVES: There are none.. There are no motives to what transpires in the film. The youths are not hunted or lured nor trapped and LeatherFace is not actively seeking out to murder and kill. Both parties just stumble upon each-other. THIS IS NOT, NOR EVER WILL BE AN ORDINARY SLASHER FILM.5. CAN'T REPLICATE: This film cannot be replicated, period. There will be sequels, remakes and other similar formulated horror films created in the same realm of it but it will never be nor have the effect of this visual viewing. It is a SUPERNOVA OF THE VISUAL MACABRE.6. SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF: From the first time to repeated viewings of this, it has felt like the actors were ACTUALLY MURDERED on set. It feels and sounds and looks like this horror is real life and we are witnessing an act of cannibalistic mayhem before our eyes. IS THIS REAL?IN CONCLUSION: As this film ages and future generations of people view this experience, I sincerely hope they experience the same that I did. Granted there have been scarier, more disturbing and jump out terror moments in other movies before and there will be in the future. What separates this film from the others is that it never happened.. But events that inspired the birth of this film was true and DID HAPPEN.. Thus taking us at the thin line to the edge of lunacy and terror of unimaginable proportions.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Under the Microscope. by Roman Sokal (originally published in the Free Spirit Magazine 1999) Many events can occur as a result of running out of gasoline whilst being in a strange place. You can find instant help from another driver, or perhaps walk to the nearest gas station and obtain help from there. Or, you can find yourself in the most unbelievable of dangerous situations. This happens in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Perhaps the title should have tipped you off already...Twenty-five years ago, a low-budget 16mm film tainted the white screens of movie theatres with an experience that few viewers would ever forget. Essentially they were presented with a highly deliberate and calculated film of which the visual and aural content could only best be described as 'the ultimate nightmare', The victims in the film probably couldn't believe what was happening to them, but closer examination shows that the events are all very plausible.Those unaware of sparsely populated rural communities do not know that its isolated inhabitants can lead a 'different' way of life than those in major urban centres. In such small communities, one is generally influenced only by their immediate surroundings, with little intervention by objects and concepts such as television, libraries, and other things that major cities take for granted. In these conditions one is usually reliant upon one major activity, that of which is the source of maintaining their existence - a simpleton 'way of life'.In TCM, the antagonists, the 'family,' had based their monetary existence for years and years on the only local 'job' out there -working at a slaughterhouse. If this is the only thing that they were exposed to, then by osmosis they were pre-assimilated into what they did for a living. Unfortunately for the victims, their assailant kllled cows for a living. Being from an isolated environment they lacked the influx of cognitive variables that city dwellers were subjected to. 'Leatherface' knew no different - strange people in his home were like cows, and subsequently were treated like cattle, bashed with a sledgehammer, which is what he did for a living. In a sense, their rural living can be compared to that of an isolated African tribe, only doing what they know and were raised to do in order to survive. It may be savage, but it is perfectly 'normal' to them. An acute degree of underdevelopment exists in these sheltered inhabitants. The concept of identity can be minimalized in such environments - one is left to oneself and does not have a variable of examples by which to base maturity upon. In the case of 'Leatherface', he had not progressed but remained a child. In the confrontation with his much older brother, he reacts like a child, making strange noises and acting nervously. Identity was a problem for 'Leatherface', who wore masks of other people (and of the opposite gender) on his own face. These masks, of course, In the nightmare horror tradition, were human faces skinned from their sources. This concept however extends to the more civilized. As exhibited by Franklin, the wheelchair bound invalid. His pathetic sense of self-debasing behaviour was depicted by his childish noise making in order to suggest discontent at times. In turn. he is never taken seriously- the others in the film treat him more as a child, and prey upon his weaknesses. The 'family' hunt animals, and humans prey upon humans. They, and we, are all guilty- one way or another. ·And that is what TCM plays on - the viewer's malleable perception. Are the events merely coincidental or were they doomed from the start? As calculated as the film is, it still presents an open-interpretation aspect. If you pay attention, you will notice the references to astrological events that were taking place that day, as stated by one of the female victims in the van reading from her astrology book. Also throughout the film we are shown insert shots of a mysterious hot blazing sun that a character keep looking up at, not to mention bizarre solar flares in the brilliant artsy psychedelic title sequence, which could have some kind of physiological effect upon humans bombarded by its rays. In conjunction with the slaughter-type mentality that the family possessed, TCM also depicts the possibility of some kind of dark 'ritualism' being practiced by the 'family'. The burning of the picture of Franklin the invalid by the hitchhiker/family member was indeed bizarre enough to invoke questioning, not to mention him smearing his blood on the side of the van in a symbolic looking pattern. The shrine of skeletal matter in the farmhouse invokes such theories as well.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre portrays the ultimate dreary middle finger 'fuck you' message towards Americanization. It somewhat laughs at the true quest of North American civilization- to 'keep the machine going'. And what is the symbol of such an ideology in this film? Gasoline! All plans the victims had were thwarted by the notion of obtaining the precious fuel. The family's fuel-run generator was the physical perpetrator for the fateful nightmare that took place - they were attracted to it by hearing it purring and whirring just as a pioneer did at the turn of the century by being attracted to glittering gold in a riverbed. One small step of deviance away from the 'norm" and everything can easily tail based on the everyday schematics of relying on technology. TCM may be an extreme portrayal of this idea, but it really is no different than being in a foreign country with a different mother tongue. We are automatically re-set and must deal with primal instincts in order to get by. For the remaining protagonist, Sally Hardesty, it is survival - to innovate methods on how to sustain her own life. For the family, it is kill, kill, kill.The film seems to accurately channel and extract from the subconscious. There are moments of feeling trapped- as when Sally is in tile farmhouse, she has nowhere to hide but upstairs, which is the last place where one wants to be when one is being stalked, as escape is more difficult. One feels safe when 'grounded'. This fear also applies to those who fear flying in aircraft, because if they were in a vehicle that breaks down, they can get out and walk. In an airplane, there is nowhere to go but down - and rather quick. A manipulative element also occurs on two occasions In the film - the 'near getaway'. The narrative in the film boils the viewer's and character's blood intensely. It never lets up. Freedom is hard to come by in TCM. They are teased with it only to be pulled back into Hades. And what holds this all together is the subliminal use of radio broadcasts throughout the film in which reporters mention the time, weather, and events. It is a metronome of sorts, we are constantly being made aware of the 'moment'. And in moments of fear, a second is not important, milliseconds are.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered a monumental film for these very reasons. Not only does it portray a sense of 'doom', but it also projects a struggle. It enforces the notion that in tough times, one might have to take large risks to stay alive. The more one pays attention to the current moment, the more one may avoid a situation altogether. Many beacons exist in the film that take the shape of a 'warning'. The hitchhiker scene alone should have been enough to keep driving. Reading into a situation is like playing chess - I consider it 'preventive thinking' for self-preservation. Watch TCM and watch It again. You may be surprised. A copy of It even rests in NYC's Museum of Modem Art. And not only that, it is loosely based on a real-life event...

When I was young, I thought this was a good, scary movie. Now, I see it as campy and poorly directed/acted/produced/edited. No visual, sound, or special effects. Not creative, just mean. I watched it twice, because my own reaction surprised me. It's bad. Other horror films are incomparably superior. Even bad horror films are better than this.