Much like Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduced the unsettling notion of primitive barbarians existing within backwater America. While previously, American horror movies had highlighted faraway lands such as Transylvania, foggy London and frozen Antarctic plains as places of terror, a new generation of the genre, pioneered by the likes of Tobe Hooper, suggested that real monsters existed in the forgotten corners of contemporary America. The fact that Hooper based his screenplay on the antics of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, further emphasises the sense of dreadful realism that is infused within the horrific narrative.
With such an explicitly violent title, it is perhaps inevitable that the horror emerges right from the get-go. The film's exposition sees a youthful group of friends pick up a hitchhiker on their way to a family homestead. The hitcher (Edwin Neal) immediately brings an unsettling atmosphere to the film as he garbles about working at the slaughterhouse and begins to slash himself with a knife. When he aims the blade at one of the friends, the group forces him out of the car, leaving him ranting on the side of the road. So far, so creepy. But things really take a grisly turn as young couple Pam and Kirk separate from the main group and set off to find a local swimming hole. Unable to locate it, they call at a nearby house to ask for directions. Unbeknownst to them, within this house dwells one of the scariest cinema monsters of all time. While Pam waits outside, Kirk ventures into the seemingly empty house. Stumbling over a trip wire, Kirk suddenly comes face to face with the lumbering figure of Leatherface, a towering maniac whose face is concealed by that of another person. After cracking Kirk's skull with a mallet, Leatherface drags his twitching body into his workshop. Meanwhile, Pam enters the house, curious as to why Kirk is taking so long. Upon discovering a living room full of bones, animal carcasses and furniture made from human remains, Pam too encounters Leatherface, who nimbly places her, kicking and screaming, onto the end of a meathook.
What is truly remarkable about Hooper's film is that, much like Carpenter's Halloween, the majority of the violence is implied, rather than graphically realised. Indeed, while the aforementioned scene is inarguably horrific, we the audience don't actually see the meathook penetrate Pam's flesh, nor do we see a drop of blood splatter from Kirk's skull. And while the character of Leatherface and his methods of murder are entirely gruesome, the true horror within this scene, and the entire film itself, is established through atmosphere. The juxtaposition between the perfectly ordinary exterior of the house and the death-entrenched items within it is one of the most effective elements of Hooper’s film. This factor is furthered in the film's climax in which, after witnessing her brother being carved up by Leatherface, main protagonist Sally (Marilyn Burns), is trussed up and forced to endure a dinner party with the rest of his deranged family, which include the manic hitchhiker; the initially friendly proprietor of the local gas station; and "Grampa", a disturbingly ancient man who is so weak with age he can barely move, except to sup at the blood from Sally's finger. Despite the sense of despair and helplessness of this scene, the film offers something of a happy ending, with a blood-soaked Sally escaping on the back of a pick-up truck and cackling manically as she speeds away from the deranged Leatherface.
Although typically viewed as an exploitation film, and often lumped into the category of "video nasty", The Texas Chainsaw Massacre endures as one of the most effective of all American horror films and also one of the most well-crafted. Although superficially a film motivated by extreme violence - certainly it possesses one of the most explicitly violent titles in cinema history - TCM exhibits raw filmmaking talent through its use of sound - the buzzing of flies and the relentless screams, particularly in the dinner scene, contribute to an incredibly unsettling viewing experience, while the use of setting and mise-en-scene - the somewhat idyllic rural environment starkly contrasted against grisly props such as the human furniture, the corpses in the rocking chairs and Leatherface's blood-soaked workshop - craft an undercurrent of death and stagnancy that flows throughout the narrative. The character of Leatherface also represents a terrifyingly grim masterpiece. He evokes many of the strengths that the figure of Michael Myers possesses - the silence, the masked face, the relentlessness - but he is much more complex than Carpenter's monster. Subtle scenes such as that depicting Leatherface sitting with his head in his hands, seemingly in despair of his murderous urges mark the antagonist as a troubled, complicated monster, and all the scarier for it. All in all, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is everything good horror should be. Multi-layered, atmospheric, bloodthirsty, gripping and rotten to the core.
With such an explicitly violent title, it is perhaps inevitable that the horror emerges right from the get-go. The film's exposition sees a youthful group of friends pick up a hitchhiker on their way to a family homestead. The hitcher (Edwin Neal) immediately brings an unsettling atmosphere to the film as he garbles about working at the slaughterhouse and begins to slash himself with a knife. When he aims the blade at one of the friends, the group forces him out of the car, leaving him ranting on the side of the road. So far, so creepy. But things really take a grisly turn as young couple Pam and Kirk separate from the main group and set off to find a local swimming hole. Unable to locate it, they call at a nearby house to ask for directions. Unbeknownst to them, within this house dwells one of the scariest cinema monsters of all time. While Pam waits outside, Kirk ventures into the seemingly empty house. Stumbling over a trip wire, Kirk suddenly comes face to face with the lumbering figure of Leatherface, a towering maniac whose face is concealed by that of another person. After cracking Kirk's skull with a mallet, Leatherface drags his twitching body into his workshop. Meanwhile, Pam enters the house, curious as to why Kirk is taking so long. Upon discovering a living room full of bones, animal carcasses and furniture made from human remains, Pam too encounters Leatherface, who nimbly places her, kicking and screaming, onto the end of a meathook.
What is truly remarkable about Hooper's film is that, much like Carpenter's Halloween, the majority of the violence is implied, rather than graphically realised. Indeed, while the aforementioned scene is inarguably horrific, we the audience don't actually see the meathook penetrate Pam's flesh, nor do we see a drop of blood splatter from Kirk's skull. And while the character of Leatherface and his methods of murder are entirely gruesome, the true horror within this scene, and the entire film itself, is established through atmosphere. The juxtaposition between the perfectly ordinary exterior of the house and the death-entrenched items within it is one of the most effective elements of Hooper’s film. This factor is furthered in the film's climax in which, after witnessing her brother being carved up by Leatherface, main protagonist Sally (Marilyn Burns), is trussed up and forced to endure a dinner party with the rest of his deranged family, which include the manic hitchhiker; the initially friendly proprietor of the local gas station; and "Grampa", a disturbingly ancient man who is so weak with age he can barely move, except to sup at the blood from Sally's finger. Despite the sense of despair and helplessness of this scene, the film offers something of a happy ending, with a blood-soaked Sally escaping on the back of a pick-up truck and cackling manically as she speeds away from the deranged Leatherface.
Although typically viewed as an exploitation film, and often lumped into the category of "video nasty", The Texas Chainsaw Massacre endures as one of the most effective of all American horror films and also one of the most well-crafted. Although superficially a film motivated by extreme violence - certainly it possesses one of the most explicitly violent titles in cinema history - TCM exhibits raw filmmaking talent through its use of sound - the buzzing of flies and the relentless screams, particularly in the dinner scene, contribute to an incredibly unsettling viewing experience, while the use of setting and mise-en-scene - the somewhat idyllic rural environment starkly contrasted against grisly props such as the human furniture, the corpses in the rocking chairs and Leatherface's blood-soaked workshop - craft an undercurrent of death and stagnancy that flows throughout the narrative. The character of Leatherface also represents a terrifyingly grim masterpiece. He evokes many of the strengths that the figure of Michael Myers possesses - the silence, the masked face, the relentlessness - but he is much more complex than Carpenter's monster. Subtle scenes such as that depicting Leatherface sitting with his head in his hands, seemingly in despair of his murderous urges mark the antagonist as a troubled, complicated monster, and all the scarier for it. All in all, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is everything good horror should be. Multi-layered, atmospheric, bloodthirsty, gripping and rotten to the core.
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