The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
I’m a little surprised that I got this far without reviewing this movie, it’s a classic and I needed to cover it. In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know the plot. Basically a group of friends go to visit their grandpa’s grave in Texas end up falling victim to a family of cannibals, and chainsaws come in handy. It was a big movie, not only for horror but for filmmaking altogether. One of the most famous horror movies ever made, easy to say.
The acting is fairly decent for a cast of fairly unknowns. Marilyn Burns as Sally is amazing, she shows great range especially empathy for her paraplegic and annoying brother Franklin and her crazy levels of terror. Sally loses her mind at the end and dear lord it is effective. Gunnar Hansen plays the famous Leatherface, and he’s an imposing stocky figure which soon became an icon.
The cinematography in this movie is beautiful. Some of the angles used are awesome, the famous scene of the girl getting up off the swing and walking to the house is an iconic shot. The close ups of Sally at the dinner table in the climax are unnerving and amazingly effective. You really feel her terror and shock with the super close up of her eyes. The camera work is so great that it almost becomes a character itself. It has been a few years since I’ve watched this and I was almost floored by how beautifully it is shot, and at the same time it has that grimy dingy feeling that you’d want from a 70s horror/grindhouse movie. The special effects are pretty solid as well especially for the time. There isn’t an insane amount of gore like the later entries in the series but there’s enough to be impactful. Lying somewhere between Halloween and Friday the 13th in levels of blood.
One of the best parts of this movie is the pacing. It runs at a quick 1 hour 23 minute run time and doesn’t have much down time. You never really get bored or find yourself waiting for something to happen. It takes the right amount of time to build up suspense and develop characters. Once the craziness starts you are drawn in for the rest of the movie. The crazy family is realistic and shocking. Aside from Leatherface you get the unhinged brother/hitchhiker and the man playing sheriff. There are so many unsettling scenes in this movie. One scene that always gets me is when the girl stumbles into a room and discovers a pile of bones, furniture made from skeletal remains and lampshades made of skin. The subtlety of the music in that scene is masterful.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a masterpiece of horror filmmaking. Is it one of my favorite movies? No, but I do appreciate what it did and how greatly done the movie really is. If I’m going 1970s slasher, I’m always turning to Halloween or Black Christmas. Really the worst part of this movie is that it sprouted sequels that didn’t live up to the original at all. The second one is bat shit crazy and comedic, the third one goes off the rails even farther, and the fourth installment is just incredibly bad. Platinum Dunes made a fairly decent remake of it, that gets a little overlooked. Basing my grade on the this original installment alone, it is nothing less than an A+.
