The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) User Reviews (1,166)

Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Here's why it's such an iconic classic

[phizzle21 · 8/10 · 19 August 2022]

8* out of 10*

This movie had no big budget, no special effects, not much of a plot and almost no gore. Still, it is a truly unnerving viewing experience that chills me to the bones. Having recently rewatched it for the first time in at least fifteen years since I first saw it, I appreciate it even more. It surely helps that I have seen hundreds of horror films in the meantime and can now better understand what TCM did so well and why until this day it is a blueprint for movie makers trying to create unease and tension.

What Tobe Hooper excelled at with TCM is creating an eerie atmosphere of dread. The film permeates unease with almost every frame. Even in the peaceful scenes you can feel that something is looming and that terrible things are going to happen. The film has this gritty and unrelenting atmosphere that so many modern horror films lack. It starts with visuals of unearthed corpses, accompanied by audio reports about freak incidents like grave robbers, random attacks and collapsing buildings. This turns into the blood red opening credits that feature not music but strange and unnerving sounds. Right from the get-go you feel unsafe with the notion that something harrowing might happen anywhere at any time. The grainy look of the film and the almost documentary style add to the rawness of the experience. Especially when they enter the house, you don't have the feeling of being in a set-piece. Everything looks and feels so real, like the film crew just found it this way and decided to pull out their camera and start shooting. All the animals (dead and alive), bones, remains and feathers look creepily authentic. The visual style is pretty impressive too, with creative camera angles impressive colors.

The immediate rawness is also applied to the terror scenes. One of the all-time scariest and most shocking scenes of all time for me is the first encounter with Leatherface. The guy walks into the house and we know something bad is waiting for him, we just don't know what it is. There is no big buildup, no music or sound effects. Leatherface just appears out of nowhere grunting like a pig; he almost seems as surprised as we are. In what appears almost as an instinct-driven affect, he strikes the guy with his hammer. The dude falls to the ground and starts twitching. Leatherface pulls him in and slams the sliding door shut with a bang. It's over almost as quickly as it started. I was and still am terrified by that scene. Other timeless classics include the first encounter with the hitch-hiker, the infamous dinner scene and Leatherface dancing with his chainsaw in the warm sunlight in the final scene. There is also the other girl falling into the room and slowly but suddenly realizing that these are not only animal skeletons but also human remains. The close-up of Sally's eyes during the dinner scene and her constant screaming. Much has been said and written about all of this. And most of it is true.

Where the film lacks a bit is in the dialogue and character department. Most of the characters are very shallow. While we do get a bit on Sally and here rather annoying brother Franklin the three other victims have no personality at all. We never get a sense of who they are and why we should care about them. This is, however, just a minor criticism. This film is not a character study. Somehow, it is not even a classic narrative. It is, in my opinion, a study in fear and tension. And that's where it absolutely excels.

Good God What a Movie!

[damianphelps · 8/10 · 25 September 2020]

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.

Incredibly overrated

[Dar Star · 6/10 · 9 May 2021]

I can appreciate this being a groundbreaking film to introduce lots of the slasher film concepts to follow, but it doesn't make it a great film. No character development at all. The acting is horrendous. And the scares are all the same basically. For a real horror classic The Shining is light years better. Still I rate it a 6 for its pioneering of a new genre.

All the remakes and imitators are just swimming in its wake...

[Robbie-21 · 10/10 · 10 November 2003]

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.

Pure, uncompromised horror! A modern classic which still confronts, disturbs and terrifies audiences worldwide.

[Infofreak · 21 April 2003]

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!

Indisbutably a classic of cinema, and not just horror cinema

[tatra-man · 10/10 · 16 January 2006]

Those who have posted here comparing Tobe Hooper's (one and only) masterpiece with the dreadful remake are presumably young children with no real understanding of cinema. The 1974 film is the antithesis of the slick, MTV-influenced, cynical cash-in mentality that informed the later remake. The fact that the remake's target teen audience (well, at least some of them) appeared to lap it up is just a sad reflection of how far standards have fallen since the heyday of the horror film in the 70's.

But Hooper's CHAINSAW is more than just a classic horror film. With its print in the permanent collection at the NY Museum of Modern Art, it truly is a classic of cinema. I've shown this to Bergman fans, Tarkovsky fans and, yes, horror fans too - none of them have been prepared for its power, its inventiveness, its willingness to push the envelope of what cinema can do. And, with its simple story and powerhouse, unstoppable delivery, it is as open to interpretation as any piece of "modern art" - whether it be from the "vegetarian treatise" angle, or the post-Vietnam traumatised America school of thought. But, as I was on my first (of several) viewings, those I have introduced to this movie have been bowled over by the quality of the film-making, and the filmic techniques (soundtrack, editing, startling images) used by Hooper to capture his "waking nightmare" on screen. It is something I really don't think any other film has quite achieved, though many have tried.

Now, of course, there is a fluke element at work here. Hooper never came close to achieving anything like this again, and many, though not all, of the film's fascinating resonances are a product of the era and the filmmaker's unconscious sensibilities. What he obviously had as a director was the kind of daring to take the visceral power that cinema can deliver so well to the limit, to the the edge of acceptability, skirting on exploitation. That the film is so unrelentingly dark and so unbelievably sadistic in its second half, and yet fascinates even as it traumatises, is a definite testimony to the skill of its director. What could have been sleaze is instead a horrible nightmare experience, sure enough, but one that borders on the transcendental. Should be seen by ALL students of cinema at least once in their lifetime.

Good, albeit overrated

[theshadow908 · 6/10 · 7 August 2006]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of five friends that are driving across Texas on a road trip. When they stop to visit an old house where two of them, a girl and her brother, grew up, their day goes horribly wrong. All of them are quickly dispatched by a chainsaw wielding maniac, and the last survivor is taken hostage by the maniac's family of cannibals. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a the "classic" that started the slasher genre, but it is overrated.

I have infinite respect for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because it is a cheesy low budget film that director Tobe Hooper had to struggle to make, dealing with the hot Texas sun and his low budget, and yet he was able to churn out a cult classic that is still loved today. What I like about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that it paints a very disturbing picture. It's not the bubblegum horror movie you'd see nowadays. It's psychologically disturbing. It blasts your senses with sights and sounds you'll find very disturbing a graphic. The chilling score is made up of various sounds you'll hear in a slaughter house. The whole movie is very claustrophobic, with the camera getting super close-ups of the victim's eye, and the camera cutting to random, disturbing images in the middle of a scene. The movie is very disturbing that way.

What I don't like is the way the plot pans out. It is far too simplistic. The people who are killed die too soon into the film, and it all happens too fast. The last half hour or so of the movie is the last survivor screaming non-stop, and it gets annoying. I also didn't like how certain scenes are so dark you can't even see them. This may have been done for effect, but it only ruined the experience for me. Obviously the acting isn't even close to good, but what can you expect from a low budget 70's horror.

Overall, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an okay movie to watch, and it deserves respect, but I just don't think it's the cinematic masterpiece everyone says it is.

6.5/10

THE masterclass in low-budget horror

[Rathko · 9/10 · 22 December 2004]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can, and will, be reinterpreted by critics and theorists for decades to come. It was shot in the summer of 1973, during the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Munich Olympics massacre, at the height of the Watergate scandal and the legal investigation into the shootings at Kent State. It was an era of plane hijackings, government oppression and dishonesty, racial conflict, terrorism and revolution. As a mirror of a dark period in American history, Chain Saw remains one of the best evocations yet of the era, as a group of young individuals, returning to the nostalgic home of their childhood, stumble into the raw and irrational cruelty of the modern world.

The movie has a weak, though functional storyline, one that has since became the staple for slasher movies; a group of teenagers get lost, stumble across evil and get stalked and killed. But Chain Saw isn't about storyline and plot; it's about creating an experience, a sensory overload. The cast and crew work tirelessly to create scenes and images that are raw and powerful and ultimately, against all expectations, beautiful. Leatherface's travesty of motherly domesticity as he prepares dinner, his child-like dance in the dawn light, the open door at the gas station, the van making it's slow turn off the road towards the derelict and ivy clad Hardesty residence are all images that burn themselves into your consciousness after just a single viewing.

The cinematography is exceptional. Watching the Special Edition, you'd never know that this was shot on 16mm in poor light. The picture quality is outstanding, the colors rich and vibrant, the blacks inky and menacing. The brilliant azure skies, the jade green of the grass, the bright red generator, the searing sunlight and stifling shadows. Every frame seems saturated in nicotine gold. Beautiful.

Though not always likable, the actors are always believable. Performances are universally startling, but special mention has to go to Marilyn Burns. Though she has little more to work with than the clichéd screaming heroine, she works it with remarkable conviction. It was a traumatic shoot, and it shows. Few actresses have so effectively conveyed mind-numbing terror.

The soundtrack is exceptional and deserves more recognition. It is a great testimony to the experimentation and risk taking attitude of the era that all melody is destroyed under an industrial ambient soundscape of metallic clangs, scrapes and screams, evoking the atmosphere of the local slaughterhouse and the Family's state of mind. Terrifying.

Despite the complete lack of gore or extreme physical violence, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre continues to horrify and holds up the countless, shot-on-video, slasher clones of subsequent years for the puerile crap that they truly are. Whether by accident or design, this one is a classic.

9 out of 10

One of the best and most influential horror films ever made

[Jared_Andrews · 7/10 · 26 June 2018]

'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of the most famous and influential horror films of all time. Its minimal budget and direction can be seen in some way in nearly all horror movies that followed it for decades.

The plot is exceptionally simple, a smart choice and another influential one. Five young adults take a trip to a desolate Texas town to honor the death of a friend's grandfather. On what should have been a wonderful, cathartic adventure, they encounter a family of cannibals who slaughter humans with hammers, and yes, chainsaws.

All the actors were unknowns at the time, and they worked little in movies afterwards. I must admit I didn't notice that these were amateurs. After all, they really only needed to scream and run, so hiring no-name actors was a smart cost-saving decision.

My initial reaction is that the film is not nearly as gory as people think it is-virtually all the blood and violence is shown off screen or is blocked by some clever camera work. If you dare to keep your eyes fixed to the screen during the killing scenes, you'll be surprised to find how little you actually see.

The camera work used throughout the film is inspired and clearly inspiring. Countless horror movies that have come after have copied techniques seen here, not only to save money on necessary prosthetics and makeup, but also to let viewers visualize the gore for themselves. In most cases, what we imagine is far worse than anything a movie could actually show us.

For the most part, the movie contains very little score. Sound effects and occasional dialogue make up virtually all the sound we here. During the scariest moments, screams replace the music.

Another replacement for the creepy music we would normally hear is the sound of maniacal laughter. The cannibal family's incessant laughter is creepy as hell. 'Halloween' has the famous piano music, and 'Texas Chainsaw' has creepy laughter.

The chase scene at the end is incredibly terrifying and brilliantly filmed. Making use of wide shots, we see the girl and the cannibals sprinting towards the camera, as carefully selected angles manipulate the viewers' depth perception, causing the chasing cannibals to appear closer than they really are. Also, there's a giant psychopath wielding a roaring chainsaw as he chases a helpless, shrieking girl. Fancy camerawork isn't exactly required to make this scene terrifying. Nevertheless, the chase sequences in this film are some the best and most inventive ever in horror cinema.

When all hope seems lost, the girl with the iron will survives, the only one of her group to do so. This popularized the trope of the lone surviving girl. Watch any horror film-there's almost always at least one girl who fights and survives. That's just one more example of this film's influence.

Scariest movie I've seen in a long time.

[crazypierre · 10/10 · 27 October 2003]

I decided to get this movie for my annual Hallowe'en scarefest, a week early...as the new one was out in theatres, I felt a need to see the original first, and bow am I glad I did...

The whole movie just blew me away, I turned off all the phones, chat programs and so on, and just let the story hit me. I think what is still with me after this is the sense of fear and utter WEIRDNESS that emanates from the movie...

And it all seemed so realistic...no hokey fountains of blood, no running into the shower, or overused cliches, just a bunch of kids that need to get some gas, meet some very odd characters (The Hitchhiker is superb) and then fall into the wrong place at the wrong time...

I think Hooper must have had some divine inspiration, because each of Leatherface's scenes is exquisitely planned and executed, from the first guy who gets dragged down, to Pam, to the encounter with Franklin and Sally in the woods (how chilling and scary was that, and yet how clever, to chase someone in the woods equipped with...a chainsaw) to the end.

Very, very unsettling as well, from the beginning to the final dinner scene, to the unforgettable whirling dance by Leatherface at the end.

Simply put, the best horror movie ever...if this doesn't scare you, then nothing will, sadly.

A group of youngsters stumble across a psycho family who carries out a brutal and homicidal slaughter

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 8 February 2015]

Classic Terror Hooper film in low budget and lots of violence and gore . An idyllic journey in southern Texas driving a van by a group of young people becomes a nightmare when they pick up a young man . A disgrace is committed and ignoring all the warnings they are looking for a shelter in remote farmland . Later, they wind up in the nightmare clutches of a psychopathic family who kill and eat passing travellers ; finally are relentlessly pursued by maniac Leatherface wielding a chainsaw. As the youngsters are dispatched unceremoniously and mercilessly .

This noisy as well as visceral film contains images of graphic violence and may not be suitable for all audiences , viewer discretion is advised. The movie contains a pernicious as well as strong stuff . It packs grisly horror, tension, mayhem, horrible gore and lots of blood and guts. Washed-out as well as granulated cinematography and the camera often assumes a pointedly aggressive stance . Screeching and eerie musical score by means of strange and offbeat sounds . The creepy screenplay by Tobe Hooper and short production proceed a bestial and savage picture plenty of chainsaws , meat-hooks and many other things . The motion picture was well directed by Tobe Hooper.

The film is based on real events about the secluded farmhouse of Plainfield (Wisconsin)handyman Ed Gein ,( Leatherface character) who admitted today he disembowelled and butchered the body of old widow, authorities found the decapitated boy hanging in Gein's woodshed, gutted out and strung up by the heels. Investigators have also discovered the head and face of 54 years old woman. Portions of the bodies of ten or more people had also been found among the body parts, human skulls, furniture made of human skill, box full of noses, skin from a human head, a belt made of female nipples, one small skull believed to be that of a six-year-old child. Authorities suspected cannibalism. The Ed Gein grisly killings made horrendously startling to people. The Geins lived a fairly good distance away from Plainfield little town. When we look at Gein's life , we just have this sense of incredible isolation from any human contact, except with his crazy mother. He grew up in a household with an alcoholic and abusive father and a mother who was very domineering. She was a fanatic and did not let Ed or his brother to have much to do with the outside world, because there were sinners out there.The mother denied them any meaningful relationship with the outside world and particularly with women . So Gein grew up with this very powerful ambivalence towards his mother and he developed this resentment and hatred . Gein was looked at as the nerdy kid that his contemporaries would poke fun at, which also tended to confirm for him a lot of his mother's paranoia. Gein's house really was a symbolic representation of what was going on his head. He kept many dentures and human bodies around.Firsly, he started robbing graves. Gein said that he had begun to do this a few years after his mother's death. He almost seemed to take a glee in creating novel artifacts out dead bodies, and various human handiwork .He would make bells made out of nipples and used human shinbones to prop up a coffee table, plus took the tops of skulls and inverted them and used them four soup bowls and upholstered a chair in human skin. Like the film, he cut the faces of corpses and used them as masks and flayed the top of the torso of one of his victims and also created some leggings. After he began to sew together these parts of skin from various corpses, events correctly reflected on this creepy movie.

It's followed by various sequels such as ¨The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2¨ (1986) by Tobe Hooper with Dennis Hopper , Caroline Williams , Bill Moseley,¨Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III¨ (1990) by Jeff Burr with Kate Hodge , Ken Foree , Viggo Mortensen , Tom Everett ; ¨The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre¨(1994) by Kim Henkel with Renée Zellweger ,Matthew McConaughey , Robert Jacks as Leatherface . It is also followed by a remake (2003) produced by Joel Silver and directed by Marcus Nispel -with screenplay and production by Tobe Hooper , also author of original script- Jessica Biel,Eric Balfour,Jonathan Tucker,Mike Vogel,Erica Leerhsen and a prequel titled ¨The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning¨ (2006) by Jonathan Liebesman with Jordana Brewster , Taylor Handley , Diora Baird , Matt Bomer and R. Lee Ermey . And finally ¨Texas Chainsaw 3D¨(2013) by John Luessenhop with Alexandra Daddario , Dan Yeager as Leatherface , Trey Songz , Scott Eastwood and Richard Rhiele .

The definition of fear... remind me to not accept that invite to dinner that Leatherface sent me

[Smells_Like_Cheese · 10/10 · 19 May 2002]

Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this movie is a legend in the horror genre. I have heard so much about this movie, the interesting thing is, my mom told me it's one of the bloodiest movies she's ever seen, then she paused and said "Wait, actually there wasn't that much blood… it's just creepy". So I had to see this movie, was it really that scary? Is it really that bloody? Is it really that creepy? I had to see for myself, so of course I bought the movie, it was on sale, watched it during the day, not much effect, was pretty disappointed. But then my friends came over and we wanted to watch a scary movie and they all saw that I had The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, we turned off the lights, turned on the surround sound and then the screams came as I realized this is one messed up movie!

Sally Hardesty and her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin travel with three friends to a cemetery where the Hardestys' grandfather is buried to investigate reports of vandalism and corpse defilement. Afterward, they decide to visit an old Hardesty family homestead, and on the way, the group picks up a hitchhiker. The man speaks and acts bizarrely, and then slashes himself and Franklin with a straight razor before being forced from the group's van. Franklin tells Kirk and Pam about a local swimming hole, and the couple heads off to find it. Instead, they stumble upon a nearby house. Kirk decides to ask the residents for some gas, while Pam waits on the front steps. Receiving no answer but finding the door unlocked, Kirk enters the house and is immediately murdered by Leatherface. Pam enters soon after to find the house filled with furniture made from human bones. She attempts to flee but is caught by Leatherface and impaled on a meat hook. At sunset, Sally's boyfriend Jerry heads out to look for the others. Finding the couple's blanket outside the neighboring house, he investigates and finds Pam still alive inside a freezer. Before he can react, Leatherface appears and kills him, stuffing Pam back inside the freezer afterward. With darkness setting, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. As they near the killer's house, calling for the others, Leatherface lunges out of the darkness and murders Franklin with a chainsaw. She is captured and invited to Leatherface's house for a family dinner she'll never forget.

Movies from the 1970's are so special to me, the reason why I think some of the greatest horror movies came out of that decade is due to the fact that directors didn't hold back like today. Most directors of today's Hollywood are too scared of the censors or go too far and make the audience gag rather than scream. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre I'm sure Tobe Hooper wasn't exactly expecting this movie to become the classic it has. Leatherface is frightening and I'm not so sure I'd accept an invitation from him and his family for dinner. I think they made the Manson family look like the Cleavers, you haven't seen a horror film until you've seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

10/10

Surprisingly tame, considering its reputation

[cricketbat · 6/10 · 9 October 2020]

Despite its reputation, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is surprisingly tame. There's no sex, no nudity, no F-words, and most of the violence takes place offscreen. Even the cannibalism is merely implied instead of shown. But this movie is also pretty slow. They drag out almost every scene to pad the run time and still barely reach 83 minutes. However, when the engine finally gets running, there's no denying that this is a creepy, creepy movie.

Unpopular Opinion

[barnesag · 3/10 · 9 September 2018]

I feel I should add a few qualifiers before diving in. I went into this movie with high expectations because of its reputation. And had I seen this in 1974 when it was released, those expectations may have been met. But that is not the case. So it's hard to say if I genuinely dislike this movie, or if I'm just disappointed. But either way, I do not think it is good, or worth your time.

It's not all bad, I must admit. When we are first introduced to Leatherface, when he comes from around that corner and slams his hammer down, it is a great moment in horror. The surprise, the bluntness, and the brutality all add up. And this is shortly followed by him grabbing Pam as she runs out the front door, another iconic moment.

And I also need to give credit to the thought behind Leatherface. His different masks determining his personality and his motives, showing that there is nothing behind the mask. Removing a sense of humanity from our killer makes him scarier, in my opinion, because that means you won't find reason or empathy within him.

So credit and praise where they're due, there are definitely good things in this movie. But...

My biggest complaint can be summed up in one word: noise. After Franklin is killed, this movie fills with so much noise I can't stand it. More specifically, screaming. Which I completely understand, to a point. This girl just saw her brother take a chainsaw to the chest, of course she's going to scream. But she screams while running through the woods, she screams while running through the house, she screams while running down the street, she screams right up to the point she falls through that door and thinks she's safe. And the whole time there's also the sounds from the chainsaw and the random grunts and yells that Leatherface makes.

And then when she realizes she's still in danger and tries to defend herself, she gets knocked out with...a broom. She, a young adult with a knife, gets knocked out by an old man hitting her with a broom. And then there's the dinner scene. The dinner scene is where I completely stopped enjoying this movie.

What happens in the dinner scene? Mostly more screaming. The men are yelling everything they say, and Sally screams her head off the whole time. And they get close up shots of her face while she's screaming. Anything interesting that might be happening during this scene, is completely ruined by her screaming. Leatherface is wearing a new mask. We're given some more information about this backwoods cannibal family. Is that what you'll remember from the scene? Nope. Just screaming. And then there's the bit with the hammer. Look, I get that they're showing how grandpa isn't even strong enough to hold the hammer, but why show him fail 8 or 9 times? It doesn't build tension, and it's certainly not scary. If anything it's comical. And while that's going on Sally just...gets away? They seriously let go of her and she just runs and gets away.

After running for a while, and screaming the whole time, she makes it to a road. And luck is on her side because a semi truck is driving down that road. The driver stops, after running over one of the guys chasing her, and lets her into his cab. But then when Leatherface gets to the door, they leave the truck. Why? This one action bothers me so much because I cannot justify it at all. They're in the truck. Leatherface's chainsaw is not getting through the door. They can drive away and both be safe, but they just...don't. They just get out of the truck and run. If someone knows an explanation for why they do this, please tell me, because I am at a loss.

Then while Sally and the truck driver are running down the road, Sally is lucky enough to hop into the back of another truck that stops to help. And she gets away. But the semi driver doesn't. The last we see of him, he's still running down the road.

So, in conclusion, I do not understand how this movie became so popular. Again, if I saw it when it first came out my opinion might be different. But I can't give a hypothetical review based on an impossible situation.

3/10. Would not watch again. I do not recommend this movie.

The Best Horror Film

[jesusatan2001 · 10/10 · 28 October 2003]

The (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is without a doubt in my mind, the most impressive horror film to date. No other horror film stays with you in the same way. You feel not only fearful for the characters, but at times feel afraid for your own safety. The natural lighting and loose, improvised acting style creates a strong sense of reality that no other horror film can possibly achieve. Under a thin layer of dated aesthetics (1973 style of dress) lies the most dangerous, horrifying and psychotic world ever committed to script or screen. As the first of its kind, this movie set the mold for the modern horror film, though none were ever to realize any comparable distinction. It gave birth to the "slasher" genre (for better or for worse) . It is also one of few timeless films that has managed to combine horror and avant-garde styles, successfully. Unlike its remake, this one is more of an exercise in minimalism and simplicity (think even Dogme). The expert subtlety of the filmmakers; Tobe Hooper (writer/director), Kim Henkel (co-writer) and Daniel Pearl (cinematographer) results more in

psychological terror than in gore. The air-tight script, jarring realism and attention to detail are unparalleled in practically any film, horror or otherwise. And last, but by far not the least Marylin Burns PHENOMENAL performance is the only in cinematic history (a close second by that of Shelly Duvall in The Shining) that evokes such a nature of desperate and primal fear. You truly believe in every single one of her screams that her life is hanging by a single, thin thread.

The one... the only... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

[mister_pig · 10/10 · 16 May 2003]

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.

A masterpiece of sensory horror

[chaos-rampant · 16 August 2008]

Who knows out of what strange game of fate or as if the universe conspired upon its creation and everything that came to pass did so that Tobe Hooper would make The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Like a blood spattered, low-budget Orson Welles of 70's exploitation, the immensity of his debut will forever haunt him and his career.

The task of committing TCM to words is a difficult one, not because the proper words don't exist but merely because they can only describe the surface and never convey the essence and the heart and what can only be felt in one's own skin and maybe that of others. Sounds of animals and howling of beasts and the clanking of rustling metal speak TCM's language. The dissonant chord that sounds in the soundtrack as the movie fades from black to flashes of decaying flesh is TCM's lingo and what defines it is disorientation.

Indeed the first shot proper that opens the movie, that of a rotten head and as the camera zooms out we see the whole dead body in a grotuesque posture like some sort of zombified jester sitting atop a gravestone, offers no clue and safe grip for the viewer. After the opening credits roll, we are served an orange sun burning in a blackened sky and that dissolves into the image of a dead armadillo laying on the street. We're 5 minutes into the movie and we're provided no clues of typical genre orientation, no protagonists of any sort. As the eye scans the image for something to cling to, narrative or otherwise, there's nothing there save for decay and death.

And then TCM starts rolling and picks up steam and never stops. Apart from how original or not the concept is (crazed backwoods family terrorizing city kids) it's the approach that makes all the difference. Hooper achieves sensory terror and doom by piling on images and sounds, each of them spilling to the next frame starting an avalanche of horror. A close shot of cattles as the van drives in the background, a seedy gas station, a crazed hitch-hiker the kids pick up, an abandoned house. In the interior shots of the abandoned house the blacks are crushed and we only see silhouettes moving against the textures in the walls and those are juxtaposed with exterior shots where the whites wash out, like some kind of rural hell, a land of some other order that is coming apart under the weight of its own abandonment.

Even when the sensory chaos is broken for a while so that our genre expectations can be fulfilled as the crippled guy Franklin mutters to a couple that leaves the abandoned house to make out "Yeah, see you in an hour or so" (followed by a drone in the score) and we just know he's never gonna see them again, a typically ominous foreshadowing common in slashers, that only lasts for seconds. Then Hooper cuts back to puzzling images, feathers on the ground and some kind of dreamcatcher made of bone (?) and weird buzzing sounds in the score, like otherwordly insects flying unseen. TCM constantly tips its own axis, content to be left out of balance.

The first encounter with notorious chainsaw-wielding Leatherface is as disorienting as anything that comes before it. He appears out of nowhere like a beast in a frenzy and the carnage begins. And for a movie of TCM's reputation there is surprisingly no (or at least little) explicit gore. Yet the violence is startling and raw as the images that preceed its outburst spill into it and add their own touch of the morbid. Eisenstein must have been clairvoyant when he spoke of how powerful montage can be.

We're also given glimpses to Leatherface's tortured, crazed soul, bits of characterization like a gesture and a look of his eyes. Not a psycho killer out of sadistic pleasure perhaps, he looks more like a savage beast defending its territory or a wild dog scared of intruders trespassing in his nest.

Like an avalanche of macabre images that is impossible to stop once it starts, TCM whizzes by in a manic pace. The chase scene where Leatherface hunts down Marilyn Burns, scared out of her wits and howling like a wounded animal, is shot through branches of trees, as if the landscape is conspiring to ensnare the victim and so hunter and hunted run in the fields and inside a house and then back outside while the titular chainsaw is buzzing away in a constant reminder of gruesome death. Even when Hooper overplays his hand (as in the dinner scene) it's all done with deliberation that cannot be ignored, like maybe the director is as insane as the characters he's depicting and he takes great pleasure in basking in their insanity.

TCM simply has to be experienced, no critical analysis can do it justice. Without bucketloads of gore, without the slick look of high budget, it remains one of the most bleak, atmospheric and aurally violent movies of all time. What happened to Tobe Hooper's career after it is anyone's guess, but TCM is good enough to top entire filmographies of other directors. It has been imitated countless times, remade and given sequels and prequels to, but there's something primeval about the original that can't be recaptured.

Classic horror...

[Thanos_Alfie · 7/10 · 3 February 2022]

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is a Horror movie in which we watch a group of friends going to Texas. On their way there they find and stop to a deserted house only to find out that something is there.

I liked this movie because it had an interesting plot and plenty of suspense something that captured the audience throughout the whole duration of the movie. The direction which was made by Tobe Hooper was good and he presented very well both his main characters and the plot. In addition to this, he succeeded on creating a bond between his main characters and the audience, something that made possible for the audience to follow and relate to his main characters. To sum up, I have to say that "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is a nice horror movie and I highly recommend it to everyone.

The single best and scariest horror film EVER!!!

[thelegendarywd · 10/10 · 23 June 2003]

A group of teenagers on a road trip... OH BOY!!! HERE WE GO AGAIN... the typical horror movie set up. But wait.... something sets this one apart... IT'S SCARY... to be more precise, IT'S TERRIFYING!!! And I'm not just talking about the horrible 70's clothing and hairstyles. This film is one of the very few films I consider scary. Let me list a few reasons:

1) The gritty documentary feel the film has.

2) The excellent performances by Edwin Neil (the Hitch-Hiker), Jim Seidow (The Old Man), and Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) as the psychos (in a film this low budget and grainy, performances this real feel all the more scary) and Marilyn Burns (Sally) and Paul A. Partain (Franklin) as the victims (we truly believe and feel their fear).

3)The atmosphere (the skeleton bone art... the freaky metal door in the farmhouse... Leatherface's mask and demeanor... even the way the sun sets in this film is spooky along with the sound of the farmhouse generator).

4)Relentless Horror (Leatherface RUNS not speedwalks after his victims with a live chainsaw... there's no time to trip and fall or your booty is chainsaw bait)

5)The ability the film has to scare you with almost a complete lack of gore (the only "gory" scene is when Leatherface accidently cuts his thigh with the chainsaw). The scares lie within the performances and atmosphere and pacing.

In closing... this is truly the greatest horror film (and one of the greatest films period) ever made. 15 out of 10!!!

This is what inspired horror? Jheez...

[mtrburrows · 7/10 · 11 September 2018]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a boring, padded out film with a few good moments sprinkled throughout that are worthy of the "inspirational" title the movie gets. The characters are annoying, unlikeable and underdeveloped, and their deaths aren't all that satisfying either (apart from one or two...one reallllllllly isn't bad at all and is one of the best kills in slasher films). The villains are a cool concept but in the end I couldn't tell you how many they are, what their names are (apart from the obvious leatherface) or what made them different. Sequences are often drawn out and repetitive (seriously, there's a moment where someone escapes by throwing themselves out a window TWICE), and overall I wouldn't say this film is worth its classic status. By far not the worst horror film I've ever seen, but definitely not one of the best. Watch it with a group of friends and that's the most enjoyment you'll get out of it.

A terrifying n exhausting nightmare.

[Fella_shibby · 9/10 · 3 July 2017]

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs n found it to be very very disturbing.

Revisited it recently on a dvd which I own.

This film is very terrifying n intense.

What a terrific achievement inspite of the tiny budget.

It has amazing direction n top not cinematography. The dreadful, creepy n isolated atmosphere added more intensity.

The opening statement and the way it is handled, all gav this movie a documentary feel n made it more terrifying.

The whole film has this dark n isolated look but the best part is nothing is shot in dim light or shaky cam or with flickering lights stuff.

Screaming from Marilyn Burns got on my nerves at times. Her constant jumping from the windows n repeated screaming n the trauma she goes thru made the movie more emotionally scary.

Some may find the dinner scene to b the most iconic n terrifying coz it gives the entire idea but i found the scene wher Leatherface keeps chasing the victim with a chainsaw to be pure nightmare n pure terrifying n intense stuff.

Also the scene wher Leatherface maniacally dances with his chainsaw is downright creepy.

The first kill is the most brutal n shocking. Ther is no gore or violence portrayed but jus the impact of the scene is brutal. The swing of the hammer and the way the victim falls to the ground and starts shaking, is just plain brutal n unbearable to watch.

A very disturbing and distressing classic

[Ansango · 7/10 · 22 June 2023]

Immaculate camerawork, brilliant editing and an effective score gives this film a very unnerving atmosphere which almost feels like a post-apocalyptic scenario. This is a very uncomfortable film to watch, especially the scene where the whole family tortures Sally is eerily harrowing and distressing.

The writing is very subpar though and the acting is mostly bad. The characters are your very typical dumb and horny teenagers, and there is no extra detailing done on that. Hence they feel like your run-of-the-mill disposable with the depth of a flat chessboard. There is also a very ridiculous chase scene between Sally and Leatherface that is more comical than creepy.

Although the mysterious origin of Leatherface is expertly done without spoiling any of his mystique with a cheap backstory. Since I am not going to watch any of the poor retellings or sequels of this film, for me the enigma of his character will remain intact. The off-screen violence which is heavily implied to be disturbingly chilling is incredibly powerful in its intention as well as execution.

Overall, it's a good film, ofcourse with a lot of flaws.

'Cutting Edge' horror

[captain_bungle · 10/10 · 14 April 2005]

I was 11 years old. I'd given an older kid 50p to borrow his copy of Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I took it home and put it in the top-loader. It took me a fair while to press down on that chunky silver 'play' button, recollecting the stories I'd heard about the film. Rumours were flying around the school - the filmmakers had gone mad whilst making the film and killed each other - Leatherface was real - it was a documentary and the killings are all real. Chain Saw was a snuff movie. So, I pressed down the hefty button and braced myself for what was to come, eyes peeled, resisting the need to look away as if I were looking at a traffic accident. When the film was over I felt disturbed. I hadn't witnessed real human killings, I hadn't just seen a snuff movie, but Chain Saw had reached deep down inside of me and planted a seed of unease, I felt cold to my very core but I didn't know why. As the years passed my recollections of the film became more and more distorted. Most notably my memories of the killings within the film - bloody, gore-filled scenes. Blood. Lots of blood.

The reason I have rambled on about these events is that, until re-watching the film, I appeared to share the same memories as those that had seen it around the same time as me. This is a testament to Chain Saw's masterful construction, a film powered by the age-old technique of suggestion. There is hardly a drop of blood shown within the film, yet people will remember it in bucket-loads. In fact, director Tobe Hooper only shows us what is necessary, maybe because of the low budget he was working with (Hooper's later output would suggest this), but it forced creativity from the filmmaker that is sadly lacking in his other work (Poltergeist may be an exception, but Hooper's direction was steered by Spielberg on that one).

Okay, the story: A mini-bus carrying five teenagers drives through Texas. Pre-emptively they drive past a slaughterhouse as cows await their death. The tone, and their fate, is set, and it is only a matter of time before the teenagers will become meat to a local cannibal family. Their ordeal begins when they enter a sinister old house (don't they always?) and start to snoop around. Before you know it one of the teens, who you're expecting to be the lead, is struck over the head with a mallet by Leatherface (Gunar Hansen), an obese retard with a skin mask. As he falls to the floor, his body twitching, Leatherface closes a sliding metal door and finishes the job where we cannot see it. From here on in it's basically a matter of picking off teens one by one with the use of the mallet, a meat hook and, of course, the chain saw.

What is essentially a by-the-numbers plot is raised above par by the style and atmosphere of the film. From bizarre shots of solar flares to the hot, sun soaked imagery of Texas, Chain Saw seems to be sweating horror out of every pore. The locations are macabre beyond belief, in particular a room with hanging animal bones and bone constructed furniture, and the whole film has a hot, musty orange glow about it that almost makes you smell the dead human meat in the cannibal house.

The performances are relatively functionary from the cast, although Marilyn Burns puts in a good turn as the tortured 'final girl', making us feel that her life is truly at risk. Even though all she does is scream and plead for her life, she does so with such energy and realism that it is difficult to watch her. Most disturbing of all is a scene where the grandfather of the family, a man so old he can barely move, is given a hammer to deliver a deathblow to her head. The family holds her over a bucket as the old man raises the hammer to strike her, but he is barely able to hold it, let alone hit her with it.

Chain Saw is full of images that will horrify and disturb, but unlike many other films that do the same, Chain Saw will leave you breathless with its unrelenting assault on the senses; from the images on display to the ear-shattering sound design that allows Leatherface's saw to intrude your living room and slice at your nerves. Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of those few horror films that will unnerve you to a degree of unrest because it hits home where it hurts. Its savage, raw power and its total lack of reason give the impression you are watching something you shouldn't be. A bit like the traffic accident I mentioned earlier. In fact, you never really have time to think about what you are seeing until after the film has ended, which leaves an indelible image of a skin-masked madman waving a chain saw around his head in anger.

So, if you watched Chain Saw a good few years ago and remember it being a standard slasher flick with lots of gore, revisit it and see just how effective suggestion can be. If you've never seen it - what are you waiting for? This is low-budget film-making at its best and a lot can be gained from repeat viewings. If you can watch it more than once that is

Monumental to the genre of horror!

[kslitculture · 7/10 · 11 June 2023]

Before watching this film, I always thought that going on a road trip on back country roads with friends would be freaking awesome! This is no longer the case. Sally, Jerry, Kirk, Pam, and my personal favorite Franklin, all enjoying each other's company, were completely unaware of the chaos that was about to unfold and impact their lives forever.

Sweat, Screams, and Strangers with Saws can best sum up the events that take place after the group reaches a consensus to let a blade crazed hitchhiker join the party. One by one, the group of friends branch off encountering the evil that is the Sawyer Family. It's safe to say that bad decisions can lead to some unruly consequences. What a spectacle this movie is!

The cast of Scooby Doo come to a sticky end...

[Prichards12345 · 5/10 · 22 October 2016]

And that's about all the plot there is to this movie. Technically for such a low budgeter the film is fine; it looks good, is surprisingly well-acted and directed, and sticks in the memory: and yet I just can't give it a high mark as there is something squamous and uncouth about the damn thing!

TCM may have been seen by some critics as a satire on American family values but the final 20 minutes isn't much above the level of torture porn. The final survivor of the Mystery Machine Mob is subjected to mockery and psychological torture that I felt crossed the line. It's exhausting (entirely the point) and a bit too nasty. There is very little gore here, however, and I hope it's because of artistic choice rather than not having enough money to film such stuff. Director Tobe Hooper does a great job of making you think you see more than you actually do; your imagination takes over and runs wild. It's very cleverly done.

The plot, though, is almost non-existent, and I found the victims unengaging and not particularly worth caring about. When they get whittled down by Leather-Face I didn't really feel much - maybe it's because the death scenes are handled matter of factly but pretty perfunctorily.

A real stand out sequence is the scene where Leather-Face chases the girl thorough the woods - suspense rather than horror, excellently done. And the opening is queasily effective, too. This consists of live action "snapshots" of grave robbed corpses arranged artistically on a funeral monument, and it's this that starts the flimsy story in motion.

As a genuine horror film fan I re-watched this movie with an open mind having not seen it in many years (and not enjoying it first time around) and my impression is still the same. It probably deserves a higher mark but it's just not a film to enjoy - too much dragging the viewer through the ordure. I did the same with Scanners recently and was pleasantly surprised. But not with this movie.