The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
TCM’s reputation proceeded itself long before its release on video and this became the must see horror film of the VHS explosion. It was with a sense of trepidation that I watched this movie as I wasn’t sure I could handle the alleged on screen atrocities as a twelve year old. The film delivered in spades but the anticipated level of grossness didn’t materialise, as a lot of viewers in those early days found out after a first viewing.
What I watched was admittedly a gruelling eighty five or so minutes but I remember being impressed by just how good the film was. What struck me in 1982 was the sheer sleaze and grubbiness of the movie; the bone strewn rooms and the filthy slaughterhouse of the kitchen left an unpleasant taste and made you feel as though you wanted a shower afterwards. That was the 70’s for you!
Storyline: five young Americans, Sally and her disabled brother Franklin along with three friends Kirk, Jerry and Pam are travelling to their Grandfather’s cemetery after news stories concerning local grave desecration. Afterwards they decide to visit Sally’s old home and along the way pick up a deranged hitchhiker who tells them about his work as a slaughterhouse worker. Refusing to pay his demands for a photograph he proceeds to cut himself and Franklin with a cutthroat. After ditching the attacker they carry on to the old home.
Franklin tells the group of an old swimming hole they used to frequent and Pam and Kirk decide to find it. The waterhole has long since dried up but on hearing a nearby generator check out a farmhouse. Bad idea. Kirk investigates and is confronted by a hulk of a man donning a mask that bursts from behind a steel door and proceeds to beat him unconscious with a hammer. Pam, waiting outside returns looking for Kirk only to stumble into a bone filled room with furniture made from carcasses and filled with chicken feathers and caged birds. On leaving Leatherface appears and impales Pam on a meat hook. Jerry visits the farm looking for Kirk and Pam only to be killed after finding Pam stuffed in a freezer. Cue chainsaw butchery.
Sally and Franklin head towards the house but Leatherface appears and Franklin takes the full force of the McCulloch. Being in a wheelchair doesn’t give him much chance of escape but Sally evades Leatherface and jumping through a upstairs window runs to the local gas station. The owner calms Sally and tries to help but it turns out he is part of the cannibal clan and he binds and blindfolds the screaming girl and takes her back to the farmhouse. There they proceed to beat and torture her and during a family meal introduce Grandpa, a venerable murderer who they encourage to kill Sally with a hammer. He’s weak and unable to deliver a fatal blow and Sally manages to escape with Leatherface in pursuit. Eventually Sally stumbles onto a road where a pickup truck rescues her leaving the pirouetting Leatherface swinging his chainsaw in the glow of the rising sun.
The film didn’t deserve its reputation as a ‘nasty’ as the on screen violence is quite muted. For me the film was more of a reflection of the viewer’s expectation and for men how they felt about violence towards women. It is gruelling, of that there’s no doubt and the final scenes of torture and sadism won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s exploitative but not in the way of garbage such as Hostel which plays merely for an audience’s thrill seeking.
It is Tobe Hooper’s first and greatest film, it stands the test of time and is a lesson on how to build tension and a real sense of dread and horror. The grungy documentary look is unsettling and there’s an attempt at subliminally disturbing the viewer with strange cut scenes (the slobbering cow, the close up nest of spiders) that really does put you on edge.
It’s not a video nasty but it is a classic example of how to make a proper horror movie.
Splatter Score
Gore 3/10
Shocks 8/10
Overall 9/10
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