The Texas Chain Saw Massacre review.
50 years ago, Tobe Hooper released a genre defining masterpiece. Our look back at a classic.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper
Starring Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danzinger, William Vail and Teri McMinn
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Review
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was never my favorite movie. To be honest, it was never close to it. It arrived 5 years before I was born…which is context that only matters to me. More importantly, Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece arrived 4 years before slasher movies were catapulted to the forefront of the horror genre by John Carpenter’s Halloween. It’s fair to say that Halloween is more directly responsible for the slasher era of horror than The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s fair to say that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t even a slasher movie. Whatever you classify it as…its influence on slasher movies is undeniable. While it may have never been my favorite…many of my favorites owe it a great debt.
It can be difficult to assign influence points to historical films. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre may not have been the first horror movie to be deemed too violent or to be banned by certain countries for it. It wasn’t the first movie to introduce ideas that would inform slasher movies in the future either. Psycho, Peeping Tom and Blood Feast are some popular examples from over a decade before its release. What positions The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as perhaps the ultimate so-called “proto slasher” is a combination of craft and intrigue. The title itself, let alone the buzz surrounding its content, was enough to illicit interest to a certain audience. Hooper’s ability to deliver something completely fresh in an unforgettable way ensured it would become a template for movies even 50 years later.
Slasher movies, as we know them, weren’t really a thing in 1974. At least not in the full form they would throughout the 80s. Concepts like the Final Girl, the masked killer, the chase scene, the murder weapon…they all existed. Movies had been using them for a long time. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre provided the clearest form of what they would become. A pack of young people are dispatched one by one, a masked man wielding a memorable tool of destruction, one girl survives her attacker(s). While it may not be the first…it was the most successful and, thus, influential of the movies experimenting with the ideas.
But The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t really a slasher movie, is it? If anything, it’s a reverse home invasion movie. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) isn’t running around town looking for victims. He’s minding his own business as multiple people walk into his home. More than anything, Tobe Hooper’s movie is about modern society’s encroachment on the old ways. The theme is established early and repeated often. The gang picks up a Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) who laments the change in killing techniques at the old slaughterhouse. The old ways are better. At least, they are to the family that Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) will spend the night contending with.
Sally and her crew represent that modernity. They bring new age ideas to a town that doesn’t take kindly to them. While Leatherface may have not asked for their presence in his home…a family member is directly responsible for their arrival. The Cook (Jim Siedow) informs the group that his gas station is dry. Hearing a generator at the family’s home sets the crew on their doomed path. A lot full of old cars tells us they are not the first people to fall into this trap.
Sally Hardesty is an interesting final girl. She never fights back against her captors. Her only move is to run. Run and scream. She crashes through windows twice in an effort to escape. Her survival is completely predicated on her ability to flee. It’s the opposite of what we see in characters today. The growth of the character trope moved quickly. Laurie Strode wasn’t much for fighting 4 years later…but she defended herself when she needed to. A year later, Ripley was braver and more hands on. When we get to 1980, Alice was taking on Mrs. Voorhees in hand-to-hand combat. Ginny was using psychology against Jason in 1981. Nancy was incredibly resourceful in 1984. By 1986, Ripley was an action hero.
Every final girl in movies falls somewhere between Sally and Ripley. Erin goes full Ripley in You’re Next. Sidney starts as a Laurie and moves more towards Ripley as the Scream series continues. It’s hard to be more badass than Ripley. It’s impossible to be more passive than Sally. Yet, they both end up in the same place. Strong enough to survive. By any means necessary. Marilyn Burns’ screams are the soundtrack of the second half of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. She’s put into horrific situations surrounded by a rogue’s gallery. In one of the most famous scenes in the film, Sally finds herself tied to a human chair staring at the faces of the entire family. Every ignored bad portent looking back at her.
Leatherface dispatches all of Sally’s friends. His tools include a sledgehammer, a meat hook and, of course, a chainsaw. The only other death is that of the Hitchhiker. He is run over by a truck during Sally’s climactic escape. Three of Leatherface’s victims come into his house uninvited. The last is wandering the property in search of missing friends. As far as the bad guys go…he’s still the most sympathetic. The Cook and The Hitchhiker act with total malice and enjoy it. Although, we learn, The Cook has no stomach for killing. Leatherface is bullied by the others. He’s scared and confused when these people continually intrude on his property. In no way a good guy, he has more dimensions than the others. Of course, he also wears human faces as masks. So, there’s that.
A lot of the discourse about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been centered on either its influence or the (misguided) controversy that surrounds it. The former remains interesting 5 decades after its release. The latter has always been a waste of time. Hooper pulls the Hitchcock Psycho trick. He implies more than shows. The production design is pure horror. The violence is pure magic. Everyone recalls Pam (Teri McMinn) being put on a meat hook. Whether you see it go into her or not has never been part of what made it work. You don’t. But the scene implies that you see it…which is more effective than creating a low-budget effect around it. Marion Crane didn’t need to be stabbed for the shower scene to be the most memorable in movie history.
Every aspect of violence works in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because of the horror that surrounds it. Both in set design and the way Hooper lays them out. Kirk (William Vail) stumbles into a hulking figure wearing a human face and is quickly hit in the head. Jerry (Allen Danziger) finds Pam dying in a freezer and is quickly dispatched the same way. Franklin’s flashlight catches a brief glimpse of Leatherface and meets his chainsaw just as quickly. Sally spends the second half of the movie in absolute terror. Surrounded by vile people and furniture made of their victims. You don’t need to see anything happen in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because Hooper has already trapped you in Hell.
50 years after its release, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains a titan of horror. One of the most important and influential films ever made. In fact, it’s largely responsible for this website’s (and podcast’s) existence. Following Hooper death in 2017, the Oscars decided he wasn’t worth including in the In Memoriam part of the show. This, despite making one of the most famous and influential movies of all time. It got me to thinking of the way horror is covered by mainstream critics. How they invent terms like “elevated horror” to explain the genre movies that garner universal acclaim. Movies like Jaws, Black Swan, Silence of the Lambs and The Sixth Sense aren’t even listed as horror movies on IMDB. Those are horror movies. But…they had Oscar success, so they have to be called them something else.
A lot of it is to avoid association with movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s exhausting…and unfair. Many of the best actors work in horror…because the parts are more complex. A lot of great filmmakers start in horror…because it’s a genre that sells. Critically, however, horror is a genre that has failed to count far too often. They deserve to be more properly judged. Two years after Hooper’s Oscar snub, Bong Joon-ho won Best Director for Parasite. In his speech he referenced a “Texas Chainsaw”. To me, that is a more fitting legacy than inclusion in the politically driven In Memoriam. An Oscar winning director from the other side of the world who speaks a different language referencing your movie over 45 years after its release. That’s the size of its influence. That’s it’s importance to film.
Scare Value
Fifty years is a long time to be combed over. Perhaps the most impressive thing about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is how exciting it remains to watch and talk about. It’s a complete and total classic of the genre. A near perfect realization of a daring filmmaker’s vision. It feels vital and breathless to this day. And it isn’t even what people tried to tell you it was in the first place. It’s so much more than that. Even 50 years later.
5/5
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Fandango at Home and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
