The Texas Chain Saw Massacre **** (1974, Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Gunnar Hansen) – Classic Movie Review 5980

Director Tobe Hooper’s scintillating 1974 film début proper (following 1969’s experimental Eggshells) ranks as one of the most shocking and powerful horror films ever made and is a horror movie game changer.

Based on the true case of Ed Gein [(also the source for Psycho, Deranged (1974) and Ed Gein (2000)], the low-budget masterclass in terror The Texas Chain Saw Massacre tells the story of a group of five teenage friends who venture into the Deep South to see the grave of the father of one of them, Sally (Marilyn Burns).

What they encounter is the ultimate nightmare, a family of cannibals gone bad under the Texas sun, a family whose only drive is to kill and eat other people.

The movie adopts a documentary style that intensifies the atmosphere of sleaziness, horror and pain. Despite the obviously deliberately shocking title, and its implications, the gore is surprisingly limited, and Hooper makes the suggestion of greater horrors than those shown into an effective device.

However, this influential, seminal film reveals the most degraded aspects of the human personality, and it is a trip into terror that, once seen, can never be forgotten. So be afraid, be very afraid!

Gunnar Hansen plays the masked Leatherface. Obviously, it has dated, so beware the Seventies haircuts, flares and music!

Also in the cast are Allen Danziger, Paul A Partain, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Edwin Neil, Jim Siedow, John Dugan and Jerry Lorenz.

Kim Henkel who plays a writer in Eggshells, co-wrote The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It is co-written by Tobe Hooper, shot by Daniel Pearl, produced by Tobe Hooper, and scored by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell.

There are three versions: 75 minutes, 83 minutes and 88 minutes (Unrated Edition).

It was of course a major hit. Costing $300,000, it took more than $30,000,000 in the US.

It was re-released in cinemas in Britain in 1998, and finally, after a 25-year ban, on video in 1999. ‘Who will survive and what will be left of them?’ the poster screamed. Or, if you prefer: ‘Once you stop screaming, then you’ll start talking about it.’

It is followed by two sequels, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, plus The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994). It was remade in 2003.

Tobe Hooper died on 26 August 2017, age 74. He went on to make Eaten Alive (1977), Salem’s Lot, The Funhouse, Poltergeist, Lifeforce and Invaders from Mars (1986), as well as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2(1986), Spontaneous Combustion (1990), Night Terrors (1993), Body Bags (1993), The Mangler (1995), The Apartment Complex(1999), Crocodile (2000), Toolbox Murders (2004), Mortuary (2006) and Djinn (2013).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5980

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