Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 3.0
A classic without a reference point
Why is the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" a classic? It seems to lack the very details that make something a shining representative of its genre. The characters are annoying, the dialogue mundane, the production qualities basement-budget, the gore gratuitous, and the character development nonexistent. People are introduced to be degraded, chopped into pork ribs, and hung from meat hooks. The plot consists of college students (who are so boring you hardly care when they're cut down) wandering around whimsically before being lunged at by the maniacal Leatherface and his Energizer-battery chainsaw.The film is absolutely grotesque. At the time, it was a true original. I would argue that that's what made it a classic. No one had gone to this extreme before, and movies that shock and repulse tend to leave a big impression. Dissect this film and you're left with cruddy shreds of celluloid with little redeeming value. But as a whole it shocked a nation, even if it took liberties with the Ed Gein story. I admit that the first half was the equivalent of shock therapy. Most of the characters died quickly and bloodily. But the second half became repetitive and truly disgusting. One long chase scene, with a notorious climax at the family dinner table that seemed to go on forever. It was excruciating, and I don't mean that in a good sense. Horror movies that truly disturb me also make me smile at how effective they are at piercing my nerve endings. "Texas Chainsaw" both disturbed me and made me pull out a garbage bag in case I needed to heave my guts.Atmosphere is everything in this movie. And dread. Can you praise a film solely on the merit of its emotional impact? Even if the rest of it is a gore-soaked slasher flick? If "Texas Chainsaw" had come out after the glut of "Friday the 13ths" and "Halloweens" and "Nightmare on Elm Streets" would it still be considered a classic? Or would that pedestal crumble into a heap of pulverized bones?I enjoyed this film to a point, and then I was repulsed. I had to suppress a gag reflex every time the poor girl (with a nails-on-chalkboard scream) was humiliated by the family of backwoods cannibals. The ending truly defied logic, making me wonder if it would have been more terrifying if the story had adhered to the Ed Gein biography more stringently.As it stands, the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remains a classic. It lives in infamy, reminding us of the first time we saw such relentless human degredation splattered onto the big screen. If it had been released twenty years later, it would simply seem redundant.