Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
Defined low-budget independent film making
TCM just happens to be a brutally brilliant accident that the director, production company, sequels or spin-offs have yet to recapture or surpass. TCM stands alone as a brainwave of selling a movie on the bases of its title alone and manages to deliver on a shoe-string budget. TCM has its background in blue movie film making. Due to the success of the blue movie "Deep Throat" the production company saw fit to launch some funds in the direction of a "nobody" who just happened to come up with the right idea at the right time while standing in line at a crowded hardware store picking through his thoughts as to which device he could use to get through the crowd quicker. Getting hold of a 16mm camera, some extras and some fake blood Tobe Hooper decided it would be a good idea to make a family value suspense thriller with a PG rating where he would keep the on-screen violence down low along with the body count, by cutting away from the horrors when on screen. What he did not realize is that by doing this he simply let imaginations run riot in the audience and succeeded in having his film not only cut, given a R rating and banned in various countries, but had religious groups having an uprising on every radio station across the land.This movie IS as disturbing as everything it has been made out to be, but for all the wrong reasons. There is very little blood on the screen and only one person is killed by a chainsaw! So what makes this film so alarming? It is violent because of the victims and how they are treated. Psychologically this film is a nightmare. Leatherface who cuts up women has a psychological age of six. His family are worse! His brother cuts himself, his father batters women in sacks with a stick and granddad is... well we will let you see that for yourself. The truth is that the violence towards cripples and women is savage. There are women here repeatedly hit over the head with a stick or hung up on meat hooks. They are tortured, toyed with and played with like animals. Forget the title of this movie which is not really that much on display except in various chase sequences. This is all about humiliation and exploitation. The last thirty minutes is screaming from start to finish until the very last scene of the unforgettable leatherface chainsaw overture as the sun sets.Truth be told this film is a winner. It does everything in aces without drawing that much blood (however several sequences do feature real blood including the finger knife wound and the main protagonist cutting herself for real on branches and trees). A huge percentage of it is mostly psychologically implied but the scene with the hammer is exploitation through and through. TCM delivers on all counts, just not in the way that you expected it. Its low-budget and 16mm look just make it all the more real. Nowhere has a low-budget production looked better for all its limitations. By the way, the scene in the attic with a Skelton is really a human Skelton! Turns out that purchasing a Skelton from India was cheaper than making one up at the time. Also a lot of the screaming and facial expressions are also real because the special effects used in creating these sequences actually hurt the actors and actresses. The scene with the meat hook actually involved an extremely painful crotch strap.How can you fail to miss this classic! Its amateur film making at its best and certainly knocks most high budget productions for six.An undisputed must have for any DVD collection.