Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 4.0
The film that broke the rules and opened up the slasher genre forever
It's 96 degrees with 98% humidity. Texas is seething, and not just because of the heat. Tobe Hooper's landmark film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, peeks into the squirming, wretched brains of a cannibalistic family who dominate a small, rural town. Their victims are 5 friends, led by a sister, Sally Hardesty and her brother, Franklin, who is wheelchair-bound. They grew up in the town, their family working for the local slaughterhouse that looms over the village, and are back to have a nostalgic look at the family homestead in their dilapidated hippy van.Their first encounter with the cannibal family is a quirky, twitching rail of a man with a penchant for knives and the slaughter of animals. His behavior is bizarre, and the group quickly dumps him from the van after he cuts himself deeply with Franklin's knife. They speed away, but not before the man marks their van with his blood. The event shakes them deeply, but still they continue on to the family house, even after being warned away by a local gas station owner [Jim Siedow] who also happens to make some really good BBQ, which they enjoy on the ride.Within minutes of finding the Hardesty home and starting their explorations, the killing begins. It starts without warning; there is no building soundtrack or anticipatory jump scenes to clue us in to what's about to happen. Leading the killing spree is Leatherface, an overgrown hulk who wears a mask of human skin. He wields his chainsaw with grace and speed; this is no lumbering monster or limping zombie. He moves quickly, with agility that belies his size. Leatherface seems invincible and inescapable; the massacre is a montage of crude, raw killing, and it shocks us to the core.The party is picked off, in ones and twos, until only Sally Hardesty is left alive. She escapes for a time, finding her way back to the gas station/BBQ joint, only to realize that the meal they just ate was human flesh, and the owner is part of the family. There is no help coming, and no hope of emerging unscathed. The owner drags her back to the house, where the depravity really begins.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre broke many of the rules of horror films. Hooper killed without fanfare, and provide no reason for the killing--there is no great childhood trauma, no satanic rituals or old legends being fulfilled. The family is 100% human, and 100% depraved. Even with his mask, Leatherface is no werewolf or Frankenstein monster. It makes the killing that much worse, because it seems so easy for a family to become these cannibals, a frightening prospect for the audience, who might find themselves in the hands of madmen.We want the world to play by certain rules, and those rules were broken by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Today, the film seems somewhat dated and the portrayals cartoonish, like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner with a chainsaw. Still, the movie operates on our basest fears--violent painful death at the hands of someone who cannot be reasoned with or understood.