Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
IT STAYS WITH YOU
When I read a bad review of this film,I am astounded that they don't get it. This is such a superb portrayal of evil, an evil that goes back for generations, and the gene pool that ultimately led to this overgrown killing machine we know as "Leatherface." These five people are out for the afternoon, need to check on a relative's grave, after news reports of grave-robbing. Fate isn't so kind to them.(Spoiler here)An exceptionally hard scene to watch, is when Leather drags one of the girls back to the butchery room. Having just killed her boyfriend with a swift blow to the head with a sledge hammer, he makes incoherent noises as he chases her down, and with no sympathy whatsoever, just hangs her on one of the meat hooks. She gasps and writhes in unbearable pain while Leatherface proceeds to dismember Kirk, right in front of her. The subtle things add to the impact,as in the above mentioned scene, which is not in the least bit subtle, but the shot of the weather-vane twisting in the wind, as Pam's screams are heard off in the distance, show an abject sense of hopelessness on her part that goes beyond the imagination. That's the off-camera horror that so many , young people in particular, just don't get anymore.In all, three guys and two girls are brutalized in this film, and it may be the male-pig in me, but it's all the harder to process because these are very attractive girls, and when you see what they go through,it has an emotional impact. Realistically, it would be just as brutal if they were dodgy and unattractive, but I think it was cast this way on purpose.The victims are dispatched in such a callous way, it makes a strong case for vegetarianism.And the now infamous "dinner room scene" just goes on and on, showing pure terror from the victim's point-of-view, I just don't know how anyone can watch this and not feel the revulsion that the filmmakers intended. I hear terms like "screamfest", and I think, "Look what's happening! Why would anyone be less than hysterical-my God, don't you get it?"Yes, this is an exploitation film, only an exercise in terror, but one without peer.