Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974)
Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974) is a seminal classic made on a very low budget in hot weather and poor working conditions. The film spawned sequels, prequels, and reboots. Hooper only directed one sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II(1986). The first film has a documentary style look and a serious tone with dark humor. The sequel is a bizarre, horror-comedy. Five people in a van visit a cemetary and an old house during the Summer of 1973. While there, a misfit family of cannibals and a tall man dressed in human flesh and armed with a chainsaw(Leatherface, played by Gunnar Hansen) hunt them one at a time! Marilyn Burns is quite lovely as Sally, the film's heroine. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a work of fiction, yet it is hyped as a true story. Leatherface could be an homage to real life serial killer Ed Gein. George Romero's Night of the Living Dead(1968) may have been an influence on the film. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was remade in 2003 with Jessica Biel and a bigger budget with state of the art special effects. This film was shocking in 1974, but it's a little tame compared to the excessive, degrading, sleazy, blood and guts horror films made in the past ten years. Saw, Hostel, and The Human Centipede are already cult classics. Hooper packed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with suspense. I had doubts that Sally would make it to safety. I avoided this film for years, but I got off my high horse and watched it. It's a good horror film. This DVD delivers in quality and quantity. Juan Piquer Simon's Pieces(1982) may have been an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This film is a must see for horror movie fans.