Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 4.0
Come on, people....
Okay...honestly, the only reason I'm writing this review is that I have a bone to pick. Now, I won't hail TCM as a great piece of cinematic genius...because it's not, and we all KNOW that it's not. But it's a HORROR MOVIE...how much can you really expect? Especially from a low-budget horror movie like this one? I think that people who watch low-budget horror movies (like myself) do it mainly because it's fun...silly, cheesy, tacky fun.Now, this film isn't fun in the "Evil Dead" series sense of the word...it's fun in the "Hellraiser" sense of the word. In other words, it's fun because it's nail-bitingly tense and claustrophobic (and God...that music). It's what a low-budget horror film should be. It gets under your skin and messes with your brainwaves.And the brilliant thing is that all of the gore in this film is in the mind of the viewer. There is very little actual on-screen violence in this film. But Tobe Hooper manages to create such a violent aura and set such a violent mood that he doesn't HAVE to show us people getting hacked apart with chainsaws...he just gives the viewer cues and lets their imaginations run wild. It's a good way to handle the material, I think, and it keeps the suspense level high.This isn't "Friday the 13th"...or even "Halloween"...this is the original. It's the film that set the standard which "Halloween" would follow (which would then be followed by every slasher film since). It's a classic. Yes, the acting is poor (the kids, anyway...Leatherface and his family are convincing). No, the sound and picture quality aren't top-notch. Who CARES? It's a ... horror movie!!!!!!And I can't understand ANYONE saying that you should watch some new so-called "horror film" instead of TCM. If you think that "13 Ghosts" is a better piece of horror cinema than TCM, then you are NOT a horror fan...just another victim of the MTV generation and its pitiful attempt to make movies.