Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 4.0
Greatest Horror Film
For me, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the perfect horror movie. It completely captures the "American Nightmare" of the early 1970s with the post-'60s dread, economic crises such as the gas/oil crisis, returning scarred Vietnam vets, etc. It's also a commentary on the beast within--not only the violence inherent in America's rural frontier pioneer back history but also the violence inherent within man, in general (while also connecting this to key '60s hippie topics regarding nature and the environment, such as astrology and veganism). Apart from all of the thematic subtext, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is, formally, in a class of its own, whether it is the grainy, documentary style and the authentically deranged performances or the arty and avant-garde cinematography and nightmare industrial "music" score. Nothing has ever matched its sense of atmosphere, whether it is the hellish, apocalyptic mood of the scorched summertime Texas landscape or the textured cinematography which accents how nature can engulf humanity, such as in the opening shots of solar flares and sunspots (which studies show are linked to outbreaks of insanity), the moon, and the darkness of night and the wilderness. It is the grittiest and grimiest horror film ever made.