Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
A tried & true classic.
Well, where to begin? When you hear the three words "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the first thing that must come to your mind is carnage, blood, guts, gore, madness, mayhem and every adjective that fits in between. And if you are expecting the biggest bloodbath ever to grace your TV screen, I am sorry, you will be gravely disappointed. However, what Tobe Hooper's original "TCM" has to offer is a charming, low-budget and influential horror flick that manages to be rather unsettling without utilizing gallons of blood (I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Hooper was going for a PG rating; sounds odd, but it worked for "Jaws"). The movie starts off with five young adults on a road-trip to Texas who, after picking up a disturbed hitchhiker, find themselves under the knife...err..chainsaw, of a cannibalistic family. The deaths and torture scenes are rather grisly when you consider the era this movie came out. It's easy to see why this shocked a lot of people in 1973, it displays macabre images very dryly and makes no apologies, which could be a tribute to the cast & crew's suffering on set, due to heat and props that just would not work (check out the commentary for some wild stories). Is it as shocking now, in 2004 and it was in 1973? Probably not. No doubt, any kid who picks this movie up today will probably be scratching their heads, but when you consider the time it was released in and the massive influence it has had on pop-culture (not just spawning three sequels and a remake...), you have to appreciate the efforts of Tobe Hooper and company. Just remember, Leatherface came before Jason, Michael or Freddy, and any horror fan will be able to appreciate what this film was trying to do. It is truly a maddening and unsettling experience when all is said and done. Definitely a case of making something out of virtually nothing.The DVD is great. Not only do we get an informative commentary from director Tobe Hooper, Cinematographer Daniel Pearl and the original Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen, but we get deleted scenes and alernate scenes of every variety. Make no mistake, these are very grainy and very old, but some of them are very fascinating to watch. Another treat would be the trailers for this film and all of the sequels that followed (Part 4, however, is just a collection of raw footage). The version that I reviewed (which I own), released in October of 1998, isn't any different from the "new" version on shelves today.