Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
Classic
Though these things are difficult to determine with any real accuracy, one gets the impression that 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is the most important horror movie of the modern era. 'Night of the Living Dead' broke away from tradition, making a darker more graphic film, but it was 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' that really defined the path that horror would follow for the last quarter of the 20th century. Of course, influential films may be good, or they may just be influential. Fortunately, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is very good, easily topping virtually every film that it influenced, and is definitely worthy of it's classic status.Although this film isn't truly a slasher film, the basic plot is the same as a thousand of those films: 5 young people and stranded in a remote area, and terrorized and murdered by a psychopath/s. The end. Of course, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is different in terms of execution, lacking the clichés and graphic violence of such films. And it's a helluva lot better.This film was plenty cheap, perhaps under $100,000 according to some reports, but it's technically at least competent on all fronts. Other than Marilyn Burns, who is quite good, the principal victims are all competent, if not much more than that, and none of them are hideously obnoxious and loathsome.(Well, Franklin's pretty damn annoying, but I didn't hate him) The murderous family tends to be pretty over the top, but one would expect a family of murderous cannibals to be fairly eccentric. I think the Hitchhiker takes it a bit too far in some scenes, and he's too jittery, his speech too stuttered, but this is a fairly minor concern. Hansen is great as Leatherface, though It's primarily just physical size and the way he looks. The film is capably shot, though it generally doesn't draw attention to itself, as the film is supposed to be stark and grimy. The set-design is quite excellent, with their ruined old house and all of Leatherface's gross little trinkets.Though lotsa people fail to mention this, this film has actually got a lot of dark humor in it. TCM is unique, in that it manages to integrate humor into the narrative without it seeming like deliberate comic relief. It's just part of the story. It also manages to be kinda funny, and unsettling at the same time, best exemplified by the climatic dinner scene, where the family's odd bickering is vaguely amusing, contrasting with Burns' endless, very convincing screaming and crying and whatnot. It's a pretty powerful effect.In most ways, TCM is just a good horror movie, but it's got a bunch of little touches and specific details that really push it into the all-time great realm. I can't come up with a way to describe this in a sweeping manner, so I guess I'll just resort to listing (SPOILER ALERT for the whole next section): The opening scene is extremely creepy: It consists of complete darkness, punctuated sporadically by the flash of a camera revealing ancient, desecrated corpses. This scene also illustrates the power of the soundtrack, a minimalistic, melody free collage of metallic, shrieking sounds. The first murder is an all-time great, easily one of the starkest and most brutal I've seen. Leatherface just suddenly appears in a doorway, and clubs the guy with his hammer. He goes down like he just had an anvil dropped on his head. His hideous spasming and the way that Leatherface slams the steel sliding door are both very effective too. Just a brilliant scene, though it only lasts a few seconds. Marilyn Burns' performance is a huge asset as well. 'Scream Queen' is a stupid, generic term, but it really applies here. Lotsa films like to focus on the death and the killer, forgetting that portraying the terror of the victim is one of the best ways to truly disturb the audience. Finally, when Marilyn's character leaps out the window at the end of the film, and it's revealed that it's morning again, and that she's been there all night, well, that's just a really striking moment. I dunno why exactly.As many have said by now, this film is not gory at all. This isn't a concern for me, though occasionally the way that the death's are portrayed is a bit problematic. People love to talk about how this 'suggests' violence, but I think that this is where the film fails, occasionally. Simply put, the times when Leatherface actually takes a chainsaw to someone, it's conspicuously obvious that nothing is happening, and that he's just waving the chainsaw in their general vicinity. But, this is only a minor concern.Yeah, I'm done. Classic movie here.Grade: A