Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
...And I thought it was a joke...
I bought this classic film when I was in the army about two years ago. Me and my friend thought it was a comic slasher piece with unintentionally hilairous gore and unfocused ravaging. We put it in to the TV lobby video recorder with smiles on our faces... This is going to be fun! Well, the smiles faded away right from the eerie beginning text. This clearly wasn't what we were expecting it to be! It is so sad that this film seems to be eternally plagued by it's unjust reputatiuon as a "dirty" low-budget horror turkey, when it is quite simply the most effective hooror film I personally have ever seen in my life. There's barely any gore ore blood to be seen. Instead, the film focuses on the pressing atmosphere that doesn't allow the viewer to be careless towards it. That is if the viewer is truely focused on watching the film. The film is clearly shot cheap, but the style only adds to the almost documentarily realistic sense of the film. Another thing that makes the film so effective is the fact that you don't get to emphatize with the villains, you don't understand them. That way you are left with a little less information than the victims and therefore empathize with them, becoming them. There are no explanations, no reasons for the horrid acts, only sheer terror. But the film also displays parts of inventive dark humor, mainly in the form of the family grandpa. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is almost perfectly executed. Only real life (like the case of Ed Gein, the inspiration of the film shows) can be more horrific.