Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
A Masterpiece of Tension
I had avoided watching this film for many years due to my aversion to gore in films. I was finally convinced by a friend to watch in college and what I saw astounded me. First, let me just say that the gore is at a bare minimum. This film was a triumph of tension over cheap thrills. It was perhaps one of the scariest films I have ever seen, because it was so realistic. I eventually ensnared another friend, who ultimately demanded that the lights be turned on and that midway through we pause the film for him to take a rest.All those that wish to understand how to horrify an audience should study this and The Shining - to truly understand how to get inside an audience's head and remain there long after the credits roll. So many horror films use cheap, unimaginative and unmotivated devices to scare, but never truly creep under your skin to haunt you. As an added bonus, the film also has a deeply, darkly comic approach to the villains, which serves to amuse, and frighten. The victims aren't in on the joke, and that makes their plight all the more hopeless and fright-filled.