Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 4.0
LEATHERFACE!
When a film reaches cult status, or at least has been out for around thirty years, fans sometimes get attached to a certain character within the film. In the case of Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," that character is Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). When you first see him, he bursts out of a hallway wearing an apron, a dead skin mask he pieced together, and is wielding a hammer that he uses to kill his first victim. Maybe it's the sound of Hansen's grunting. Maybe it's because it looks like Hansen actually misses hitting the victim with the hammer even though there's an accompanying thud. Whatever it is, the scene is bad...in a good way. But I'm getting ahead of myself."Massacre" is about the story of five teenagers going to live in one of the group's father's abandoned house for the summer. Along the way they meet a sadistic hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) and a creepy gas station attendant (Jim Siedow) that everyone knows are going to show up later.When the kids finally arrive at the house, they straggle off a few at a time to find a water hole, but in turn end up at the home/slaughter house of Leatherface...and his family (it's so nice to see those two guys again). This is where the killing, and incidentally, the fun, begins.Gunnar Hansen is great as Leatherface. He is humongous and the only lines he has in the movie are grunts. He has a chainsaw and a hammer. The combination of all of these is what makes me laugh and enjoy the character. Unlike the unstoppable Jason character of the "Friday the 13th" franchise, that always found cool ways to kill co-eds, Leatherface will often swing at his victims, usually miss, and then finally hit a kill shot after some time. Leatherface screws up, yeah. But after he's given a couple of chances, he gets the job done. Leatherface is the everyman of horror cinema.The lighting and sound are horrible, but in the end the visual effect is great. By no means is it scary by today's standards, but it's great to be able to laugh at a bunch of horny guys being slaughtered and their tight-clothes-wearing girlfriends running around. So if you are the type who expects to laugh at old horror movies rather than be scared, by all means go out and rent "Leatherface." Er, I man "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."