Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
A Terrifyingly Effective Horror Movie
From the opening shot to the last frame, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is sheer horror. I was disturbed, disgusted and so uneasy that I wanted to crawl out of my seat. It's incredibly effective, and incredibly terrifying. It's so expertly done that it's hard to believe that this is a first effort.A dreadfully eerie beginning precedes the violence. Several images in particular continue to haunt me. The cows at the abattoir, the nest of daddy longlegs in the abandoned house... Bestial sound effects and unconventional editing transform the benign into something creepy and foreboding. And that's just the start.Right away we meet the Hitchhiker: a vile, psychopathic character. He draws his own blood, then Franklin's, and then smears an enigmatic symbol on the side of the van. It's intensely disconcerting to see this psychopath's blood in later scenes, tagging the group.Of course, they eventually run into Leatherface and the "sawing" begins. The murders are truly shocking, but so are the moments that lead up to them, like when Pam stumbles into a living room of bone furniture and chicken feathers - one of the film's best scenes.(On a side note, Teri McMinn and Marilyn Burns, who play Pam and Sally, have two of the most gorgeous bodies that have ever been put to celluloid - a pair of heavenly diversions in an otherwise relentlessly dark film.)The acting was good, especially when one considers that this was the first film for almost everyone involved. The filmmakers put poor Marilyn Burns through so much gruel that it's a wonder she didn't walk off the set or lose her mind. In the commentary, Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, admits to cutting her intentionally during a grueling, 27-hour shoot. No wonder she screamed incessantly through the last 1/2 hour of the movie!Edwin Neal, the Hitchhiker, and Jim Siedow, the Cook (or Old Man), are insanely fun to watch in a truly disturbing way. The pitch black humor of the film would've been lost without these two."The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" deserves its legendary status as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It's a completely original and utterly daring film, one that's been widely mimicked but never surpassed. It's quite possibly the most terrifyingly effective horror movie I've ever seen.