Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
THE TITLE SENDS SHIVERS DOWN MY SPINE EVERY TIME I HEAR IT
Well, where do I start? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my favourite horror film and to my opinion one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever. Many people say it's not scary at all and don't understand all the hype around TCM. First, we are spoiled by today's bloody and visually shocking horror movies like Hostel and expect nothing less but a bloodbath from every new film we watch (even if it's an old film). Second, all the hype really often corrupts even great works (remember Titanic). If you want to taste a movie really good, to feel it as it's supposed to be felt, try to watch it expecting nothing special, try to forget everything you heard of it. Maybe TCM is not the scariest film ever, but it's obviously one of the most grim and disturbing pictures mankind ever knew.They say a real poet has to be poor and miserable to create good poetry. I guess they're right. Same thing with TCM - shot on a tight budget, with a limited timeframe, making almost no money for its creators, being produced in dreadful conditions for all the cast and crew... But finally we got what we got - a masterpiece.I remember the first frames of the film - of grisly cadavers being torn out of darkness by a photographic flash with that annoying sound - made me sit still and stare at the screen without blinking. Dark and grainy picture couldn't fit this film better - a pseudo documentary or at least not a finished story, but a segment of life of a few friends without beginning or end - that's what comes to mind. When you're watching a film, you usually know it's a work of art and it's going to have a conclusion. But TCM starts nowhere with a van driving down the road and after a series of terrible events it ends nowhere with no winners triumphing and no evil scourged - just with Leatherface rushing madly about the road and a sole survivor shrieking insanely while driving away in a back of a truck. You ask if a commonplace thought "it could happen to anyone, it could happen to me and my friends" crosses your mind - you bet ya! This thought is more vivid than after watching "Wrong Turn", "Wolf Creek" and "The Hills Have Eyes" altogether. TCM is just like a reality show - it's real like nothing else.On that hot summer day the friends ran into something that had no explanation, we never even got a chance to know the whole background of the Sawyer family except some minor issues. Watching the film we see and feel exactly the same the characters see and feel and that makes the whole experience even creepier. How can a normal person keep himself sane when he's running for help but only runs against some more cannibalistic freaks? There's no use of trying to deal with these people or beg for mercy - they're doing what they do just because they have to and there's no way anyone can persuade them not to. This everyday, humdrum violence shocks more than all the crushed sculls and gallons of blood seen in other movies. And as we all know there's not so much blood in TCM - it rather squeezes your subconsciousness and makes this viewing experience almost unbearable.All the scenes are directed brilliantly in this film, making you feel with characters and suffer just like them. There's no need to retell them, I'd just like to mention a scene with a hammer hit followed by an infamous hook scene and the first introduction of bones and remains room - these are two of the greatest sequences I ever saw on film.There're many great horror movies, but for me there's always horror cinema in general and there's THE Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It takes time to get used to a cheesy title, but finally you start to realize no other would fit. Try to watch TCM open-minded, without prejudices, like you haven't seen no horror films before and you'll definately see its greateness.