Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
Hey Sally wait...I hear something
"You..you can take me to my house,you could have dinner with us"No it's alright mate, i think i'll pass on that one.What a terrific and terrorfying film surely the best of the slashers even seperating it's self.Instead of Hooper taking gore and bloodshed as its driving point he took pure fear and shock and displayed it so realisticaly that you feel you are actually sat at the dinner table facing the canibalistic atrocities of the family.Where as films such as friday the thirteenth and the nightmare on elm street series intreeged the audience because of the pure gore and the ridiculous deaths throughout,texas chainsaw looks for a more intelectual audience.I know many people who saw the film expecting peoples veins to be played like puppet strings or when opening a cupboard to find their boyfriend with an arrow stuck through his eye.These people hated the film, thought it was boring and unimagenative,for this i do partly blame the title but i also think that these people are both stupid and have no idea what a good film is.These people thought "apocalypse now" was slow and that "Final destination" was really clever.No it wasn't it was an episode of dawsons creek with a few deaths here and there.One of the reasons that i feel this film was so good was the realism of the whole thing, completely unknown actors who potray their characters so believably (even grandpa).I truely believe that the hitchhiker should have won an oscar i mean where did they find that freak.With the annoyance of traditional horrors your thinking "look for christs sake run!" and by god does sally run i think she could have done the marathon if only they had Gunnar Hansen behind her weilding a chainsaw the whole race, and "jump out the window jump out the window" ("no not the old man!"). I mean your hearts really in it to the end instead of "you complete fool, you diserve to die" it's "yes! the shovell now hit him".The family also are pretty believable a bunch of ex slaughter house inbreads who only know how to kill and cook.Their just so stupid with the old man wanting to take charge all the time trying to blame his brother\son always, at one point he stands there saying "you you.... you you broke the door your damn fool!".What i love about this film is that it must have cost nothing i mean theres no fancy camera work its like a documentry especially the scenes in the van.There is no real music in the film no "jaws" type dur dut dur dut when you know someones gonna get it it's just bang with the mallet then slam of the door.Also what makes it more realistic is that you don't know who's gonna survive if anyone,personaly i thought the first guy to go was gonna be the hero.With big budget horrors you know that LL Cool J's gonna survive and it really takes the fun out of it and blatently (as mentioned in scream) anyone having sex or smoking pot i.e kevin bacon is going to get a spear through their throats.Hooper Hooper why did you make the sequal? Ok you had a contract but did you have to make it so crap? I mean what was Hopper doing in it? I think after he stopped taking drugs his mind went a bit loopy.It goes against everything the original stood for big budget,famous stars,serious bloodthurst the people who you thought were gonna die or survive did.Was that guy with the plate supposed to be the reincarnation of the hitchhiker? To me it was a huge mistake and grandpa would never have made it another 10 years i'm not sure if it was supposed to be a spoof comedy it was funny but not ha ha funny.They showed way too much of the family for them to be a mystery and the chainsaw battle with hopper was ridiculous.Back to the original classic which in it's day must have sent audiences half mad from the adrenalin rush.Ok i'll admit that i saw it at the cinema on it's rerealise a couple of years ago but surely that means the scare hasn't dated at all 20 odd years years later i remember a viewing a while ago when a girl turned to me and said "how can you actually watch this it's your worst nightmare?" Which proves my point that it is no specially effected horror film it's pure in your face shock and terror, truely your worst nightmare,the great video nasty that when it suddenly ends you turn to your friend who witnessed this horrific and macabre display and say "f**king hell"If you havn't seen it and are bored with the oh so clever scream series then make it a must.And remember "you kids don't wanna go messin' round no old house".