Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 5.0
Fantastic Fiction
The only movie I ever saw that actually scared me -- and how! Not a slasher film or a supernatural flick, but the kind of thriller that only Hitchcock and a very few others have ever made. Don't be fooled by the "inspired by a true story" line that's still being used even in advertising the doomed remake. Of course, that "based on a true story" crap is virtually always a perverse redefinition of the word "true," but in this case, it's that scintilla closer to total BS. It's supposedly loosley based on Ed Gein. And guess what? Ed Gein lived in Wisconsin, and he never even used a chainsaw! Plus despite the hype, he only committed two murders before he was caught -- right after the second one, as a matter of fact. Hardly a massacre....But this movie is the sh*t! Next to no blood, next to no gore, next to no violence, but still a brilliant exercise in terror. Tobe Hooper understood that the horror genre's lifeblood isn't buckets of blood pouring out of people's heads, not gore, not grahpic violence, but ATMOSPHERE -- which is why horror novels work, even without all of the special effects. Makes you think -- well, unless you're a movie studio executive, or one of today's young directors....