Product: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original Uncut) [Region 2] (1974)
Rating: 2.0
All screaming and no content...
I went to see this film also in the IFC in Dublin on its re-release because it had banned for so many years. Basically, Bambi or Snow White are scarier than this film. The only real shock in the whole film or point where the viewer might jump is when the girl is put on the meathook. The first third of the movie is a portrait of chatty teenagers in a van with the girls wearing skimpy T- shirts to keep the T'n A /teenage male audience interested. The middle period of the film, I'll grant to Tobe Hooper, is when he makes a genuine attempt to develop the story and the tension builds. Satisfying. But the final third? For 30-40 minutes, a girl incessantly screaming? A girl being chased by a demonic chainsaw wielder? God forbid the lunatic might catch her, 'cos the film would have to end...When it comes down to it, in analysing what scares an audience, or people in general, we have to find the reason why the audience or people are scared, it's fear. It's not fear of anything, or anybody, but fear itself. We have nothing to fear except fear itself. Once we have conquered that fear, there is no other...That is in the end, what this film comes down to. The only way the film can continue after the first two portions of the film is if the screaming girl *doesn't* get caught. Otherwise, the film has no where to go and nothing to say. Perhaps that is why so many fans of the horror genre like the film. Because in saying nothing, Hooper says everything. I hate to say this, but at the viewing I was at, the audience laughed for most of the film. And that leads me to another point. What this film, I think, has in common with The Exorcist is that it has dated badly. It still has some powerful images, but in a time when audiences are so desensitized to violence because they and their kids see the real thing on the news every night and even during the daytime, violence is not as shocking as it once was. Of course, unless you are the one involved. I applaud the film for, well, taking the audience on a ride. But as for being scared? Maybe back in the 70's, but not now I'm afraid... maybe if you watch all on your own with all the lights out maybe or if you're with friends, tell them not to laugh, however they may feel like it. If you want to be scared...well try lying awake at night and closing your eyes and analyse what we are all here on this planet for and what happens when we die. Because that's the only real fear we are ever going to have and that we always will have...for eternity... and no one knows the answer to that one...