Revisiting THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
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- čas přidán 22. 10. 2023
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As I've gotten older, this film has become my favorite horror flick of all time.
Same 😊
Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg would approve (apparently it's theirs as well)
@@Muskateering Where'd you hear that?
@@Mr.Goodkat think it was imdb. But it's why Spielberg wanted to work with Tobe Hooper on Poltergeist.
love the scene where leatherface is looking out the window having a panic attack,like he's thinking where are all these people coming from and would they not just go away!
It gets both funnier and scarier with each subsequent watch for me, one of my all time favorites for sure.
I'm not even a big horror fan but this is a top 10 favorite of mine
To say Texas Chainsaw Massacre is anything less than a complete masterpiece would be a tragedy. Total brilliance.
It's like they plucked the primal fear of a nightmare and re-created it in a sweaty 80 min experience. It's funny I don't imagine myself as a super fan but I genuinely love TCM 74 and admire the craftsmanship that went behind the film. Even compared to other classic slashers it's just at another level.
I met Ed Neal (the hitchhiker) at a con a few years ago. Hilarious guy with amazing stories. I loved his impression of Tobe Hooper.
Bravo listed it as #5 scariest movie moment of all time
Shudder listed it #1
This is a film that ages like wine: pioneering genres like found footage, slasher, and 'crazy cannibal family'.
My favorite horror movie. I didn’t love it the first time I saw it when I was younger. It’s so well made and it just gets under your skin you can almost feel the heat in that movie and imagine the smell inside the house. It’s disturbing , yet it’s so well made. The tracking shot when Pam gets up from the swing and is walking towards the house is one of my favorites. The final scene with sally in the bed of the truck laughing in shock and the chainsaw dance and it just cuts to the credits. I watch it every year usually in summer when it’s hot. Feels like the right time of year to watch it.
The straightforward and simple nature of the story is every bit as brilliant as any story that's complex. It utilizes its basic qualities by enveloping them in a completely insane ambiance that is drenched in terror and a cackling pitch black humor.
I love the radio playing in the van throughout the film & all the bad news. Grandpa 👴 with the hammer 🔨 at the end is terrifying.
It has always cracked me up, entertaining in that way. The bit where the kid walks toward the hallway, Leatherface appears, bonks him on the head and slams the metallic door shut, major crackup. The bit where the kid with the bucket that he drags to wash the window of the Van, back and forth, crackup city. And the weird ass dude who cuts the dude's hand with a knife, just gnarly and amusing. And the music during the credits, dig that majorly. And the fact that the set smelled so rank, and that the actor who played Leatherface couldn't change his clothes or wash them, just had to sit in his own gnarly stuff for weeks adds an amusing dimension to it. Love what Hooper said , that monsters don't scare me, people scare me. Damn straight. There are no monsters, but there are weird ass people everywhere.
There's good reason why it exists in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection. It's a masterpiece, and my favorite traditional horror film.
Fantastic review. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of my all time favourite horror films. I absolutely love its raw, realistic quality with a simple, but yet powerful story with amazing pacing. Definitely agree on the amazing sound mixing.
I actually went to see a re release of it a few years ago on the big screen. Eventhough I know it like the back of my hand, it actually really disturbed me on the big screen. Incredible film.
It's always awesome to revisit older films.
The scenes where Leatherface would slam that sliding door shut - seriously, one of the most terrifying moments in cinema. Much more terrifying than anything in Saw, for instance. Great review, as usual. (BTW the dinner scene in "Pearl" might offer a challenge to the dinner scene here.)
its seriously horrifying, feels so real.
Jigsaws door slam is great too though, “game overrrr”. My bro to this day quotes that.
Your review takes me to when I was growing up in a small Texas Town, actually southeastern NM. Early 70,sWe as kids would sneak out to watch movies at the drive in from a far ( R rated) through the barbed wire fence. Transistor radio in hand, cigarettes. Then a mad run home. Important film. your review is spot on.
This really is a great film that has high rewatch value. It seems like a lot of people agree. I've seen it countless times and for some reason it seems to get better every time I see it. Also, when you've watched it a ton of times, you start to realize that this really isn't a brainless slasher film like the films that came after it. There's quite a lot going on in it. It's really more of a hippie art film than it is a slasher film. This makes sense when you see Eggshells, the film Hooper made prior to it. For instance, the very first lines of dialogue in the film are Pam explaining that "Saturn is in retrograde." In astrology, Saturn in retrograde means the astrological system is turned upside or inverted, so where good reigns ordinarily, evil reigns when the system is inverted. In the ordinary course of things, humans eat the animals, but if the world is inverted, then it's the animals who eat the humans. The consumers are consumed. This movie actually is a rabbit hole when you start interpreting it beyond the surface level.
Even in Tobe Hoppers movie Funhouse, you can see this sort of elegance to his style. Elegance and grindhouse in a seamless way
Hands down my favourite horror film. Revisited it a few months ago for the 6th time and it just gets better on every viewing! They don't make 'em like they used to! Great observations and review. You touched on certain character moments and connections that had never occurred to me before
When I first watched this movie (in a theater, no less) at the ripe old age of 16, this experience shocked me, completely. You need to understand I have grown up on horror, through books, TV and movies, and I confess I felt dirty and guilty watching this movie, because it felt like it was happening in real time and there was nothing I could do to flee or help. It left a lasting impression, one that will never be equaled.
Agreed: Leatherface's first appearance rivals that of the stories you hear of the first sighting of Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, in 1933. One so impactful you'll never forget it. All I remember is just sitting there, with my mouth wide open.
This movie has made a huge impact on the genre. How many horror movies are out there, set out in the heartland of America, where atrocities surround a farmhouse? Look no further than last year's X and Pearl, but the ones I think of as most successful to me are The House of 1000 Corpses, and its sequel, The Devil's Rejects. I do love those two movies, that I feel are very underrated.
Good review, as always you gave a unique take on yet another movie I have seen, and one that I will have to take in with me the next time I watch it.
Thanks again!
talk about breathtaking! TCM criticism is family, and this brilliantly puts you at head of household. bravo!
This movie was way ahead of its time.
You go from Frankenstein and other silly horror movies to the best, most realistic slasher of all time.
That's like going from a slow kiddie roller coaster to the fastest roller coaster in the world.
Halloween and Friday the 13th had one killer, not saying a word and wearing a simple mask.
TCM has real human skin for a mask, and instead of one killer, there is a family of them who are giving Oscar-worthy performances.
Instead of a knife or a machete for fast simple kills, Leatherface puts a girl on a hook while she's alive and chainsaws her boyfriend in front of her.
Just watch the trailer of TCM compared to any other slasher trailer.
It's not even close, there is nothing close to this movie.
Saw this again at a drive-in in Pennsylvania. Was wearing headphones for the sound, which was unbelievably harrowing. Nerve shattering. The use of sound is so essential to great horror (e.g. The Exorcist)
It is just cataclysmically creepy beyond belief. Hooper knew he was about to make something no one had ever experienced before -- I am convinced of that. It has long held my vote for the scariest film ever made. Every frame of it feels real and cinema verité by way of a snuff film. I first watched this when I was 12 years old and it just so turns out that I was home alone that night -- my life was forever changed. Nothing beats those opening few minutes and the "door slamming" scene.
TCM is one of a kind and leaves an impact. This type of film making in on another level and very few horror movies since have come close to its cultural impact. Had no idea you were from TX, thanks for sharing.
she really looks like a Texan tho i don’t hear it at all. I hear NYC
Watched it the other day, and realized I had never seen it in full. But its such a wild fucking movie, and Tobe Hooper really pushes that suspense in the opening minutes.
Amazing film, a masterful piece of art, fantastic review from a beautiful lady 😊
Now, this is a good, thoughtful review
It's fantastic. The rancid, caustic atmosphere stayed with me for a long time after the first viewing, and I was amazed at how smart and multi-layered it was. So proud of being a part of the cult of people that appreciate this film.
This is such a important film that helped change the landscape of horror (The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead & TX Chainsaw are ground zero for modern horror! i’m shocked when people don’t understand how close to flawless TX Chainsaw is! the sad thing it really doesn’t get enough respect (In my top 5 horror films ever) great review/break down of the film major respect for someone that sees so much value within a slasher! 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍
Yes. This film gets better and better each decade as we see more and more movies that want to BE this effective and just aren't.
It's weirdly beautiful, even as every detail is calculated to unsettle the audience.
This film SMELLS like 1974 in the USA exactly as I remember it. It reminds me of the lurid true detective magazines my grandmother used to read back then.
This year I've really fixated on how unique TCM and Carrie are among horror films and films in general, and their greatness seems like something I've always taken for granted and yet underestimated until now. They ALWAYS work. These films are lightning in a bottle. They can't be improved on.
The other one that's blown me away looking at it again this year is George A. Romero's Martin. It's a perfect execution of the sort of art film slash satire that still functions terrifically as a genre film that Romero seemed to be going for with Season of the Witch. Having seen so many films that try to bring something new and modern to the vampire film, I don't think any are nearly as good as Martin, which is grounded in a sense of reality that's gripping even in its least horrific moments. As good as the performances are (including Romero's juicy turn as a priest) it's the (perfect) setting of the dying little steel town that comes across as a main character giving Martin an atmosphere, a potently evocative snapshot of a time and place, that no other film has or will ever have. Romero's beautiful shot choices seem to capture the soul of the location. The editing is also fantastically involving. Martin is probably Romero's finest film. Everything feels authentic and right. If the seventies are the "Platinum Age" of cinema, it's not just due to the towering studio one-offs like Chinatown and The Godfather films we'll never see again but the weird little masterpieces like Martin and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia that have no equivalents today, and never will.
Martin is one of my favorites! DFL, plz review Martin! ""Things just seem to be magic. There's no real magic ever.""
The first time I saw TCM, I had to take a shower. I thought that, “this is what it must feel like to be hate fucked by high art.” It somehow continues to draw me in with the hypnotically cathartic revulsion that one experiences with viewing an auto collision. Like you said, it continues to grow more and more powerful with every repeat viewing. I don’t think there’s a better definition for the word “masterpiece” than that. Have you read Joe Bob Briggs’s article in Texas Monthly about the movie? It’s worth checking out.
You posted a shot from this film of leather face swinging the chainsaw around with a beautiful sunset in the background...for some reason, it made me laugh.
You are really talking right out of my soul. It's exaxtly like you stated: This movie is pure terror and gets me more every time I see it. For me the most unsettling and downright scariest scene, is the scene were Leatherface is following Sally through the forest. For some reason, this scene always scares me so much, that my heart beats faster. Aside from the movie, somehow I never guessed that you are a Texas girl. I was always thinking, that you are a New York Girl... I don't know why exactly...
About your surprise at Maggie being a native Texan - it's a big state with a lot of very different communities and traditions. To begin with, the inner city neighborhoods of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio aren't much different from any other big city in America. On the other hand, the rural areas of Texas aren't at all uniform, for example, the colonias in the Rio Grande Valley are nothing like the small towns in the German/Czech region in south-central Texas, or the little towns in the piney woods of east Texas that culturally are part of the deep South. The Panhandle plains and the mountains of far west Texas could both almost be in different states entirely, as those areas have a lot in common with Oklahoma and New Mexico respectively. In a sense, Texas and its people are sort of a microcosm of America as a whole.
One of my favorite horror movies 😱.
Great review Maggie and take care and stay safe 👍.
Love what you said about the last shot of Leatherface and the darkness and depravity continuing on forever. I never knew how to articulate my feelings about that shot but you nailed it.
I rewatched it this past summer (amidst one of the hottest summers Texas has had in decades) and I feel like it's almost a better summer movie than an October movie. The whole movie has this hot, sweaty, greasy feel to it that was accentuated even more in the searing heat.
I think the main thing that comes to my mind with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the word visceral. It's not the goriest movie, it's not the scariest movie, it's not even the most brutal movie I've seen, but it's so extreme and in-your-face with what it does that it feels much more horrifying than it actually is.
it's mood and atmosphere is what gives it the edge and the psychological violence as opposed to full on physical violence and rape in which many other film makers were doing at the time.
It's raw and grimy and everything feels 'off' in a good way for a horror film, i.e., it's unsettling. It doesn't try too hard to scare you too.
When I first saw it I thought I knew what I was getting into, I had a friend that was a horror junkie and she was showing me every horror movie I hadn't seen over the course of a few years. I had seen brief clips of Leatherface with the sunrise in movie montages and I just figured it would be another slasher on the same (in my opinion) mediocre level as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or even Friday the 13th which she had showed me before. As soon as it got to the scene where they pick up the hitchhiker I realized I was not watching just another horror flick, this was unsettling in a way I had never felt before and I knew I was in for something totally unique. I was not disappointed and it's still one of my favorite films ever.
The movie hits differently as soon as you find out the big bad monster with the chainsaw is someone with limited intellectual abilities who hasn't received the care he should have, living within a damaged family.
I also see parallels with the work that members of the family were involved in, in the abattoir, how they, and by extension all of us that eat meat, treat animals in the meat industry. Their victims were killed in the same way, and with the same joy that they killed the animals in the abattoir.
In the industrial, and now technological age, there is an increased damaging disconnect between humanity, nature and our environment.
I watched this film for the first time in 2019 or 2020. TCM for the last 40 or 50 minutes is just SHEER TERROR! I would rate it in my top 5 favorite horror movies.
I agree completely with your analysis this was a enjoyable review thank you for uploading
The family dinner scene in Resident Evil 7 definitely owes a lot to this movie.
A perfect film… And my favourite for sure.
Great review! Couldn’t agree with you more on this film! Spot on!
This is always the first film that pops into my head when I'm asked for my favourite. Loved it since I first saw it back in the early eighties, and understood then that it is a truly great film. But have never heard the reasons articulated quite so well as in this review. Other artists, such as William Friedkin, Julia Ducournau, Nicolas Winding Refn and Apichatpong Weerasethakul also understand its greatness.
It's a friggin classic film.
One of cinema’s greatest horror films. I recently saw it projected in 35mm, having previously only watched it at home on VHS and DVD. Still holds up every time.
Texas is a perfect film, 10 outta 10, for the time it was made, the budget, the push of the genre, the movie itself. And im talking perfect in the way that The Godfather, 7 samurai, the 7th seal, Mirror or Andrei Rublev, Citizen Kane, etc etc are. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a movie that feels like a roller-coaster going all the way up and going down at the same time and the first and last time i saw i felt the same after it ended, i was like almost hyperventilating, like a roller-coaster.
My favourite horror film of all time. I don't think it's ever been matched and certainly never surpassed for it's sweaty, visceral terror.
This was a film that heavily impacted me as a young viewer. Unlike other slasher movies I saw, like "Halloween" or "Nightmare on Elm Street," this was legitimately unsettling. The raw filmmaking and up-close brutality are something else to behold, and I can't think of another horror film that quite nailed it the way this film did. The fact that it created its own folklore that people still get tricked into believing is true is also remarkable, and I think it goes to show how powerful the film really is.
p.s. I saw Bertrand Bonello's newest film, "The Beast," at NYFF, and I can't wait until you see it and review it. It may be his most ambitious work to date, even if maybe it doesn't fully come together.
It truly is an impressive film. Not too long ago I was thinking about the first time we see Leatherface in the movie and how it was executed properly.
Truly a great film
I wish I owned a movie theater, that way I could show TTCM every year. I'm sure you know it's based on the crimes of Ed Gein. I"ve always viewed the killers as Ed Gein at various stages of his life. This is psychedelic, horrifying, and suspenseful at once !
Just saw this for the first time last week. It really is striking and brutal in a totally unique way, even after so much time for its influence to permeate horror. I didn’t quite land on it being perfect, but with time I can feel it growing stronger in my mind.
No other film has conveyed the sense of subliminal dread as effective as Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece.
It feels like watching Apocalypse Now; only this version unfolds in the dark heart of the US itself.
Along with Night of the living dead, this is also my fav horror film. Great review and insight.
I saw the movie in 1975 when I was 17 and if you were a teen back then with very few slasher movies at the time, this movie was horrific fun. In fact it was the greatest horror movie ever produces at the time, it was 4 years before Halloween and the only horror at the time was Jaws and the exorcist and earlier Psycho. It was great to be a teenager back then. With a zillion slasher films since kids today may be a bit desensitized, but back then it was new, it was amazing 😎
You are spot on with your review. You have a special way of conveying your feelings about a film. I recently rewatched it and I appreciated it even more.
Excellent re-review... 😁
Definitely a cornerstone of the slasher horror genre.
It aged like fine wine. Top 10 horror movie for me.
Saw it 20 years ago, scared me to death, never watched it again. It is being screened at my local cinema for its 50th, and think I'll give it a miss, too unnerving
Interesting! It amazes me that we went from Psycho to TCM in just 14 years. I think one of the reasons it stands up so well is that it leaves room for us to invest ourselves in the experience and really jacks up the ROI. For me TCM is as much about empathy and sensorial overload as it is about straight up horror. Definitely some jump scares in there, but it's the unrelenting visual/soundscape and dehumanization that get me, especially as it is first thoroughly grounded in the real, hot, dusty world around us, filled with bad news, roadkill and folks just doing what they do. So glad you highlighted Franklin. As annoying as he can be, he is the one asking the right questions (usually).
One of my first experiences with surrealism is watching the girl scream like a pig, while the family "kindly" tries to make grandpa bash her head in. It felt like watching humans devolve into animals eat or be eaten. It was jarring my first time watching but have grown to appreciate more ever since I saw Blue Velvet and The Baby of Macon . Love this review
Such a gritty feel to it ..
Honest and accurate review, thank you so much. I watched the movie when it came out in '74 and have not watched it since. Three scenes are quite clear in my mind, the chicken bone mobile, wheel chair guy getting run through with a chain saw and the young lady being hung on a meat hook. The sudden brutality of those scenes, and the steel door scene, of course, were a bit much for me at the time. It is one of two movies I've walked out before they ended, TCM because of the brutality, The Sound Of Music... just because. Love your style, keep it up.
such a good review and interesting takes - as always! slay sis
I had the pleasure of seeing it in an art house cinema, it was an unbelievable experience.
Lovely review!
I've watched this movie twice in the past month or so so this was perfect timing! I used to think it was just okay but as you said it just won't get out of my brain. It's kind of interesting that we may have gotten the all time best and most effective slasher of all time so early into the inception of the genre. I absolutely adore TCM2 and especially Chop Top. Tobe Hooper is quite incredible
Are you familiar with the seemingly overlooked film (maybe deservedly), The Sadist from 1963 (also known as Profile Of Terror?). It stars Arch Hall Jr, in perhaps his finest role and was filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond, known as William Zsigmond back then. :)
Great review!
Very intelligent review and great to get a Texan’s insight. This is currently my 72nd favourite film of all time (between Sexy Beast and Drive in my completely arbitrary list) 👍
Cool review. Very descriptive. Gruesome, grimy, groped by ropes of guts and glandular secretions. I'll check it out.
Go off queen. The greatest film of all time. (after Grease 2)
I know a lot of people, including critics (Chris Stuckmann for example), have the same experience. The first time they watch it they kind of write it off. They recognize the craft but don't really consider it as anything more than an exploitation film. But it lingers in the mind and starts to feel less like a fun slasher movie and more like a traumatic experience. It's not a pleasant movie at all, not even in the way Halloween is "fun" scary. But the unrelenting nature of it, the "unsolved" nature of it, the abruptness, the messiness, the simplicity, and the SMELL of it just stay with you unlike anything else. It is a true horror film, and one of the only horror films that comes to mind where there's no levity or joy to help it go down smoothly, and I think that's why people don't "like" it the first time around.
What comes to mind when I think of it, aside from the iconic dinner sequence, is the title sequence and opening credits. When I first watched it I found John Larroquette's narration chillingly matter of fact, and then the indecipherable images of blood and guts set to a grinding, industrial soundscape, and those rotting, wet, mangled bodies baking in the sun... Just unlike anything else I've ever seen in so many ways.
There's a fair amount of comedy in the film, especially the dinner scene. It's just of a pitch black variety. The more times you've seen the film, the more you appreciate this about it. It's pretty funny.
_The Texas chainsaw massacre_ is such a _funny_ movie. I’m quite sure that Tobe Hooper meant it to be an uproarious comedy.
Be sure to see also the follow up movie, Tobe Hooper made witch is _Eaten Alive,_ featuring Roberta Collins, Neville Brand, and Robert Englund. Interestingly, this movie is much more obviously based on _Psycho._
Eaten Alive has that same atmosphere, I think Carolyn Burns is in that one too
The ending is pure insanity captured on film
Every time I watch this I take something new away. I agree the ending is perfect and I feel for leather face. He's almost a puppet for the family! Also the commentary in it has aged very well.
This is still a classic.
My favorite horror film alongside [REC] and The Thing. A classic forever❤
Excellent choices! 👍
Remba, The Saw Is Family.
Well said.
I love this movie. Very suspenseful.
Coincidental timing, i just watched this for the first time. Insane + Terrifying movie.
#5 of my top 10 films of all time
I watched this on a blotter with 220ug, this hit me differently. Most terrifying movie ever with also a little black humour.
Do not watch this on psychedelics!! Really fucked up my mind,
Freddy on a microdose can be really nice but do not ego death while watching this movie. Most horrifying movie ever, I experienced a really brutal film, even though almost no gore. It's like so suspenseful that it feels gory on a psychological level. Really hard to describe. Best Horror movie ever, so raw. I love it
Don't know if you've heard of her, but last I checked, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) hated this movie. lol
The Clash recorded their music video for "Rock the Casbah" in Texas in 1982. From the best of my recollection, The Texas Film Commission (if that's what it was called, not sure) made sure the video was "clean" because they were still reeling from the effects of TCM.
I've grown to like this movie a lot but the first time I saw it I was seriously freaked out.
Nice video
I’m a huge horror movie fan and somehow hadn’t seen this one until a few years ago. When a local theater was screening the latest 4K restoration I decided that would be the perfect way to finally check it out. Being super familiar with all of the other classic slasher films and plenty of much more obscure horror fare I was expecting something that would fit right in with those types of flicks…I couldn’t have been more wrong. When it was over I was stuck to my seat and my body was rushing with adrenaline. The violence is so bluntly presented and there’s absolutely no sympathy for the victims coming from the direction. It just feels like a document of horrifying acts and there’s not really a sense of downtime or that you’re safe once the violence starts. Having been a horror fan my whole life I felt like I just had a religious experience of sorts. I now consider it to be on the same level as The Exorcist sharing a spot as the best horror movie ever made. It’s definitely incredibly layered and despite it having the same basic story as many slashers, you can tell from the craftsmanship that it had a lot more to say than the slashers that came after. What’s upsetting though is I don’t think Tobe Hooper ever reached these heights again for one reason or another, but he has a student film (can’t think of the name right now….it might be called Eggshells?) that has a lot of interesting themes, it feels like that deeper meaning is just not as present in his later works. It’s a shame because so many of the directors that became associated as horror directors like Romero, Craven, and Carpenter all were capable I think of making other movies in different genres that would’ve had substance, they just rarely got that opportunity because they’d been labeled by executives as horror guys. The great thing about horror is it’s cheap to make a lot of the time so young independent filmmakers can get something like that made but it then sorta stifles their career afterwards. Cronenberg is one of the few I can think of that managed to break out of that a little bit as his career went on. Anyways this is certainly a film I like more and more every time I watch it
Hey Maggie - can you please review The fall of the house of Usher? Would like to hear your take on it
My favorite horror movie of all time
Y'all don't have an accent. I am surprised to hear you're from Texas (always wondered where you're at).
i don't want images of a movie like the texas chainsaw massacre in my head. i would rather suffer the torture of watching reruns of america's funniest home videos
Great movie 😊
Arguably the best horror film ever made. I put it over The Exorcist because metaphysical Catholic mythology is not as believably scary as people.
Texas? Well how about Anton Chigurh’s somewhat T-2000 like relentlessness? How about the self surgery performed by Anton compared to the T-1000’s surgery scene in the original Terminator? How about Anton’s captive bolt stunner choice of weapon? And, how about Sheriff Bell’s conversation with Carla Jean? Here goes:
“You know how they used to slaughter beeves? Hit ‘em right there (puts his finger in the middle of his own forehead) with a maul, truss ‘em up, slit their throats... ... ... the point being, even in the contest between man and steer, the issue is not certain... ... ... course they slaughter steers a lot different these days; use a air gun. Shoots out a little rod about that far into the brain; sucks right back in. The animal never knows what hit him.”
Compare that dialogue with TCM’s, specifically Franklyn’s little history lecture in the van, when they first smell the slaughterhouse, and on through to the rather unruly hitchhiker account of his own history at the slaughterhouse.
I suppose you can’t untie the firmly knotted relationship between Texas and cattle, but I wonder if the Coen’s who set NCFOM in Texas five years after the Vietnam war ended - a real meat grinder of a war btw - got any ideas relating to the bolt gun choice from the theme of TCM or it was coincidental.
Thanks for making videos eh.
The dinner scene!!!
Not a horror movie that love or revisit very often, but I respect it and Leatherface really opened the door for the slasher boom of the late 70s/80s.
Not only did he open the door but he also slammed that door real hard.
The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Shining are the three horror movies I'm obsessed with... I return to them regularly, and yet they are are three very different movies and my attraction to them comes from different impulses inside me. The Exorcist is a real love/hate thing with me -- I find the story so compelling and yet I think it fundamentally changed Western culture for the worse [I won't go into why other than to say that prior to the release of the novel and then film, very few people had ever heard of exorcism -- and as a non-believer I find the way the film is taken seriously by the religious to be disturbing]; The Shining is so "'luxe" with the Overlook, the steadicam, the principal performances, etc. It creates a hermetically sealed world of pure dread that always works on me no matter how many times I've seen it. But I think The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the purest of the three: it's simplicity is actually beautiful, and no matter how many times I see Leatherface loom up over his first victim, bring the sledge hammer down, and then slam the metal door shut when he's through... I am always stunned. My ideas around the dinner table scene have shifted since I first saw it... I took it for dark gallows humor to help the audience cope with the intensity (the vaguely "camp" aspects of the brothers urging on grandpa momentarily shifts our attention away from Sally's relentless terror), and I think that is a component to the scene, but it is much more than that... at the risk of sounding pretentious it's a critique of the American family unit and a slap in the face to what would start being referred to a decade later as "family values."
No risk in sounding pretentious there's a lot to analyze in the film. I'd say it's an arthouse horror which is why it's better than a lot of it's contemporaries.