Movie of the Week #6



The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1974, Directed By Tobe Hooper

I chose this film for several reasons:
1. It’s the 1st of October, the month of horror.
2. A beautiful Ultimate Edition DVD of the film was released last Tuesday.
3. After five mainstream dramas (sort of), it’s time for a change of pace.

So with that, I give you not only one of the greatest horror films ever made, but, in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made, period.

With the barrage of cheesy slasher films that followed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it would be easy to look at the plot and pass it off as clichéd. A group of teenagers go to explore an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. A few wander off, and with the wet smack of a hammer to a forehead, the film becomes a nightmare of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism.

Sure, we’ve all seen the scenario countless times by now. But there is nothing clichéd about the way Massacre goes about portraying it. It has more than withstood the test of time, and it has even been, if anything, intensified by age.

The idea of Massacre has an intrinsically disturbing quality, but what the film shows is not particularly explicit. The bloodshed is actually very low. It could be said that what makes the film so disturbing is what it doesn’t show, but it’s much more than that. Director/co-producer/co-writer/co-composer Tobe Hooper understands the value of editing and score so well that he knows how to convey the feeling of horror to his audience without the graphic carnage. If one were to simply alter the editing a bit and replace Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell’s dissonant score with a more conventional orchestral horror soundtrack, the film would most likely be cheesy, ineffective, and even laughable at times. But thankfully, Hooper was savvy enough in his creative decisions to give us the masterpiece of terror that is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The score I have been praising is a nightmarish cacophony in the vein of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Planet of the Apes, only even more bizarre, unsettling, and avant-garde. The editing is quite possibly the most masterful I have ever seen. It leaves the audience with horribly unnerving feelings through its consistent use of strange and abrupt cuts.

From the first appearance of Leatherface, which is one of the most shocking and well-done scenes in horror history, Massacre accelerates like a rabid dog after a rabbit, and does not slow down. There are a few occasional lulls, but they are so miniscule in comparison to the overall tone that one nearly forgets they’re there at all. The final fifteen minutes of the film are unrelenting horror in its most visceral form. The use of sound is unbelievable. The incessant din of screaming, score, and a running chainsaw brings the viewer as close to the brink of insanity that a film can. And the final cut to black is so abrupt and inconclusive that it leaves the audience with a lingering feeling of horror even after the film is over.

There is such an odd feeling of tension maintained throughout that the film feels all too real, yet at the same time, the direction and pacing is so sublime that it leaves the viewer hanging in an uncomfortable limbo between reality and surreality.

I’m not going to say the film is without flaws; Paul Partain’s performance as Franklin is fairly poor, and, in my opinion, the end credits should have run in complete silence. However, these are so overwhelmingly minor in the grand scheme of things that I can’t help but feel that this is about as close to perfect as a horror film gets. And I can always just press the “mute” button when the credits roll.

In short, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a daring experiment that resulted in fantastic success. No other film ever made has equaled its ability to elicit such strong reactions of sheer, primal fear and horror. It is a testament to the craft of filmmaking and the power possible through it. It is, without exaggeration, a brutal masterpiece and an overwhelming sensory experience. In my mind, there is really no justifiable way to deny it.



Previous Movies of the Week:

#1: Gladiator
#2: The Passion of the Christ
#3: Cool Hand Luke
#4: Fight Club
#5: American Beauty

How appropriate, being that the E! True Hollywood Story on TCM airs tonight at 8:00

I think this is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. The first time I saw it I was like 10 years old. I was vacationing at my dad's co-worker's small house that was on a lake in Michigan. He had a very small movie collection and for whatever reason, my family decided we would watch TCM. I was horrified by the film. The fact that the girl was completely helpless made it seem so genuinely disturbing. My room in that house had 3 door-sized windows that just looked out into the woods. I couldn't sleep that night, haha. I bought the movie on DVD a couple of years ago and re-watched it. I'm still amazed at the sheer terror and cinematic brilliance of this horror masterpiece.

By the way, for the rest of October, we should only use horror films for movie of the week.

mowbs, you just made me cream myself. Don't tempt me!

So classic. Best horror movie of all time, the rest aren't even close

Well, I wouldn't go THAT far. The Shining? Dawn of the Dead? Come on.

I like TCM better than both of them, even though The Shining is a better movie.

EDIT: wrong thread.

Jordan, another fantastic write-up.

I agree that the sound in this movie is just as disturbing as some of the images, which is a pretty tough feat to pull off. When I had to write a paper about this in a film class at Temple U, I actually spent more time talking about the sound than anything else.

I first saw this film when I was 19. I watched it alone in a dark room late at night, and it literally gave me nightmares. The shot of Leatherface pulling that guy in and slamming the door shut was just too disturbing for me. And the final dinner sequence! This is the scariest movie I've ever seen.

The only thing I never liked about the movie was the cheesy intro voice-over telling us these things actually happened, when they didn't. The story was inspired by Ed Gein and some of the sick shit he had done. But because this film was a trailblazer for the modern horror genre, I suppose that is quite forgiveable.

While it isn't actually a "true story," I still think that was a very good way to open the movie.

Oh man, that opening voice-over is classic! It sets the whole tone for the film. And I mean, John Laroquette!

But yeah. My first viewing of this was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It's just a relentless onslaught of terror. It attacks your senses like nothing else ever made. You feel pulverized, fucked up, and a little bit insane when it's all said and done. Ice cold acid was running through my veins by the time the screen cut to black.

God, I love this movie.

i've...never seen this

That's because emo guys scare too easily. You might have a heart attack after the first 3 seconds.

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/vie ... hp?t=51941

I haven't seen this movie, but that's mainly because I've only just begun to appreciate good horror movies. They used to creep me out for weeks afterward. Question though, how does the newer remake (which I thought was pretty average) of this movie compare to the original?

I mean...if you ask me (and others who speak positively of the original in this thread) they will probably tell you that the remake is a piece of trash compared to the original.


However, if you ask my ex-girlfriend (who saw the remake first), she'll tell you that the original is laughable and boring.

Remake=Dull, boring, conventional garbage.

Original=See first post.

Yeah, I can see why she's an ex-girlfriend.

How appropriate, it really is the week of TCM. I just got done watching the E True Hollywood Story and after watching the documentaries on the Ultimate Edition dvd, it was pretty weak. But I do think it's worth saying that the back story of the movie, how it was made, under what conditions and what happened to it afterwards is very much worth noting. Check it out if you're unfamiliar with it.

The first time I saw this movie was when I was probably 9 or 10, something like that. I had been into horror movies since I was about 7 and was quickly working my through every title they had in our local, small town video store. I had seen all of the 80's icons like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, older classics like Night of the Living Dead and was pretty much already a genre junkie. It's now worth noting that where I grew up as a kid was an extremely rural part of southern WV because that played a huge part in my reaction to this film. Besides that, I just happened to take this sick little puppy home with me on a nice, sweltering August night. I watched it a cramped little back room of our house that was hot as hell and by the time the credits rolled I felt sweaty and nasty, just like what I had witnessed onscreen. When I turned the lights off that night, I swore I could hear the generator running off in the distance.

Put simply, nothing that had come before and very little that came afterwards had the same unnerving effect on me that Texas did. Even at the young age that I became interested in genre films, I understand that most of the themes they addressed were simply not real. The camp of slasher movies, the fantasty elements of Nightmare, while they provided scares and entertainment, they didn't provide the visceral experience that Texas did and still does to this day. Were they really using actors, or did they just find actual crazy people to play these roles? Also, while I've never been to Texas, but having grown up in an extremely backwoods area, you feel like you know these people. The idea of monsters never frightened me, but crazy inbred murdering hillbillies certainly did.

The overall tone of the picture is just something you can't find anywhere else. It just continues to build and built until you literally think you can't handle anymore. I'd rank the dinner sequence as among the most intense sequences I've ever witnessed. It's one of my favorites, as I know it is for a lot of people, and with damn good reason. God I love this movie.

The more I think about this movie, the more my love for it grows. This is seriously one of the best movies ever made, in any genre.

Well, what can you say? Most fans of the film will be sharing some of those exact same sentiments until the end of time. It's just that good.

I'll tell you what, in order to add to the conversation, I'll touch on something we hinted at in the double dip dvd thread, which is the social commentary of the film. While you might have a harder time picking out a larger theme within the film, ala the consumerism in Dawn of the Dead, there are still plenty of times of the signs in the movie.

First of all, don't forget the time period of the 1970's, which is Vietnam and a gas crisis. Again, I'll go back to my brutal times=brutal cinema thesis. The gas crisis directly impacts the story when they are unable to continue in their journey because the station is out of gas. Without that, it's unclear at to whether or not the journey out to Sally and Franklin's old family house would take place or not. Secondly, you have the element of mechanization which has put these slaughter house grunts out of work. They're insane, unemployed and looking for meat. Not a good combination. It's almost as if the rest of the world has thrown the family away. They're the last remnants of an industry and time that has changed and left them long behind, and now you have the last gasp of the old way trying to destroy the new way, which are these innocent, idealistic young hippies.