leonkosc
So the first 30 minutes of this movie is in my opinion so, so. It's a good build up, but the only thing we have are characters, and from the beginig we can predict who's gonna die first, who's gonna be a final girl etc. But no one can predict what happens later! About 30-40 minutes in the movie Leatherface shows up and the first scenes with him, when he kills his first victoms are actually kind of creepy. We don't know anything about him and it's all just weird. In a good way. And the scene where he starts to pray is in my opinion the best example of that. But then the movie suddenly becomes masterpiece. The dinner scene is... Awesome. It's one of the weirdest, funniest and most bizzare things I experienced for a long time. I won't give it away but if you love weird things you won't be disappointed, I can promise you that. Hit her grandpa!!!
Lisnara77
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. One of the most iconic titles to a film, in any genre nevermind Horror.The films false documentary introduction is brilliant and has long fueled the urban myth that this all actually happened. As a child I remember thinking it really happened, before I'd ever seen the film I knew the title, I knew the 'real events' mystique surrounding it. Such a simple thing has lead to so much heresay. Firstly I have to say this film has some of the most amazing cinematography I've seen. It's a cheaply made Horror film from the early 1970s. It had no real right to be so well shot, but here we are. Some of the shots are just amazing. Tobe Hooper and cinematographer Daniel Pearl did one hell of a job with this film. The camerawork is unbelievable. The visuals are brilliant from the use of color, to the bright sunlight. Yes a Horror film which makes use of the summer sun, a sight to behold. The 16mm film stock captures a cheap and very real feeling film. This is no glamorous Hollywood production. You can feel the sweaty, humid heat through the screen. You can practically smell the stench. This really adds to the gruesome events taking place.The soundtrack was improvised. It's no piece of classical music. It's just pure harrowing sounds and it works oh so well. These sounds are now iconic. I can't imagine this film without them. The use of sound in this film outside of the soundtrack is brilliant, the sound of the chainsaw being one such example. The film is a real tour-de-force in both visual and audio horror.The acting performances are all too real. Sally, her brother Franklin and their friends all feel like a real group of individuals. Not actors portraying people, but just every day people. This works to the films strength. Combined with the visuals you get such a grounded true to life experience. More on Sally, whom was portrayed by Marilyn Burns. Marilyn gives one of the best acting performances in a Horror film I've seen. She portrays the ordeal that Sally goes through impeccably. Horror films often feature Women screaming, you're unlikely to encounter a better screamer in all of Horror than Marilyn Burns and for that I have to say she truly is the 'Scream Queen' (a title bestowed upon leading Horror actresses). Never has a title been more fitting.The villains in this piece are some of the most whacky and insane you'll ever encounter, the performances from the actors are brilliant. The film also contains undertones and messages about the horrors of the meat industry and slaughterhouses. Quite simply a must watch for every Horror fan. For me personally, it's a perfect Horror film and I'd go as far to say that this is the best Horror film I've seen.
romansokal
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Under the Microscope.
by Roman Sokal (originally published in the Free Spirit Magazine 1999)
Many events can occur as a result of running out of gasoline whilst being in a strange place. You can find instant help from another driver, or perhaps walk to the nearest gas station and obtain help from there. Or, you can find yourself in the most unbelievable of dangerous situations. This happens in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Perhaps the title should have tipped you off already...Twenty-five years ago, a low-budget 16mm film tainted the white screens of movie theatres with an experience that few viewers would ever forget. Essentially they were presented with a highly deliberate and calculated film of which the visual and aural content could only best be described as 'the ultimate nightmare', The victims in the film probably couldn't believe what was happening to them, but closer examination shows that the events are all very plausible.Those unaware of sparsely populated rural communities do not know that its isolated inhabitants can lead a 'different' way of life than those in major urban centres. In such small communities, one is generally influenced only by their immediate surroundings, with little intervention by objects and concepts such as television, libraries, and other things that major cities take for granted. In these conditions one is usually reliant upon one major activity, that of which is the source of maintaining their existence - a simpleton 'way of life'.In TCM, the antagonists, the 'family,' had based their monetary existence for years and years on the only local 'job' out there -working at a slaughterhouse. If this is the only thing that they were exposed to, then by osmosis they were pre-assimilated into what they did for a living. Unfortunately for the victims, their assailant kllled cows for a living. Being from an isolated environment they lacked the influx of cognitive variables that city dwellers were subjected to. 'Leatherface' knew no different - strange people in his home were like cows, and subsequently were treated like cattle, bashed with a sledgehammer, which is what he did for a living. In a sense, their rural living can be compared to that of an isolated African tribe, only doing what they know and were raised to do in order to survive. It may be savage, but it is perfectly 'normal' to them. An acute degree of underdevelopment exists in these sheltered inhabitants. The concept of identity can be minimalized in such environments - one is left to oneself and does not have a variable of examples by which to base maturity upon. In the case of 'Leatherface', he had not progressed but remained a child. In the confrontation with his much older brother, he reacts like a child, making strange noises and acting nervously. Identity was a problem for 'Leatherface', who wore masks of other people (and of the opposite gender) on his own face. These masks, of course, In the nightmare horror tradition, were human faces skinned from their sources. This concept however extends to the more civilized. As exhibited by Franklin, the wheelchair bound invalid. His pathetic sense of self-debasing behaviour was depicted by his childish noise making in order to suggest discontent at times. In turn. he is never taken seriously- the others in the film treat him more as a child, and prey upon his weaknesses. The 'family' hunt animals, and humans prey upon humans. They, and we, are all guilty- one way or another. ·And that is what TCM plays on - the viewer's malleable perception. Are the events merely coincidental or were they doomed from the start? As calculated as the film is, it still presents an open-interpretation aspect. If you pay attention, you will notice the references to astrological events that were taking place that day, as stated by one of the female victims in the van reading from her astrology book. Also throughout the film we are shown insert shots of a mysterious hot blazing sun that a character keep looking up at, not to mention bizarre solar flares in the brilliant artsy psychedelic title sequence, which could have some kind of physiological effect upon humans bombarded by its rays. In conjunction with the slaughter-type mentality that the family possessed, TCM also depicts the possibility of some kind of dark 'ritualism' being practiced by the 'family'. The burning of the picture of Franklin the invalid by the hitchhiker/family member was indeed bizarre enough to invoke questioning, not to mention him smearing his blood on the side of the van in a symbolic looking pattern. The shrine of skeletal matter in the farmhouse invokes such theories as well.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre portrays the ultimate dreary middle finger 'fuck you' message towards Americanization. It somewhat laughs at the true quest of North American civilization- to 'keep the machine going'. And what is the symbol of such an ideology in this film? Gasoline! All plans the victims had were thwarted by the notion of obtaining the precious fuel. The family's fuel-run generator was the physical perpetrator for the fateful nightmare that took place - they were attracted to it by hearing it purring and whirring just as a pioneer did at the turn of the century by being attracted to glittering gold in a riverbed. One small step of deviance away from the 'norm" and everything can easily tail based on the everyday schematics of relying on technology. TCM may be an extreme portrayal of this idea, but it really is no different than being in a foreign country with a different mother tongue. We are automatically re-set and must deal with primal instincts in order to get by. For the remaining protagonist, Sally Hardesty, it is survival - to innovate methods on how to sustain her own life. For the family, it is kill, kill, kill.The film seems to accurately channel and extract from the subconscious. There are moments of feeling trapped- as when Sally is in tile farmhouse, she has nowhere to hide but upstairs, which is the last place where one wants to be when one is being stalked, as escape is more difficult. One feels safe when 'grounded'. This fear also applies to those who fear flying in aircraft, because if they were in a vehicle that breaks down, they can get out and walk. In an airplane, there is nowhere to go but down - and rather quick. A manipulative element also occurs on two occasions In the film - the 'near getaway'. The narrative in the film boils the viewer's and character's blood intensely. It never lets up. Freedom is hard to come by in TCM. They are teased with it only to be pulled back into Hades. And what holds this all together is the subliminal use of radio broadcasts throughout the film in which reporters mention the time, weather, and events. It is a metronome of sorts, we are constantly being made aware of the 'moment'. And in moments of fear, a second is not important, milliseconds are.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered a monumental film for these very reasons. Not only does it portray a sense of 'doom', but it also projects a struggle. It enforces the notion that in tough times, one might have to take large risks to stay alive. The more one pays attention to the current moment, the more one may avoid a situation altogether. Many beacons exist in the film that take the shape of a 'warning'. The hitchhiker scene alone should have been enough to keep driving. Reading into a situation is like playing chess - I consider it 'preventive thinking' for self-preservation. Watch TCM and watch It again. You may be surprised. A copy of It even rests in NYC's Museum of Modem Art. And not only that, it is loosely based on a real-life event...
