The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Released in 1974, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre begins with the news that a number of graves have been vandalized, prompting siblings Sally and Franklin Hardesty to investigate their grandfather’s grave. After stopping at a service station and discovering that there’s no gas, the siblings and their friends wander off into a bizarre Texas community. Eventually each member of the group finds themselves face-to-face with the chainsaw wielding Leatherface, turning their trip to the family homestead into a fight for survival.
While remembered as a slasher, there is surprisingly little gore in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Rather this film hinges itself on psychological scares, often tricking the audience into believing it’s seen more than it actually has. While it feels as though you’ve seen Leatherface butcher his victims it’s largely your imagination which creates terror. In this way the audience is forced to engage in the action, putting the viewer in the middle of the horror experience. This raises the stakes of survival for these characters, as their safety is now that of the audience.
Another factor contributing to the psychological horror of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the film’s sense of realism. As the group uncovers the dark mysteries of Leatherface they are surrounded by mundane settings. The expansive fields and solitary house in the country seem like places many audience members have likely been, and could wander into if desperately searching for help. The characters too are flat, giving the viewer plenty of room to see his or herself in their experiences. Additionally, as in real life, their misfortunes often come down to timing: it just so happens they discover the house that Leatherface is in, and it just so happens he’s home to kill his victims. Because the murders coincidences it makes them so much more upsetting, as their is no logic or justice in their suffering. The actors performances and reactions to the unexpected killer solidify this realism. Marilyn Burns as Sally and the entire cast of Leatherface’s family give especially powerful, convincing performances. Their collective scenes in the in the third act make the film’s final moments its strongest and hardest to watch, and make the film’s conclusion all that much more satisfying.
In 2017, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s approach to horror seems much more simple and subtle than it did at the time of its release. In comparison to the torture-porn explosion of the twenty-first century Hooper’s gore is genius, handing the audience the tools they need to construct violence rather outright showing graphic mutilation. While I can’t confidently say this was the film’s original intent, a retrospective viewing of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre feels like a fresh dose of gritty and realistic horror, making it obvious to the audience what makes this a horror classic.











