The mind honestly boggles to think what that first wave of audiences thought when they sat down in front of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, almost completely blind to what lay ahead of them. To have been amongst the crowd during its initial cycle in cinemas must have been an absolute boon, on par with ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Exorcist’ for genuine shock and terror.

You have to understand, this is the early 70s. The Hayes code had only been dead for around half a decade, and from its corpse grew the seeds of an independent cinema movement that would shape how audiences digested media for the next half century.

‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ is a visceral viewing experience. its fairly thin on plot. With the main synopsis really best summarised as: A group of teens on a roadtrip pick up a crazed hitch-hiker who disturbs them so much they toss him to the curb. They run out of gas and have to go back to a nearby farmhouse for help, where it transpires the owners of said farmhouse are crazed hill-billy texans with a serious case of blood-lust.

The plot itself is fairly inconsequential, plots like that had happened through the 60s. But what separates this film from them is the psychological and more graphic approach to its source material. This is a film that actively revels in real unflinching death. Animal carcasses, skeletons, guts and gore litter the sets in unflinching rancid detail. brutality is this films mise-en-scene and the grindhouse is in full spin through this 84 minute ghost train ride of a feature.

I hadnt seen this film in at least 7-8 years, and it must have been nearly 10 years before that since I originally saw it. But 3rd time around, while I find the plotting a bit of a missed opportunity. I absolutely appreciate this film on a visual level.

In terms of the plot? I find it the weakest element of all this honestly. The films rather slow boil and long to get started, we spend a significant portion of the film with our teens. Which would be fine, but they’re all rather unremarkable. they dont have a lot of character detail or anything that makes them actively stand out to me other than ‘they’re free wheeling teens on the road!’…Which is fine…but does rather make things feel a bit unremarkable, and does impact my feelings towards them as they slowly get bumped off.

It isnt really until the 3rd act that the film properly gets going. Theres a handful of instances in the 2nd act where they suddenly and unpredictably drop intense brutal horror on the audience, which is a nice touch. But I dont know if modern audiences would have the stamina to truly appreciate the slowburn nature of this film, and may well miss out on a breakneck 3rd act where the mask fully drops for these characters and the massacre well and truly gets underway.

Im conflicted about the motivation of this film if im being honest, on the one hand I actually think the fact that the EXACT motives of these characters NOT being explicitly revealed, and how they operate being constantly shielded from the audience is a very nice touch. It makes them easily the most interesting part of this movie. Their ‘madness’ may indeed mean there IS no motive. But its down the audience to decide that.

Unfortunately though; the other side of the coin to that is that, BECAUSE nothings explicitly given to the audience in terms of answers. Its quite easy to assume that there never WAS a reason, and that the film makers were just half arsing the script side of things, to justify getting some splatter on the screen. I always try to assume good intent, so I like to think the reasoning’s of the characters are out in the open for this film…But I have to admit, even after seeing this film 3 times now. I struggle to really know for sure…

BUT! to that end ‘Leatherface’ here is an interesting and striking co-villain of the piece. I feel even with this entry that, as a character, he’s going to go the way of the Cenobites in ‘Hellraiser’ (I.E – The more you learn about them, the more rubbish they become.) But here? he’s probably the most fascinating character. and the one I wish had gotten just a little bit more screen-time.

As for the direction? it isnt even a question of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ honestly. Hooper absolutely smashes it out of the park creating a festering striking vision of absolute terror that I would sincerely say gives Hitchcock a run for his money. What I especially love about ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ is that, I own this movie both on VHS and on 4k Bluray. and both versions feel WILDLY different to each other depending on your viewing preference.

Watching ‘TCM’ on video tape brings a much harsher, muzzier dinginess to proceedings. Giving the film a much more macarbre ‘rough around the edges’ gonzo feeling to it. It feels like something you shouldnt be watching, or that you SHOULD be handing over to the police, as the tensions rise and the ‘snuff’ factor grows. I can absolutely see why this was, for a time, on the ‘Video Nasties’ shortlist in the UK.

In 4k however, Hoopers full vision springs completely to life. delivering a putrid artistic vision thats mesmorising, beautiful and hideous all in equal measure. Its akin to the work on ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ for how it takes festering, offal and death and transforms them into full set art installations that genuinely have to be seen to be believed. I was in awe of it for the most part. And while I absolutely WONT say its gorgeous from start to finish. when this film shines. Its a diamond.

The cine is rough and ready too, with some gorgeous macro and ultra wide work, lens flair creeps in occasionally to help frame gorgeous compositions and the sequences building work is superb. While some shot choices are a LITTLE bit too rough and ‘run and gun’ for my taste. I cant deny that the work done on this film is an absolute delight.

As for the performances. Its got to be Gunar Hansen and Marilyn Burns for me as Leatherface and Sally. The former a hyperactive and manic portrayal, Hansens relentlessness is genuinely terrifying at times here and border animalistic. Hes amazing. And the latter a study in terror, Burns plays the full spectrum and absolutely nails it. delivering a delirious performance that borders on fever dream-ish.

Add in a VERY industrial soundscape filled with scraping, revving, roaring squarking and all manner of ear splitting screeches. And you have ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Maybe not the first film to try and bring brute violence to the big screen. But definitely the catalyst and blueprint for a LOT of gore and horror pictures over the following 20 years.

Do I love it? No. the plotting feels a bit uneven to me, the characters come across as a bit flat and lifeless, and while I appreciate the absence of detail is what makes these characters scarier. They do omit quite a bit more than I’d have liked.

That being said, I think visually its a masterpiece, when the character work DOES shine, its incredible and there really isnt anything that comes close to matching this films ambience. While I dont personally rate it that highly, I would consider it a ‘must see’ feature for not only budding horror fans making their way through the history of horror. But film enthusiasts and students more broadly as an example of post hayes debauchery, and how to genuinely instill fear in a picture by using less to give the impression of more. Definitely worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre/