The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
by Tobe Hooper
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Actor: Allen Danziger, Edwin Neal, Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, William VailDirector: Tobe Hooper
Cinematographer: Daniel Pearl
Producer: Tobe Hooper
Writer: Tobe Hooper
Producer: Jay Parsley
Producer: Kim Henkel
Writer: Kim Henkel
Producer: Richard Saenz
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
DVD Reviews of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
DVD Review: B
Summary: 2 Stars
This moving, as a horror movie, is definitely good at being that. Leatherface reminds me very much of Ed Gein, especially the hanging of one of the victims on a meat hook. However, I find some major issues with the characters of the victims, as well as the plot, that keeps me from being able to rate this movie higher.
The characters are dumb, as in completely devoid of any common sense and very slow on the up-take of the situations they are presented with. First, they pick up this unstable-looking guy with blood on his face, watch him cut himself, show pictures of mutilated animals, and ignite black powder in their van, but God forbid they should think themselves rude to make him get out until AFTER he injures one of them with a knife! The guy sitting next to Franklin is such a pussy, he doesn't even try to stop it, or punch the guy in the face. When the van comes to a stop, you see him covering his face like a coward. The assailant isn't even forced out, but merely takes the opportunity to jump out, and then continued to harass them as they drove away. When the guy was grabbing Frank's arm to cut him, and Frank was yelling at him, the driver just kept on going and was trying to look back at what was going on, before he finally saw and brought the van to a halt.
These people all but beg for death with each decision they make and it's just silly. They're all so God-damn weak and pathetic that they die off like flies, or better, sheep, without any real attempt at self-preservation. They leave Franklin alone outside without a second thought (not that he dies there). Soon after, the first couple, without a hint of concern for their own safety, dares to wander onto private property and INSIDE someone's house uninvited, in the middle of nowhere, where anyone could just shoot them and they'd never be seen again. Well, the guy wanders in and is dead within seconds. Then the girl, like some freaking Lemming, follows suit exactly, and ends up on a meat hook. She actually has the chance to escape, but she's so slow (presumably from fright) that she lets the big lunkhead catch her up and drag her back inside, kicking and screaming as uselessly as an old hen. No, I take that back, a chicken would have fought harder.
So now, with two missing, the 2nd guy decides he's going to be a hero and find them. He spots evidence that they've gone inside the house and, like a good Lemming, follows suit. He screams like a little girl when he dies.
Franklin and his sister (?) actually sit around waiting for hours until it gets dark. They honk the horn and call out repeatedly, thinking the others have gotten "lost". "They'll probably be back in a minute or so." How could they really even think that?? It's been 2 or 3 hours, nobody has come back. Personally, I'd have found it difficult NOT to conclude their demise. So now, they're going to go wandering into whatever is out. These people are idiots, and they bring the film down, ruining it's impact, because there's nothing to like about any of them and by the time we're down to the last girl, they've caused me to lose all empathy. She's like a baby, screaming incessantly and unable to defend herself. She picks up a knife and the guy swats it from her grip with a broom. A BROOM!!! And it's not even a hard swing, he's just slapping her around with it and all can do is drop the knife and scream like a 2 year old. When she's free and running through the underbrush, she could have, at any given moment, dropped down and hidden among the tall grass and bushes. But even when she has a clean break, she keeps on screaming, letting her assailants know exactly where she is at all times! She might as well be saying "HEY I'M OVER HERE, COME AND GET ME!" I've read that girls like to be chased, but I mean, give me a break. This is awful.
She absolutely will not... shut... up... not ever. What could she possibly think to accomplish, screaming her head off like that? Is she trying to annoy them so they'll kill her faster? That'd be my guess. That or, I think the director found her screams a turn on, and had her do it as much as she could. There's even a montage of jump cuts of her mid-scream, so I think I'm actually not far from the truth.
The black guy pulls her into the truck and shuts the door... but... rather than simply take off and leave Leatherhead in the dust, they jump out the passenger-side door?? Does anything in this movie make sense???
Another passer-by in a pickup truck comes along and saves her. As she rides off safely in the back, the last thing you see are her screams of laughter and you can tell that she's clearly lost her mind.
Final thoughts... it's got plenty of creepy, back-woods atmosphere and horror. All of the acting is well done, even the screaming that I complain about so much. You definitely believe she's terrified out of her mind. As for my lamenting the stupidity of the group, I suppose you could argue that there are those people in the world who are like that, like sheep, that wander blindly into the worst kind of situations, ignorant of the danger and helpless to do anything about it.
Description of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
This sensational, extremely influential, 1974 low-budget horror movie directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Salem's Lot), may be notorious for its title, but it's also a damn fine piece of moviemaking. And it's blood-curdling scary, too. Loosely based on the true crimes of Ed Gein (also a partial inspiration for Psycho), the original Jeffrey Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who pick up a hitchhiker and wind up in a backwoods horror chamber where they're held captive, tortured, chopped up, and impaled on meat hooks by a demented cannibalistic family, including a character known as Leatherface who maniacally wields one helluva chainsaw. The movie's powerful sense of dread is heightened by its grainy, semi-documentary style--but it also has a wicked sense of humor (and not that camp, self-referential variety that became so tiresome in subsequent horror films of the '70s, '80s, and '90s). OK, in case you couldn't tell, it's "not for everyone." But as a landmark in the development of the horror/slasher genre, it ranks with Psycho, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. --Jim EmersonBestsellers in DVD
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