Ah, the 70's. A decade when filmakers made films for themselves and the audience, before the accountants infested the studios!
In that respect, Texas Chainsaw Massacre goes against the grain of any horror film made in the 80's or 90's, with the exception of most Asian horror and possibly James Cameron's Aliens.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a brutal, ugly film with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And succeeds all the more for it. The pseudo-documentary feel gives the film a distinctly unpolished look, whilst all the characters, even the teenage victims are, by degrees, particularly repellent. Especially the wheelchair-bound Franklin, of whom we are made to empathise with, not sympathise, in his isolation from the rest of the group. His disability is not patronised nor made any issue of, he is the 'runt' of the herd that is about to be slaughtered, and the film makes no apologies for it.
Having said that, the film does have one redeeming feature. It is a particularly effective eco-horror movie. The Sawyer (read: Saw Yer)family, having worked for generations in the local slaughterhouse, are unable to discriminate between human and animal fodder. Their level of innate cruelty knows no bounds: if it moves, torture it-then kill it! We actually start to think about what we are doing to animals every day in turning them into burger-fodder for the masses.
The anti-McDonalds/Burger King message is strong, and should make vegetarians of us all.
The quality of the acting in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is unsurpassed in any film of this genre, most notably, the hitchhiker whom the teenagers pick up early in the film.
Special note must be made of the soundtrack which shuns any derivative musical score in favour of a genuinely unsettling blend of industrial noise. Like everything else in this film it plays very much on the psych.
There is no redemption in the finale of this movie, nor are we given any rationale for the family's actions. Everything and everyone is working on a base animal instinct to survive and in that lies the brutality and success of this film.
Because of this, we come away thinking we've seen a lot more than what is actually shown. There is very little blood in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What there is, is the psychological reduction of the audience to their basest level: that of pure instinct for self-preservation.
For around 83 minutes we are witness to a survival horror stripped of all gloss and pretensions. And an audience stripped of their civility.
In that respect, Texas Chainsaw Massacre goes against the grain of any horror film made in the 80's or 90's, with the exception of most Asian horror and possibly James Cameron's Aliens.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a brutal, ugly film with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And succeeds all the more for it. The pseudo-documentary feel gives the film a distinctly unpolished look, whilst all the characters, even the teenage victims are, by degrees, particularly repellent. Especially the wheelchair-bound Franklin, of whom we are made to empathise with, not sympathise, in his isolation from the rest of the group. His disability is not patronised nor made any issue of, he is the 'runt' of the herd that is about to be slaughtered, and the film makes no apologies for it.
Having said that, the film does have one redeeming feature. It is a particularly effective eco-horror movie. The Sawyer (read: Saw Yer)family, having worked for generations in the local slaughterhouse, are unable to discriminate between human and animal fodder. Their level of innate cruelty knows no bounds: if it moves, torture it-then kill it! We actually start to think about what we are doing to animals every day in turning them into burger-fodder for the masses.
The anti-McDonalds/Burger King message is strong, and should make vegetarians of us all.
The quality of the acting in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is unsurpassed in any film of this genre, most notably, the hitchhiker whom the teenagers pick up early in the film.
Special note must be made of the soundtrack which shuns any derivative musical score in favour of a genuinely unsettling blend of industrial noise. Like everything else in this film it plays very much on the psych.
There is no redemption in the finale of this movie, nor are we given any rationale for the family's actions. Everything and everyone is working on a base animal instinct to survive and in that lies the brutality and success of this film.
Because of this, we come away thinking we've seen a lot more than what is actually shown. There is very little blood in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What there is, is the psychological reduction of the audience to their basest level: that of pure instinct for self-preservation.
For around 83 minutes we are witness to a survival horror stripped of all gloss and pretensions. And an audience stripped of their civility.