Hi there horror fans! Slick Dungeon here back to review another staple in the annals of horror. One of the most notorious and brutal films of all time which does not bury the lead in the title, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This was a slasher before there were many slashers of note and is counted by some critics as the first actual slasher film ever made. I’m going to take a pretty deep dive into this series so if you have not seen the movie and don’t want any spoilers watch first and then come back to read the review where you will find out this movie is about a massacre with a chainsaw that takes place in Texas. Yes, I know it’s my keen and insightful analysis like that which brings you back to this blog over and over again. Anyway, if you don’t want spoilers from a 1974 film basically everyone knows about, watch the movie first!

Background

When I was a kid in the dark days before common use of the internet we liked to watch horror movies when we would have sleep overs at our friends’ houses. One of our favorite things to do at these sleepovers was to watch a super scary movie series and then stay awake all night from fear. Somehow, when I went to these sleepovers (or had them at my house) one film series that we never picked up was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I’m not exactly sure why this one never came up for me but I suspect it has to do with the background of the film.

The movie was released in 1974 and was produced, co-composed and directed by Tobe Hooper. This film was somewhat inspired by the crimes of an actual murderer named Ed Gein, although the plot is basically fiction. While that is the truth of how the movie came to be, the rumors about this movie were wild. Much in the same way The Blair Witch Project would later cause people to believe actual crimes were committed in the making of the movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was rumored to have used real skeletons, actually have killed people in the production and be based on real events. This lead to many of our parents banning the VHS copy of the film from ever being played at a sleepover.

Of course, the movie is just fiction, it was made on a low budget in Texas and by the standards of almost any horror movie today is fairly tame for a lot of it. That’s not to say there isn’t blood here or that it is not disturbing. It very much is, even now, but it’s really not much more over the top than any of the Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Scream films, with the notable exception that a chainsaw features prominently here. I should also point out that obviously no one was actually killed in the making of the movie.

Even before the film caught on, it had trouble getting distributed due to the violent nature of the content. Hooper had been hoping for a PG rating (remember this was before there was a PG-13 category) so he reduced the amount of blood shown. Still, this earned an R rating and it was tough to find a distributor willing to take it on. Eventually the Bryanston Distributing Company took on the challenge and in 1974 the film hit theaters in the United States and internationally. It was banned in several countries and even in the U.S. several theaters pulled it after audiences complained about the content of the movie.

Critics were basically mixed here at the opening but Hooper got the last laugh. The movie was made for $140,000 which would be just under about a million today if you adjust for inflation. The movie sold a whopping 16.5 million tickets earning over $30 Million in domestic box office alone. Thus Hooper proved for a low budget, with unknown actors, and plenty of scares and gore, audiences will come out to be scared. Not only that, they’ll keep coming back and love it. The slasher genre was truly born.

Sure, there had been a few movies one could argue would be slashers before this, Peeping Tom and Psycho being the most notable examples. But in those films, they were more psychological thrillers than anything else. While they had lots of shocking moments and a good amount of violence, that was never the point of those movies. But when you name a film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre there are three and only three things the audience demands to see. One, a massacre. Two, a chainsaw. And three the setting of Texas. Check, check and check. The fear is the point of this movie, no matter how you look at it.

This caused such a sensation that even if you didn’t watch it, you knew about the movie. It was not ashamed of what it was and made no apologies. The film inspired sequels, spin offs, books, comics, and video games as well. There are, in fact, nine films in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise with a tenth that was never released.

So the question is, how did a low budget movie featuring unknown actors and an unashamed acknowledgement of what it was right in the title spark an entire sub-genre and how does it hold up today?

Let’s dive in and find out!

Spoilers follow!

That’s an Odd Start

The beginning of the film starts with a text crawl and voice over. It talks about the tragedy which befalls five youths and in particular it mentions Sally Hardesty and her “invalid” brother. The voice over and text laments that these youths, even had they lived long lives could not have imagined nor wanted to see as much of the mad and macabre as they would that day. It mentions this was one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This never says the film was based on true events or that the story was inspired by a particular news item but the implication is there. This gives the film more weight without actually lying about anything and it primes the audience for what will indeed be bizarre and macabre.

We then see a date on the screen, August 18, 1973. Again this gives an inference this is something that happened on a particular day. Much like Psycho the date is fairly meaningless so why would the filmmakers put it there unless something actually happened that day? It was a brilliant tactic when Psycho did this and I have to imagine Tobe Hooper was well aware of that when he decided to put a date at the start of this film. It makes you feel like you are peering into a window of time into something more akin to true crime than just a bloody horror film.

Next we hear the sound of digging, along with some grunting. There are camera flashes. It’s difficult at first to tell what is being lit up in the flashes but after a few times of this, it becomes clear we are looking at images of a rotting corpse, or perhaps corpses. The effects here don’t quite hold up to today’s standards but they are convincing enough to be off putting right from the start.

When we finally get a full picture, we see the face of the corpse as a news story plays in the background which talks about a grave robbing in the area of Newt, Muerto County Texas recently. Whoever dug up the graves also displayed the corpses on a monument in a grotesque manner. And as the camera pulls out to a wide shot, it is apparent that whoever they are talking about in the story has to be the one who was taking pictures. And we see the corpse we were looking at is set up in a strange manner so clearly this person has not been caught.

Road SAfety Tips

More news stories play in voice over as we watch the credits overlayed on images of red which could be just about anything but might possibly be blood or lava. Next we see a dead armadillo lying in the road. A van pulls over and we see the first of our living human characters get out.

The person gets out and lays a couple of sturdy boards out from the side door of the van. For those of us living in the current era this is pretty confusing but it makes sense once we see a man in a wheelchair being rolled out of the van on the boards. This was long before ADA compliance was a big thing and it’s a standard van so there is no ramp.

The person in the wheelchair is Franklin Hardesty and he is one of five people out on the trip here. He goes off to the side of the road to do what most men do when they pull over on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately for Franklin, he gets startled and rolls down the side of a hill. If only that would be the worst thing to happen to poor Franklin that day.

Back on the road, everyone is sweating in the van because, well, Texas in summer has a lot of heat. Franklin is complaining about the heat as a woman in the van talks about astrology.

The group gets out of the van a bit later and we get a glimpse of our full party here. This consists of Sally and Franklin Hardesty, Jerry, Kirk and Pam. Those last three don’t get last names. Apparently Sally is looking for the gravesite of her grandfather at a local cemetery. She goes off to find the sheriff but Franklin is left in the van.

An old man who is sitting on a tire lies back and looks up at Franklin and we get the first real feeling of something being wrong for this group. The man says to Franklin, “Things happen here abouts, they don’t tell about. I see things. You see, they say it’s just an old man. Talkin’. You laugh at an old man. There’s them that laughs and knows better.”

It’s not at all clear what this guy is talking about but it feels wrong. And it’s one of those tropes that ends up becoming adopted in so many slasher films. There is a warning before the group is truly in danger, often from someone who would be considered elderly or mentally ill or in some other way a person whose warnings could be easily dismissed or ignored by the rest of the community.

They get back on the road and Sally tells Franklin it didn’t look like their grandfather’s grave had been dug up. Soon everyone in the van starts complaining about a bad smell. Franklin points out this is where an old slaughterhouse was where their grandfather used to sell cattle.

And then Franklin goes into relentless detail about how the cows are killed, including descriptions of their heads being bashed in with a sledge hammer. And then he describes the modern way they kill the cows, still in graphic detail.

Someone in the van points out a hitchhiker and they decide to stop and pick him up.

Here’s a road safety tip from your old uncle Slick, don’t pick up hitchhikers! Seriously, it is a bad idea, so please do not do it. Trust me.

They even comment on how odd looking the guy is before they let him into the van. The guy talks about how his family worked in the slaughterhouse and he just gives off a real creepy vibe. The man also has a quite distinctive red mark on his face which could be a scar or blood or even a birthmark. Before you know it, this guy is doing really disturbing stuff. He’s handing out pictures of what look like polaroids of bloody masses of something. The characters in the van seem to take it to be cattle but it’s a little hard to tell what it is at all.

Then Franklin takes out a knife and starts playing with it. The hitchhiker takes the knife from Franklin and cuts deeply into his own palm with it. Road safety tip number two, if the hitchhiker you pick up seems a bit off, don’t flash a knife in front of him. Road safety trip number three, if the hitchhiker who you picked up seems a little off and he cuts into his own palm, make sure you let him out right then and there.

The hitchhiker then takes out a beat up old polaroid camera and takes a picture of Franklin. The hitchiker tells the group they could drop him off at his house up the road but the group says they are in a hurry. That’s the first smart move they’ve made so far here.

The hitchhiker even offers them dinner, saying his brother makes head cheese real good, but the group is not tempted. The guy then takes a picture of Franklin and demands two dollars for the picture. Franklin doesn’t want it so the guy takes the picture back, places it in foil, and lights it on fire. Everyone in the van starts to freak out but the hitchhiker grabs Franklin and cuts pretty deep into Franklin’s arm.

Only at this point do they finally kick the guy out of the van. The driver then says, “That’s the last goddamned hitchhiker I ever pick up.” One would hope so. Not that he’ll have much choice by the end of the movie here.

They patch Franklin up as Pam reads Franklin’s horoscope which seems like nothing but bad news.

We’ve now set up for a disturbing ride for the rest of the film and by the end, this group will be wishing they were just still on the road with an odd hitchhiker.

More Road Safety Tips

The van pulls up to a gas station. Everyone is a bit rattled from the day they’ve had. They are told the gas station has no gas, the tanks are all empty. This is odd but not impossible in a remote area like this. Franklin then asks about an old house they are looking for. The gas station attendant says they shouldn’t go poking around other people’s property because there are people who don’t like it and they’re willing to show you. In other words, poking around in deserted houses in the area is probably a bad idea. Franklin says it’s his father’s place though. The attendant offers them barbeque and says they should stick around a while and wait for the tanker to come fill up the gas tanks.

Another road safety tip here, if the gas station you pull up to has no gas, find the next one with gas as soon as humanly possible. Instead of go straight to the gas station, they drive out to Franklin’s grandfather’s place. This is a seriously bad idea.

Sally mentions the hitchhiker smeared blood all over the outside of the van.

They get over to the house they are trying to see, which is abandoned and look at the van to see that not only is there a blood smear, but it looks like a symbol of some kind.

Franklin seems rather paranoid about the hitchhiker following them and is real concerned about his knife.

There’s a pretty long sequence where the characters just kind of wander around the empty house for a bit as some ominous music plays.

Eventually Pam and Kirk decide they want to go swimming in a creek Franklin had mentioned and they take off. Franklin then notices some odd decorations made out of what look like bones.

That’s not a chainsaw

Kirk and Pam make it down the road and they see a house that seems to have a generator. Kirk figures he could go and get some gas if he leaves his guitar with these people as collateral until he can come back and pick it up. When they get close to the house there are a bunch of old broken down cars.

They wander around a bit and finally end up entering the house. This is when it starts to get real.

Kirk kicks a tooth on the ground and scares Pam with it. Rather than just leave, Kirk opens the unlocked door but Pam walks away. Kirk makes the mistake of walking in deeper and he starts to hear strange sounds like a person making pig noises.

We get our first view of Leatherface here as he pops out and bashes Kirk in the head with a sledgehammer. Wait, what? That’s not a chainsaw! Yep, that’s right, we’re saving that for later.

You’ve probably seen pictures of Leatherface before so I won’t go into too much detail but he wears a mask that is supposed to be made of human skin, and is wearing a butcher’s apron at this point in the movie.

Pam gives up waiting and goes to the door of the house and walks in after Kirk. She stumbles into a room just filled with bones. These are distinctly human bones and set up in all kinds of weird ways. Plus there is a chicken hanging in a cage for some reason. Pam starts freaking out and tries to leave. Leatherface pops out and grabs her.

He hangs her on a meathook as she is still screaming.

Oh, There is a Chainsaw

As poor Pam hangs there, Leatherface pulls out a chainsaw and starts to cut up Kirk’s body. We don’t really see too much blood here but the scene is still utterly disturbing.

Back at the van Franklin and Sally argue about who had his knife last. Jerry decides to go down to the creek and find Pam and Kirk.

Sally and Franklin continue to argue as Jerry goes to meet his doom.

Jerry finds the same house Pam and Jerry did and goes inside. He hears banging from a locked freezer and goes and opens it. A frozen Pam pops out for a minute.

Leatherface comes up from behind and guess what? Yep, sledge hammer to ol’ Jerry as well.

You really shoulda got that gas

By now it’s dark and Sally and Franklin are starting to wonder what has happened to their friends. There’s a bit of a long conversation where Franklin and Sally argue about whether they should go back to the gas station or go look for their friends. Turns out Jerry took the keys anyway so they can’t drive back to the gas station.

Finally the pair head down the path where their friends went and make all kinds of noise hollering for their friends.

When they are half way down the path they hear a noise and see a light at a house ahead of them. They go a bit farther and Leatherface shows up with his chainsaw. Franklin is no more but Sally runs away.

Leatherface runs through the forest after her swinging his chainsaw every which way. Sally makes it to the house where her friends died and runs up the stairs. She encounters an elderly man in a rocking chair. He looks like he might be dead but we’ll later find out this is the living grandfather of Leatherface. Sally runs down the hall.

Leatherface is close behind but Sally does what will become a signature move for her. She jumps out of the window to escape.

There is another chase through the forest until Sally finds herself all the way back at the gas station that had no gas.

I’ll pass on the Barbeque, thanks

In the gas station the attendant is there and he tries to calm Sally down. She tries to ask the guy to call the police but he says there is no phone. Again, odd but not impossible in those days. The guy says he’ll drive her over to the next town and leaves to get his truck.

And that’s when Sally notices the meat cooking in some kind of pit. That is definitely not beef. And another report about the desecration of graves plays in the background.

The gas station attendant comes back with a sack and Sally realizes she is still in some serious trouble. She tries to defend herself but gets beaten with a broom and knocked out. The attendant ties her up and gags her.

He tosses her in the truck and weirdly seems to be trying to reassure her that things will be okay as he keeps hitting her with the broomstick.

On the way, the gas station attendant picks up the hitchhiker from the beginning of the movie and yells at the guy. As if needed any more confirmation he tells the guy he was supposed to stay away from the graveyard. And we find out this guy is the brother of Leatherface.

The worst family dinner of all time

When Sally has the bag removed from her head, she sees the hitchhiker and she’s back in the house she escaped from. Things are not looking good.

Next, the gas station attendant tells the killers to go get their grandpa. He also tells Sally to take it easy and they’ll have something for her to eat right away.

Sure enough the guy in the chair from earlier is brought downstairs as Sally struggles the best she can to get away. Eventually she passes out and when she wakes up she’s at the family dinner table.

We also find out that the gas station attendant doesn’t like killing people and he lets the two brothers do all of that. Turns out the gas station attendant is, “just the cook.”

The whole room is decorated with bones and body parts and feels extremely uncomfortable to the viewer.

There’s kind of a long sequence here where they threaten and torture Sally and explain to her that their grandfather was the best killer they had ever seen. They make the mistake of trying to get Grandpa to kill Sally but he’s so old and weak that he keeps missing.

Fortunately for Sally she’s untied and able to escape the house. She once again jumps out of a window to get away. Leatherface and the hithchhiker run after Sally. Leatherface, of course, has his chainsaw with him.

Even More Road Safety Tips

Sally makes it to the road with the hitchhiker grabbing onto her. A semi-truck comes out of nowhere and basically flattens the hitchhiker. Look before you cross, people. And yeah, if you see a guy covered in blood grabbing a woman who is screaming for dear life as you drive your truck down the street, I can’t say I blame you if you hit the gas here.

The truck pulls over after this and the driver lets Sally into the cab of the truck. Leatherface comes with his chainsaw and saws the door a bit.

If I was the driver here, I woulda hit the gas so hard to get outta there but that’s not what he does. Instead, he and Sally run out the other side as Leatherface chases after them. But the driver grabbed a wrench on the way out and tosses it at Leatherface’s head. It connects and Leatherface falls, causing him to drop his chainsaw onto his own leg. It cuts him but it doesn’t sever the leg or anything.

A pickup truck comes by and pulls over. The driver of the semi-truck runs into the woods so who knows what happens to him? But Sally is able to get into the back of the pickup, she’s smeared in blood and laughing and screaming like she has lost her mind.

The film ends with a shot of Leatherface swinging his chainsaw around in the air as the sun rises behind him.

In Conclusion

There were a lot of factors that made this a successful horror film. One is the ominous soundtrack which plays in the background. The cinematography here is nothing special but it’s competent. The set design is completely off putting to the audience and with each watch through you are bound to notice yet another disturbing thing in the background you might have missed. Gunnar Hansen, who plays Leatherface is an imposing figure and you can’t take your eyes off of him whenever he is on screen.

But most importantly, this film was willing to cross boundaries and take risks where other horror films up to this point had not. There is not a larger story here other than people in danger and the end is not conclusive. The bad guys are not caught and punished for their misdeeds so one can presume they will be free to continue their horrific crimes into the future. The only one who seems like they might be out of the picture is the hitchhiker since he was hit by a truck.

It can’t be underestimated how influential this film is in the annals of horror. Most slasher films owe something to this one, whether it is a mysterious figure under a mask, a thoroughly creepy soundtrack, warnings from the community before the danger starts, or a collection of people going about everyday activities who find themselves confronted with a horror they can barely comprehend.

While there are definitely slasher films which I would say are better, this movie undoubtedly laid the groundwork for those. Since I have not yet seen all of the films in the franchise, I can’t say if the rest improve on the quality here but this first film is the one everyone knows about and for good reason.

Slashingly yours,

Slick Dungeon