The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Welcome to “Halloween Month,” where this year I will for the most part be talking about god-awful movies that you should just avoid at all cost. They are so bad, that they literally make you feel like your IQ is dropping every minute you’re watching them. Not to say that it will be that way for the entire month, but a lot of the films I will be looking at are just painful to sit through. With that stated, let’s get started with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” released in 1974.

The basic story of this movie is that it’s a classic horror movie that was inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, the same person Alfred Hitchcock based “Psycho” on. A horrifying experiencing is going to happen to five teenagers in their grandfather’s old abandoned farmhouse that has a family of psychotic murderers.

Ben Cobb stated in his review, “A triumph of style and atmosphere, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is without doubt one of the most influential horror films of all time.”

A group of friends, which has two couples – Pam (Teri McMinn) and Kirk (William Vail), and Sally (the late Marilyn Burns) and Jerry (Allen Danziger) – along with Sally’s annoying handicapped brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), are on a road trip in country Texas, where they stay at their grandfather’s old farmhouse.

What they don’t know is that next door, these poor unfortunate kids become the target for a family of crazed, sickening Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) they picked up at the beginning of the movie, the giant, inhuman slasher villain Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), the local garage mechanic and Cook (Jim Siedow), and their wrinkled, old grandfather (John Dugan). With what they learned from working at the town’s slaughterhouse, the family kill each one of the friends who walk into the house. The only remaining member, Sally, is the one who survives this fear, suffering and murder.

Leatherface, the butcher of the family that wears an apron and looks like he is wearing someone else’s face, was born in the theater as one of first slasher villains. Nothing can prepare you for the first time this slasher villain shows up, as he runs towards the screen holding his sledge-hammer. Ever since this movie was released, he is now a cult icon and the face of a handful of merchandises (including the computer game adaptation).

Cobb stated, “The film's shooting conditions were arduous, to say the least, with crew and cast regularly working up to 27 hours non-stop in the stifling heat of mid-summer Texas and rotting meat stench of the farmhouse location.”

The film became a major hit, making so much money at the box office – but not for the director and co-creator Tobe Hooper, who saw that it wasn’t going to make so much, seeing how it was made on a low budget. Cobb mentioned that, “As compensation, studio Cannon later offered him the chance to direct a remake of the classic sci-fi film Invaders From Mars and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Part 2.”

If you have never seen this movie, you must! If you already have and can stomach another viewing, see it again. It doesn’t matter how many times you have watched this movie, the buildup to the shear insanity never goes away, even if you are prepared for it.

Even though there are parts that look hilarious on purpose (thanks to the partnership of the actual black humor made by Hooper, writer Henkel and Co), “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is still just as powerful 42 years later.

This movie scared me almost as much as “The Exorcist” did. I guess when it comes to these low-budget exploitation horror movies that gives it a realistic look to it, they leave that sort of impact on you. The mission it has set for everyone is that even though it may look like an actual story that really happened but is just a fictional tale, there is a chance that something like that can happen, so best be careful and always mind your surroundings. Just be careful when watching this movie, because during the last third of the movie, I was constantly checking how much time was left for the movie to finish because I didn’t know if I could survive the entire horrific experience. Turns out I did, and I’m living to continuously feel that experience after viewing it once and not sure if I will ever see it again.

Now we have come to the end of the first entry of “Halloween Month.” I have finally reviewed “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie. With how successful this film was, Hooper was brought on to make a sequel. How is that? Hold on to your vomit bags because tomorrow I will look at it in my “Texas Chainsaw Massacre marathon.”