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The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre |
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| Supplied By: Sazuma |
A bunch of teens are traveling through Texas and
visits the old childhood home of two of them. When
they run out of gas they go to a nearby,
creepy-looking house and comes across the family
living there - sadistic, murderous, cannibalistic
maniacs with the huge, chainsaw-wielding retard
Leatherface in the lead.
Major classic horror film which is nowhere as
violent or gory as it's rumored to be but rather
more intense and scary. Director Tobe Hooper knows
how to scare his audience and starts out slowly to
shock us with a bang, then another, and then just
keeps the shocks coming while keeping up a sweaty
pace. Even if you know what's coming, the creepy
feeling of the terror closing in is still
freakishly intense.
Like the similar 70s cult film Halloween, this
features amateurish acting and dialogue, which
gives it a feeling of realism. Hooper lets us get to
know the characters, but not too well, before they
meet their fatal fates. He also uses twisted music
and camerawork, making us feel uncomfortable without
letting us know why - yet.
When the horror kicks in, it's brutal and exhausting.
We have the seemingly never-ending chasing-scene where
poor heroine Marilyn Burns is followed by the furious
Leatherface through the woods, in the house and
through the woods again. Without Hooper's excellent
direction this scene would die after a minute or so,
but it has Leatherface so close onto Burns that you're
glued to the seat and praying the she'll get away.
When it comes to the actors, they are all amateurs,
with both good and bad results. Marilyn Burns' heroine
ranges from annoyingly hysterical to giving a
believable performance of fear. The psycho family
isn't stereotypical but almost as hysterical as its
victims. They're freaky, loud-mouthed and crazy, you
never doubt that these are seriously deranged and
screwed-up people.
Like said, this isn't as gory as it's rumor says
but still plenty of blood-spilling. Apparently
low-budget, there is no fancy splatter here; some
look pretty cheap, like the infamous hand-slashing
in the van, but it's still not the gore that shocks
us. It's the violence. When Leatherface drags a
doomed girl through the house and hangs her up on a
meat-hook, we can only imagine the pain and torture.
The most brutal murder is the guy who's murdered
with the chainsaw - while stuck in his wheelchair!
Marilyn Burns is put out to so much torture that
she ends the film almost covered in blood...
Starts out with eerie, spooky score that makes us
think that even though nothing special is happening
on screen, something is about to. When we're
introduced to the mad family, Hooper uses more sound
effects than actual music, pushing up the atmosphere
of hysteria and claustrophobia.
This isn't any slick slasher-thriller, this is
pure hysteria horror. Tobe Hooper, who got to make
films like Poltergeist later, proves strong sense
of style and doesn't hold back a second. This film
isn't for all tastes (no pun intended) but if you
get into it, it's a memorable ride of creepy horror.
Review
By: Slicer-dicer
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