Director: Tobe Hooper
83 minutes (18) 1974
Second Sight Blu-ray
Rating: 9/10
Review by Christopher Geary
The
archetypal low-budget shocker that redefined 1970s’ cult horror, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre maintained
its fearsome genre reputation well into the video boom era. But in the wake of
other franchise-starting competitors, like Halloween
(1978), The Evil Dead (1981), and
such later classics as Day Of The Dead
(1985), and Hellraiser (1987), Tobe
Hooper’s postmodernist American gothic stood apart from contemporary slashers,
or zombie gore-fests, because the film’s greatest strength was always its basis
in a vile but true story, of 1957, about Wisconsin grave-robber Ed Gein.
Although the very same ghoulish crimes had previously inspired Hitchcock’s
legendary Psycho (1960), Hooper’s
more sensationalist approach benefited greatly from being made in colour, with
ruthless exploitation of lurid terrors, following the grinding atmosphere of
unease before extreme violence begins. Whereas Hitchcock tempered traditional
suspense with gallows humour, centred on crazy loner Norman Bates, forever
haunted by his mother, Hopper delivers an exceptionally vivid treatment about
serial kills by an extended hillbilly family of grotesque outlaws.
Marilyn
Burns, who went on to star in Cronenberg’s Rabid
(1977), plays Sally Hardesty, one of a van load of young people who fall victim
to the homicidal Sawyer clan. TCSM
is actually quite low in blood and gory scenes, partly because Hooper’s film
crew lacked the technical resources of Hollywood studio productions like
Friedkin’s notorious The Exorcist
(1973), where cutting-edge special make-up effects enabled fantastical and supernatural
stunts. However, storytelling against a background of cannibalism and
necrophilia grants Hooper’s movie of broadly realistic horrors a darker sense of dread when
monstrous ‘Leatherface’ (Gunnar Hansen), goes about his grisly business. This slaughter-house mentality is keenly
invested with a terrifying lunatic vigour that no amount of religious chanting, or
chilling demonic-possession, could possibly match for sheer visceral morbidity.
Personally,
I think that most of TCSM is often deliriously
funny, despite its unrelenting intensity. Its displays of black-comedy mayhem
are crazier characters than most of Monty Python’s TV and violent-movie
adventures, in particular their Arthurian knockabout Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975). Hooper transforms a rural
house into a ‘Grand Guignol’ theatre setting for ghastly wide-eyed nightmares,
creating a splattery experience that eventually seemed to shape Wes Craven’s directing
career from The Last House On The Left
(1972) and The Hills Have Eyes
(1977), all the way to A Nightmare On Elm
Street (1984) and The People Under
The Stairs (1991).
More
than simply a film franchise, TCSM is
a sub-cultural phenomenon. It has spawned a veritable industry of sequels,
remakes, and spin-offs, and strongly influenced generations of cross-genre filmmakers
eager to exploit a seemingly insatiable audience for gruesome imagery, whether intended
for comedy or shock values. It can be viewed as a confrontation with ultimate evils in corrupted souls, or even as allegory of how death and trauma in warfare breaks down humanity in any survivors. As the Sawyers' saga approaches its 50th
anniversary, this two-disc Blu-ray edition ensures the primal slice of horror-show history
is now readily available for critical reassessment.
Bonus
material:
- A new presentation featuring additional restoration work produced by Second Sight.
- New commentary by Amanda Reyes and Bill Ackerman
- Commentary track with Tobe Hooper
- Commentary with cinematographer Daniel Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll, and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou
- Commentary with Hooper, Pearl, and Gunnar Hansen
- Commentary with stars Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, and Paul A. Partain, plus art director Robert A. Burns
- The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - a new feature-length documentary
- Behind The Mask: Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- The Shocking Truth documentary
Disc
two:
- Cutting Chain Saw with J. Larry Carroll
- Granpaw’s Tales with actor John Dugan
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds
- Flesh Wounds: seven stories of the saw
- Off The Hook with actor Teri McMinn
- The Business Of Chain Saw with production manager Ron Bozman
- House Tour with actor Gunnar Hansen
- Tobe Hooper interview
- Kim Henkel interview
- Deleted Scenes
- Trailers
- Stills Gallery
