The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Cast: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, and Gunnar Hansen 

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