The Geek Address

If you’re anything like me, you probably haven’t watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I avoided the film for over a decade because of its title. Seriously, who in their right mind would watch a film called ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’? Anyone who raised their hand is a sick, twisted individual…

If you haven’t seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you’d be mistaken to assume it’s just a cheap and bloody exploitation flick. Fact is, it’s a cheap and bloody exploitation flick that made an incredible contribution to the horror genre. The film is worth watching for a number of reasons. A notable forerunner to the hack-and-slash school of filmmaking, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a precursor to other classic slasher flicks, produced six years before Friday the 13th and Halloween and a full decade before the bloodletting of the nineteen eighties.

Throughout the film, director Tobe Hooper succeeds in creating an uneasy and sickening atmosphere. The cinematography of the film is quite effective, adding a level of gritty realism. Watching this film is definitely not a pleasant experience. The palpable sense of unease begins during the opening sequence when a carload of friends are traveling across the United States. As they pass a slaughter yard, one of the characters describes in detail how the animals are killed. Their fortunes take a turn for the worst when they pick up a psychotic hitchhiker with a penchant for self-mutilation. Things don’t improve when they arrive at the farmhouse. Establishing a narrative that would become a staple of horror for the next two decades, the characters are slowly dispatched by a chainsaw wielding cannibal called Leatherface. While the impassive, ruthless and bloodthirsty Leatherface is not as recognizable as Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, he was the first in a long line of masked, teen-stalking killers.

Probably the most sickening and surreal scene in the film is when our heroine finds herself the guest of honour at the family’s dinner table. The film is definitely a combination of horror and black comedy. You’ll also be impressed by the cinematography towards the end of the film, when Leatherface wields his chainsaw before a spectacular Texan sunset.

Just for the record, I’m sick of morons telling me that Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on a true story. The film is a work of fiction based loosely on the serial killer Ed Gein. Gein never used a chainsaw to massacre a bunch of stupid teenagers traveling across the United States. Hell, he didn’t even set foot in TEXAS! Here’s what director Tobe Hooper recalls about developing the screenplay: “I was in the Montgomery Ward’s out in Capital Plaza. I had been working on this other story for some months ‚Äî about isolation, the woods, the darkness, and the unknown. It was around holiday season, and I found myself in the Ward’s hardware department, and I was still kind of percolating on this idea of isolation and such. And those big crowds have always gotten to me. There were just so many people to go through. And I was just standing there in front of an upright display of chainsaws. And the focus just racked from my eyeball to the people to the saws ‚Äî and the idea popped. I said, “Ooh, I know how I could get out of this place fast ‚Äî if I just start one of these things up and make that sound.” Of course I didn’t. That was just a fantasy.” Although he was a sadistic and disturbed killer, Gein bears little resemblance to Leatherface.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre will leave you feeling horribly disturbed. Any film produced during the seventies which still has the power to do this (with the exception of Dolemite, of course) is quite a cinematic achievement.