[Film Review] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Available as part of the Shudder Library from 7th July

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is not here to make you feel comfortable. You may be tricked by all the shots of teens basking in the Texan sun, but everything Tobe Hooper puts on screen is there to make you feel unsettled. 

The opening crawl tells us that things do not end well for friends Sally (Marilyn Burns), Sally’s brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), Kirk (William Vail), Jerry (Allen Danzinger), and Pam (Teri McMinn), and so we’re already uneasy when the piercing camera noise (which the film series would later become iconic for) first echoes out from the screen. This sound is so synonymous that it appears in later movies even when there’s no camera to be found. 

Aside from a few flashes of parts of dead bodies, the first full shot we get on screen is of a “grizzly work of art” according to the radio voiceover, featuring more than one dead body arranged atop a grave in a display Hannibal Lector would be proud of. Sally and her friends are in the area to check on her grandfather’s grave to make sure it hasn’t been desecrated, and while they’re here, they decide to visit their old family home.

En route to get gas, the teens pick up a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), who mentions that his family worked at the local slaughterhouse. Aside from acting very strangely, and taking photos of Franklin then demanding payment, the hitchhiker cuts himself and Franklin before he’s tossed out of the van. 

Picking up a hitchhiker is bad decision number one for these friends, and bad decision number two is ignoring the gas station attendant (Jim Siedow) when he tells them to avoid trying to find their old house as it’s not safe. Arriving at the old house to find it is in disrepair, Kirk and Pam head off to find the local swimming hole and decide to stop at a nearby farm to ask if they can spare any gas. Unfortunately, this is where it all goes wrong for the friends.

The first chunk of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is set during the daytime, which may seem a little strange for a slasher movie, as ordinarily they tend to rely on the shadows and unfamiliarity of nighttime to amp up the fear and hide the killer’s movements. However, the daytime does nothing to comfort the viewer, and if anything, adds to the discomfort that I mentioned earlier. 

The sun is incredibly bright, and the characters are all visibly sweating. They’re trying to have a good time on their friendly road trip, but you can tell the situation they are in is unpleasant even before Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) shows up. There’s this underlying layer of grossness to the start of the movie, and we finally find the source of the stench when Pam and Kirk make it to Leatherface’s house. 

It’s hard to know what to expect when Kirk tries to rouse the occupants of the house. There’s the fear that always lurks when a horror movie character explores somewhere remote and somewhere they’re not supposed to be, but nothing can prepare you for that first shot of Leatherface. He’s gone as soon as he’s arrived, lurching into view and filling the screen as he towers over Kirk. After bashing him over the head, Leatherface drags Kirk through the doorway, slamming the door in his wake and leaving the scene empty, almost as if nothing ever happened.

It’s poor Pam who gets to experience the full horror of the house, stumbling into the animal carcass-infested living room. Here, the full reason for why we’ve never been able to settle is revealed. There is something very wrong going on in this rural area of Texas, and despite all the signs pushing them in the other direction, the friends have found themselves right in the middle of it all. 

The version of Leatherface we see in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is my favourite from all of the many sequels, remakes, and reboots that followed. While he’s obviously not the nicest guy, as he enjoys slicing people up with a chainsaw and then eating them for dinner, Leatherface is definitely supposed to be more of a sympathetic character in comparison to other slasher killers or even his two cannibal brothers.

Leatherface is the one who gets left home during the day, and so he takes on the role of protector for his family and their secret meat habits. While we’re on the side of Kirk when Leatherface appears, and can only imagine the fear running through his mind, it’s also important to consider what Leatherface is thinking. The panic is even more palpable when Pam shows up, and Leatherface shrieks and screams as he chases her out on the porch. 

The panic that Leatherface feels translates perfectly into the entire third act as well. Obviously, by this point, we’re siding with Sally, who is running for her life through the pitch-black away from a man with a chainsaw, but both characters are panicked beyond reason. 

I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in my life, but when I watched it for the first time in 2000 at the age of thirteen, I spent most of the third-act chase scene under my duvet. From the minute Sally comes face to face with Leatherface, the tension and the fear never lets up until the credits hit. There’s not a moment of calm or relief, but instead, things continue to get worse and worse for Sally until she’s pushed to an absolute breaking point. 

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a classic for a reason, and the basic premise of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with someone who is more than handy with a chainsaw has definitely stood the test of time. You will come away from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre feeling a little gross and thinking you saw far more violence than was ever actually shown on screen. You’ll also never look at a chest freezer the same way ever again.

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