The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Alternate titles : None

Tagline : "Can You Survive... ...it Happened."

Tobe Hooper's controversial 1970's horror classic takes place, as the title suggests, deep in the heartlands of Texas, where a group of youths are out for a sunny afternoon drive in their van.

With news reports of there being a spate of grave robbings in the area, they decide to visit one of the old cemeteries, where their relatives are buried, to see if any of their graves have been disturbed. But afterwards, decide to make a detour to visit their old family homestead, which is now abandoned (you can see where this is leading).

Unfortunately, it seems they have since acquired some new neighbours. As one by one, they go off to explore the surrounding area, only to run into Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). A chainsaw wielding maniac, who sports a mask made of Human flesh. Who proceeds to make mincemeat of them (literally)!

Indeed, it seems no one is safe. Not even the guy in the wheelchair gets spared the saw, as Leatherface proceeds to saw his way through the hapless teens, leaving us with the question as to will anyone survive, and what will be left of them, even if they do?

Heralded as the prototype to the slasher film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not overly gory, but it is extremely suggestive. Indeed, looking back on this now, it's hard to understand what all the controversy was about back in the day, which resulted it being banned in the UK for 25 years. Indeed, I think horror fans who have been brought up on teen horrors like Scream, or torture porn opuses like the Saw films will probably be unimpressed and find the most horrific thing about it is the dreadful 70s fashions.

Supposedly based on a true story (yeah right), the notoriety this film achieved during it's initial release was such, that it is still regarded as a classic horror film by both critics and fans alike to this day and whilst it may not have aged as well as some horrors, I would still recommend all true horror fans see this.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines, "Who will survive and what will be left of them?", "What happened is real, now the motion picture that's just as real" and "America's most bizarre murders".
• Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, had lifts in his boots and extra thick heels to make him appear much taller.
• John Duggan, who played Grandpa, said he would not go through the make up process again after being made up. So they had to work straight through and film all of his scenes in one go, resulting in 27 hours straight shooting, which due to the excruciating Texas heat, really took its toll on the cast and crew.
• Paul Partain, who played the Wheelchair bound Franklin, proved to be extremely annoying and got on the nerves of the entire cast and crew. Several years later, Gunnar Hansen happened to bump into him again, and after they got chatting, realised he had been method acting and was remaining in character all the time he was on set.
• It's long been rumoured that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a true story, it was of course no such thing. It was however LOOSELY based on the exploits on Wisconsin farmer Ed Gein, who murdered and robbed the graves of several women during the 1950s in order to build himself a female body suit, as well as indulging in cannibalism. Gein also served as the inspiration for Normal Bates from Psycho, as well as Buffalo Bill and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. But, there was NO actual Texas Chainsaw Massacre. PERIOD!!!!
• The film was rejected by the BBFC for a UK cinema release in 1974, although it was shown at cinemas in London as permission had been granted from the Greater London Council to show it there. The film was later released on Video in the early 80s, as there was no requirement at the time for video films to be classified by the film censors. Although branded as a Video Nasty by the press, it was never listed on the DPPs video nasties list. However, it did find its way onto a secondary list, which banned it as being potentially obscene under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act. The film was finally passed uncut, both for cinema and video, in 1999 following the departure of Cheif censor James Ferman, who had been responsible for originally banning it at the cinema in the first place.
• The Pre-VRA Video was released in 2 versions, with virtually identical covers. Firstly, a slightly cut version which had the words "Certificate X" on the cover. And the full uncut version, which had "Uncensored" written on it. The cut version trimmed the scene where Leatherface saws up the guy on the kitchen table, whilst the girlfriend is hanging on a meathook.
• Gunnar Hansen turned his hand to writing fiction books after finishing the film, rather than continuing acting. Although he has appeared in other films, most notably the Horror/Comedy "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers".
• The film was originally released in the US by Bryanston, who turned out to be run by the Mafia. They subsequently lied about how much money the film was making and ripped off the film makers by an extremely substanial amount. When they finally discovered the truth, they sued the distributers and won. Bryanston went bankrupt soon after and the rights were sold to New Line Cinema, who finished paying off the film makers as part of the buy out deal.

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