The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Five friends drive down to a dilapidated homestead under the sweltering Texan sun. But what awaits them is a family of cannibals who hunt humans, build furniture out of their skin and bones, and don't think twice before butchering them with a chainsaw. Tobe Hooper's indie horror-turned-slasher classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will mark 50 blood-soaked years this October, but anniversary screenings of its 4K restoration have already begun this summer. This review was written after one such retrospective screening by Picturehouse Cinemas in the UK.

It's a movie of its time (mainly for the better). In the five decades since the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the franchise has gone through the same capitalist curse as other genre classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th. The subsequent spinoffs and remakes have only seemed to extract the gruesome shock value of its violence by amping up the bloodshed to torture-porn levels. For its time, even Hooper's 1974 low-budget slasher boasted enough shock value to haunt his audience. But from a modern perspective, most of the chainsaw-induced mutilation is suggestive and takes place off-screen. For a modern horror audience exposed to the explicit theatrics of Saw and Hostel, the violence-concealing camera angles on grainy film would still build tension.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre might not be the most violent movie anymore, but it's still one of the loudest. The absence of direct B-movie bloodshed is tactfully covered up by deafening sound design (of both the chainsaws and the victims' high-decibel screams). To make the movie a more intensely immersive experience, cinematographer Daniel Pearl's gonzo camerawork evokes the blurry, fast-paced panic of being chased in the woods by Leatherface, the gargantuan chainsaw-wielding butcher played by Gunnar Hansen.

All its technical merits aside, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre obviously suffers from the disability tropes of its time. The female lead, Sally, isn't a damsel in distress; she's cut from the same cloth as Jamie Lee Curtis' heroine in Halloween. Though Sally's wheelchair-using brother Frank is relegated to unintentional comic relief or just being a burden on the group. The late actor Paul A. Partain was moving enough as Frank but the character's one-dimensional representation is perhaps the rare shortcoming in a slasher that has otherwise surprisingly aged well.

Classic slashers haven't been this funny. Following the success of his sleeper hit, Hooper polarised audiences when he went down a more comedic route for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (complete with a poster parodying The Breakfast Club). But this isn't that surprising of a decision, considering that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre itself is bizarrely funny (at least from a modern lens). Yes, the atmospheric tension still sticks the landing to draw gasps of horror. But this tension is also balanced by borderline-slapstick routines and Lynchian characters that can also make you chuckle.  For instance, some of Leatherface's pursuits start like a Looney Tunes cartoon (you can imagine where the hammer or gun sound effects can be synced). The cannibal family has bizarre caricature-esque characters, ranging from a bumbling "Hitchhiker" (a terrific Edwin Neal) to a corpse-like grandfather. The way this family offers their Texan hospitality at the dinner table is bound to draw some uncomfortable laughter.

Marilyn Burns's Sally is a scream queen for the ages. Clocking at a mere 83 minutes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn't have much time to get in-depth with the characters. Still, Marilyn Burns's performance as Sally is one of the most endearing elements of the film. Apart from being a gorefest in the middle of nowhere, Hooper's film is also Sally's journey from being a sheltered youngster to a screaming survivor driven to her limits. Burns truly put the scream in "scream queen." Instead, her screams can double as war cries or signs of her frustration. Perhaps the heroine has the feral human instinct that can be awakened within if a real-life chainsaw-wielding giant chases you. This display of human nature could never be replicated in any other Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the future.