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| The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Review: To many the mere mention of �The Texas Chainsaw Massacre� sends a shiver up their spine. Even the title is scary enough to wet your pants. The scariest horror movies as we all know are those that are psychological for the most part, or based on true events. TCM has both assets! For the vast part of the film, there is no gore. Blood is only shed very infrequently at about 4 or 5 times throughout the film, but the actual inflicted terror on the victims is extreme to say the least. The close, unnerving camera angles and terrifying soundtrack of animals sent to slaughter send you spiralling into madness up to the final, horrific scene. Most people would have heard of the real life serial killer, Ed Gein of Plainfield, Wisconsin. However, fewer may know that his gruesome deeds inspired all these films: �Psycho,� �Deranged,� �The Silence of the Lambs� and �The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.� Ed Gein, like Leatherface, his big screen counterpart, wore a suit of human skin cut from the bodies of the women he either killed or dug up from fresh graves. Among other things in his house, Gein collected a vast array of gruesome artefacts that he made himself, much like Leatherface and his family. Bowls made from skulls, wind chimes of finger bones, skin coated furniture, and the list goes on. This was the basis of �The Texas Chainsaw Massacre� and the subsequent final look of the family's homestead. Directed by Vietnam Filmmaker, Tobe Hooper, �The Texas Chainsaw Massacre� was filmed on a shoestring budget in a hellish 43 degrees heat in Texas. It was for this reason that the acting in the penultimate scenes becomes so traumatic and realistic. In fact, it is rumoured that Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) threatened to kill Hooper during the filming of the end scenes. Centring around a group of five youths who are on an afternoon drive to check on the grave of Sally Hardesty's Grandfather after a spate of grave robberies in the area, the group make a detour to their Grandfather's old house which they explore with the raging curiosity of a young boy. However, as the group unwind, they begin to split up, beginning with Kirk and Pam going for a swim. However, they never take a swim, as there is no swimming hole left. Instead, they go in search of gas, following the sounds of a generator nearby. They reach a house, which seems deserted. At first, Kirk enters and never comes out, then, Pam enters the mysterious house, and with fleeting terror stricken across her face, she is grabbed by a hideous looking maniac as she tries to escape. And so begins one of the most controversial and horrifying slasher movies of all time. The image is occasionally grainy, but this only helps add to the atmosphere of such scenes as the famous photograph opening title scene with the skin crawling soundtrack of the pitchfork strikes. It is not long through this film that the horrific sound of the chainsaw begins and soon, a very lengthy chase ensues as the chainsaw wielding maniac pursues relentlessly, his next screaming victim through the night. During this chase sequence, Marilyn Burns was actually being cut and slashed for real by the thickets she was running through. In fact, Ms. Burns suffered greatly during the making of the film. Watch out for the famous thumb slicing scene, that actually happened for real by the mistake of, a then, delirious with heat Gunnar Hansen. For some, this occasionally grainy picture and soundtrack detracts from the film, with one critic from the 1970�s stating the film to be a �vile, sick piece of crap.� But this is not so, this actually adds to the incredibly gripping and tense atmosphere, which the film inflicts on you all the way up to the hallowed 'chainsaw dance' sequence, which was so real it left the camera crew running from Gunnar Hansen as they feared their lives, for real! The acting is as good as could be for a slasher flick, but with a little extra, especially in the final reels of the film where the inflicted pain for the most part is real. The lighting is terrifying and gives the darkly lit rooms a maniacal presence of their very own. The special effects are few and far between and there is more on screen violence in Jurassic Park than in TCM. The effects are often put to use to create the gruesome artefacts inside the house, which are mind-blowingly real. Even the decomposed corpse at the beginning of the film looks as if it could have been dug up in a Texas cemetery. The real terror that this film inflicts however, begins when the 'final girl' falls victim to the cannibalistic family of four males and is subsequently strapped to a chair that has human arms for armrests and is situated next to a skeleton lampshade. In the famous 'Dinner Scene' all the meat shown in the shots used is actually rotting after many hours in the heat and the skeletons used are actually real-life imports from India which subsequently started to burn under the heat of the lights. These tough filming conditions can only help but extract a much more realistic scene from the actors which leaves you with your guts torn out while you clutch at your ears to cast out the soundtrack of cattle being slaughtered. This isn�t a thinker of a film, more a visually exhausting experience whereby you become emotionally drained, much like the actors, throughout the movie. The script isn�t dense and on reflection there isn�t much plot, however, the sheer visceral capacity of this movie is all it really needs in the end of the day. For a slasher flick, this is the �cr�me de la cr�me� of the genre. By no means is this a half-assed affair, this is the epitome of terror and it never fails to live up to its controversial nature, especially in Britain where the film was unjustly banned for 25 years. It may have lost the awe among a nation, but it still has the ability to pack a punch for horror fans everywhere. The hectic pace of this movie can only be resembled to such classic horrors as "Night of the Living Dead." At times, the terror with which the family use to torture their victim becomes almost unbearable to watch and you cannot help but feel the pain the victim is experiencing. This movie is purely terror and never stops upping the tense atmosphere of backwoods Texas and the myth of 'they're always watching you' to new heights. The lighting, the camera angles, the dialogue, the family, all aspects of this film set out to shred your eyeballs with relentless chainsaw flailing energy right up to the final breath-stealing ending. This is how horror movies are supposed to be made, and it is a shame they don't make them like they used to, or is that good? So that classics such as these stand out, heads held high, from the crowds of faceless imitators. Despite having three sequels, all of which never measured up to the original, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre still has the power to shock and nauseate as the shocking realism leaves you gagging and gasping for air. This film, the original chainsaw massacre, never gives up in its quest to crush your sanity. If you haven't seen this film yet and you're a serious horror fan, watch it now! If you love trendy teenybopper tosh, don't come any closer, unless you want to see what a real slasher movie is supposed to look like, however, it will tear out your eyeballs, stamp on them and then eat you alive. In the words of the critics in 1974, "this film is just as real, just as close" as a real nightmare. This film will simply "drive you right out of your mind." |