![]() ![]() The opening voiceover sets up the death of most of the teens, so when we cut to Sally and her friends hanging in their van we know things are going to go badly for them. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre makes you feel pretty uncomfortable from the minute it starts, with flashes of dead bodies and headstones, teamed with the now iconic camera whine. While they’re in the area Franklin decides they should detour to check out their grandfather’s abandoned house, and basically things go wrong from there. As the opening of the movie tells us, the graveyard has been experiencing a recent spate of grave robbing and vandalism incidents. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre tells the story of a group of five friends (Sally, her brother Franklin, her boyfriend Jerry, and couple Kirk and Pam) who have travelled to a graveyard in Texas to check on the condition of Sally and Franklin’s grandfather’s grave. Even though I prided myself on having seen a lot of horror movies by this point I remember being flat-out terrified by Leatherface and spent most of the second half of the movie hiding under my duvet. Thirteen-year-old me settled down to watch the first viewing of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on Channel 4 after the ban was lifted in 2000, even after my mum tried her best to talk me out of it. Directed by Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was refused a rating by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which lead to it being banned for 25 years as one of the famous ‘video nasties’. I can’t really comment on any of the other move in the series (with the exception of 2013’s Texas Chainsaw) but I can say that the 70s movie is really good.Sometimes They Come Back is here to take a look at the horror genre and its love for remakes! We’ll be discussing both the original movie and its remake (sometimes multiple remakes) in detail before deciding who comes out on top! Are the originals always the best? Let’s find out! The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)įor this first edition of Sometimes They Come Back, I thought I would take a look at a horror movie which really shaped my love for the genre – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). It’s the horrific imagery, the unsettling feeling and scary performances that make it so effective. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic horror film and if you are a big horror movie fan, this movie is essential to watch. Nonetheless, the violence is shocking and it’s effective in amping up the scares. For me, the more disturbing elements are brought out in the bizarre characters that our protagonists come across. Compared to horror movies of today, this movie isn’t quite as bloody, but when there is blood, the film uses practical effects and it does work much better, it doesn’t look cartoonishly over the top. The film has a very realistic and raw look to it that really helps the film. This film has a very low budget of $300,000 but this film is still very effective. One performance that really stood out to me was from Edwin Neal who makes his first appearance quite early on in the film. They were at least for me most of the scariest parts of the movie. Along with the main characters being played well, the people who played the psychopathic characters are excellent, not just Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) although he is a standout amongst them. We don’t really know much about the main characters but they do pretty well with what they’ve got, particularly Marilyn Burns, especially in the later scenes of the movies. There is particularly one scene at a table (without spoiling anything) which actually got under my skin. The last act however is really great as further creepy and scary things happen and the tensions rise. The film is surpirisingly well at creating and maintaining tension. The first two acts go in and out of being well paced and being a little too slow, however once the main characters reach the house, that’s when the film really picks up. The opening scene deserves credit in immediately grabbing your attention and setting the tone for the rest of the film. The plot is set up well and paced (for the most part) at about 80 minutes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. ![]() Out of the four slasher franchises (the other three being Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street), Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s first instalment was the closest to scaring me. It is still today quite an impressive film, especially for its time. However I found myself quite enjoying The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Because of the underwhelming feeling I felt after watching the original Friday the 13th, I was a little worried that Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be another movie that aged poorly. There are some movies which do scare me (Sinister and The Babadook) there are movies that don’t scare me (The Fog) and there are movies which are at times scary, the latter being the most common type. The horror genre has always been a hit or miss sort of movie. ![]()
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