The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Country: US
Technical: col 81m
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen
Synopsis:
Twenty-somethings on a day out to an abandoned family house come across a crazed family of slaughterhouse employees who have been desecrating cemeteries and engage in cannibalism.
Review:
Inspired, along with Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, by the Ed Gein story, Hooper's harrowing film gained instant notoriety, not least for its title, and was a long time getting a video certificate in the UK. Actually it is not its violence which is particularly excessive, rather the atmosphere of depravity, dread and, finally, revulsion which its characters and decor evoke. Despite the exploitative premise and hackneyed scenario it is a clever piece of filmmaking, avoiding contrivance (the initial hitchhiker encounter is a brave piece of brinkmanship in this regard) and cheap shots, espousing instead an arthouse approach to its anatomy of terror which embraces sound effects, buddhist(?) music, jump cuts, lingering facial close-ups and gothic comedy. It also posits an uncommon explanation for its ghoulish events, involving sun spots and retrograde planetary motion, though one might be inclined to adduce inbreading and pioneer mania (cf. Wisconsin Death Trip) as the causes. Not for everyone, sure, but not to be dismissed.
Country: US
Technical: col 81m
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen
Synopsis:
Twenty-somethings on a day out to an abandoned family house come across a crazed family of slaughterhouse employees who have been desecrating cemeteries and engage in cannibalism.
Review:
Inspired, along with Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, by the Ed Gein story, Hooper's harrowing film gained instant notoriety, not least for its title, and was a long time getting a video certificate in the UK. Actually it is not its violence which is particularly excessive, rather the atmosphere of depravity, dread and, finally, revulsion which its characters and decor evoke. Despite the exploitative premise and hackneyed scenario it is a clever piece of filmmaking, avoiding contrivance (the initial hitchhiker encounter is a brave piece of brinkmanship in this regard) and cheap shots, espousing instead an arthouse approach to its anatomy of terror which embraces sound effects, buddhist(?) music, jump cuts, lingering facial close-ups and gothic comedy. It also posits an uncommon explanation for its ghoulish events, involving sun spots and retrograde planetary motion, though one might be inclined to adduce inbreading and pioneer mania (cf. Wisconsin Death Trip) as the causes. Not for everyone, sure, but not to be dismissed.
Country: US
Technical: col 81m
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen
Synopsis:
Twenty-somethings on a day out to an abandoned family house come across a crazed family of slaughterhouse employees who have been desecrating cemeteries and engage in cannibalism.
Review:
Inspired, along with Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, by the Ed Gein story, Hooper's harrowing film gained instant notoriety, not least for its title, and was a long time getting a video certificate in the UK. Actually it is not its violence which is particularly excessive, rather the atmosphere of depravity, dread and, finally, revulsion which its characters and decor evoke. Despite the exploitative premise and hackneyed scenario it is a clever piece of filmmaking, avoiding contrivance (the initial hitchhiker encounter is a brave piece of brinkmanship in this regard) and cheap shots, espousing instead an arthouse approach to its anatomy of terror which embraces sound effects, buddhist(?) music, jump cuts, lingering facial close-ups and gothic comedy. It also posits an uncommon explanation for its ghoulish events, involving sun spots and retrograde planetary motion, though one might be inclined to adduce inbreading and pioneer mania (cf. Wisconsin Death Trip) as the causes. Not for everyone, sure, but not to be dismissed.