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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Image' align='left'>
Gunnar Hansen is the original Leatherface in Toby Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I personally did not grow up in the 70’s, but I’ve heard enough stories to equate the decade to a time of sex, drugs, and lots of fun... rightfully or not. However, films like Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) do a lot to put things in some sort of perspective… albeit a twisted and sadistic one. It’s a truly chilling and horrifying piece of Americana.
The story is quite simple. Five teenagers on a road trip across Texas stop by a house in the middle of nowhere and are stalked, tortured, and slaughtered by one really messed-up family who sells the “meat” in their own country store. How’s that for a marketable film? It certainly has an unstated mass appeal. Unfortunately since the plot is extremely direct and to-the-point, going into any sort of detail will actually spoil it for anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to see the film.
This is the debut of horror icon Leatherface, played by the massive Gunnar Hansen (who also went on to star in, among others, the *outstanding* film Mosquito—where he dons the familiar chainsaw once again). He’s the one that does the killing for the family business, and he is quite efficient at what he does. His initial appearance is quite shocking to both his victim and the viewer. It’s a scene immortalized in movie history...
An unsuspecting guy walks into a home in search of the resident. He accidentally trips on a metal ramp and catches his fall, then looks up and sees a hulk of a man in a mask standing before him. Without hesitation, Leatherface bashes him in the head and drags the body into a back room as it convulses. Then Leatherface violently slams the metal door shut, leaving the viewer to wonder what goes on in that room.
We also get treated to one of the first displays of the “Final Girl” rule prevalent in many slashers that would follow. Some of the more famous include Laurie Strode in Halloween, Alice in Friday the 13th, Kim in Prom Night, and Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Contrary to popular belief, there is actually very little gore throughout the movie. Yes, people are brutally murdered. Yes, there is an abundance of extreme violence. Yes, a handicapped man is “offed”. But as far as sharp metallic penetrations and geysers of blood go, this is pretty tame. However, the viewer definitely knows those things are happening and, like The Blair Witch Project, sometimes the things you don’t see are scarier than the things you do.
While the film’s narrator (John Larroquette) states outright that this was based on a true story, it’s more accurate to say it was (very) loosely based on the tale of Wisconsin’s famed serial killer, Ed Gein. Gein’s been around the block a few times, also serving as the inspiration for Psycho and the killer in The Silence of the Lambs, “Buffalo” Bill.
Having been born in 1980, I grew up on a steady diet of stereotypical 80’s slashers and 90’s psychological thrillers. I did not even see TCM until about ten years ago, and even though it’s quite old, it still had a lasting effect on me. Most of all, there is this undeniable feeling of tension that consumes you as you watch the events of the film unfold. The acting goes a long way in making this possible.
Quite honestly, at some points in the film it seems like the actors aren’t really acting anymore. Leatherface truly seems like a psychopathic nutcase… Sally appears genuinely frightened throughout most of the second half of the film… even the old man looks batty! True, they aren’t the most three-dimensional of characters, and any sort of back-story is largely ignored, but that simplistic approach actually adds to the overall intensity of the film.
Often, TCM gets relegated to the scrap heap as a piece of overtly gratuitous violence and gore, simply out to make people squeamish. This is an unwarranted, and quite incorrect, label. Like I said before, the film is a bit light on character development and motives, but they are there if you pay close attention.
The most obvious question that comes up is just why this insane family is butchering innocent people and selling them as tasty “Bar-B-Que” to begin with? A fair question that might not seem to be answered during the course of the film. But, if you remember back to the 70’s (or the history books) the time was one with unemployment continually on the rise… for various reasons. If we take that principle and apply it here, a fascinating foundation can be found in the film.
The villains in TCM ran a sort of mom-and-pop slaughterhouse for a long time. Then, with the advent of more advanced machinery, they were gradually phased out of the chain of meat-making. The once labor-intensive job became mechanized and streamlined. Consequently, they found themselves out of work.
The family, led into madness through a loss of American values, then began to turn to murder and cannibalism to fill the void left behind by their job loss. Obviously, not every Joe Schmo that is phased out or has their job outsourced by “Dubya” isn’t going to become a blood-thirsty maniac. (I didn’t… really. They can’t prove a thing.) But, for those of you clamoring for explanation, there it is.
So for those that look down on TCM, I don’t think it can truly get a fair shake if you haven’t either lived through the 70’s or learned about the economic conditions of the time. If you can sit through the violence and mania of the film and enjoy it for the statement it makes, and horror revolution it was a part of, I think you’ll get more out the flick than first thought.
And for those of you that like trivia, TCM was originally entitled Headcheese, and Tope Hooper was going for a PG rating... something he eventually succeeded in doing with Poltergeist nearly a decade later.
Flick Figures: 5 dead bodies; 1 dysfunctional family; skeletons in the attic; door abuse; chainsaw to the kneecap; impalement on a hook; intentional finger-slicing; chainsaw-vs-handicapped man; repeated hammer shots to the head; broom-beating; spastic convulsions; prolonged torture; implied cannibalism; a disturbing lack of nudity; and 1 really nasty explanation of how headcheese is actually made.
Next Week: The Horror Guru takes a look at the not-so-scary third entry in the Evil Dead trilogy—Army of Darkness.
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