it is a film everyone has watched or knows about. but it's not simple gore to the core. i don’t know if there is a point in describing the plot. it’s hard to imagine anybody out there doesn’t know, since it is basically everybody’s primitive nightmare. a group of young friends go out to visit a a grandpa's grave n then an old family home but they end up being hunted down by a family of completely demented cannibals who enjoy brutally murdering, introducing the archfiend, Leatherface (a man without a face with obvious connotations) n there is no escape.
the fascinating thing about it is how this film has managed to inspire hundreds and hundreds of films, bands, art, and to create extreme haters who fail to see the obvious n a cult following of obsessed lovers, which i happen to be part of.
first of all, despite the chainsaw n the hook scene this film is absolutely mild compared to today's standards of blood and guts. yet it seems like this film was born of a multitude of cosmic coincidences and a great deal of capability and understanding of the human psyche by tobe hooper and everybody involved.
one of the best parts of this film, is the natural documenting sensation of it. the horror and wild fear is actually feeling real to the spectator because of the lack of extreme special effects and the real accidental cadavers by the side of the road, the actual rotting, the semi-professional local cast, the tormenting insane texas summer sun and heat. and luckily the lack of modern hollywood which would never allow a director to go about wildly, unihibited, uncensored, creating a chaos and decay that still remains unmatched.
then the fear of the unknown and the fear of madness, the most basic fears of man are both beautifully exploited to the fullest, the innocent kids that just pick up an unknown hitch hiker who turns out to be a real evil psycho bitch of a guy, the mute beast man behind the mask who represents the terror we civilized men feel when faced with the darker aspects of nature, since Leatherface is an animal more than an evil mastermind and hence harder to comprehend and much scarier to face. same goes for the madness of the rest of this family and the insane finale of this haunting family dinner sally is being treated to.
in the end texas chainsaw massacre remains one of the scariest films ever made simply because it depicts the scariest of all battles we have to face. it is modern man versus primitive, raw man. n the outcome of this in the film is exactly what we dread most to think about.
ah yes, another very notable fact is that this film contains my first recollection of a polaroid landcamera.
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