Movies I love: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
"I just can't take no pleasure in killing. There's just some things you gotta do. Don't mean you have to like it."
Classic. TCM is definitely that. Never has one film captured a descent into madness and hell as well as Chain Saw Massacre. There's so much to love. There's Leatherface. The Hitchhiker. That insane dinner scene. The family's house with it's bone furniture. I love the grittiness of the house interior contrasted with the beauty of the outdoors. I love the fact that a good portion of the film is set during the daytime. That black vein of humor that runs through the film. Tobe Hooper's wonderful use of oddball characters. The old drunk in the graveyard. The window washer at the gas station. The Family themselves. Then there's invalid Franklin, such an un-P.C. character. He's so damn annoying but also really funny as he's consently abused by everything and everybody around him. Leatherface's first appearance in that doorway. That shot that follow's Pam as she approaches the house. I love the simple ending of the film. No twist, no big surprise. Simply madness. Sally's crazed laughing and Leatherface's chainsaw dance. Sally's left like a character from an H.P Lovecraft story. Shattered and driven mad by the events she's witnessed. Oh and it's got that awesome narration by John Larroquette!
I agree on all counts. First saw this in high school--quite some time ago!--and watched it every now and then over the years. But it was Halloween four years ago that it finally leaped to perhaps the top spot in my horror movie pantheon. The fact that there's no twist, as you note, simply madness, is what makes it truly great. Too bad Hooper never replicated the terror in his other work--but god, how could he have?!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I like some of Hooper's other films, but your right he never out did TCM. Happy Halloween.
ReplyDelete