Movie Analysis: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hoopers Horrific Vision of the American Family
Released in 1974, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was universally branded by the populist film press of the time as an abhorrent, offensive and culturally vacant entity. Upon its release the film received such collective condemnation from critics, with quotes like Stephen Kosch of Harper’s Bazaar famous label “a vile piece of sick crap”, appearing regularly in print. There were stories of audience members throwing up, storming out of premieres and being so possessed with fear that they were driven into short stints of psychosis. If it weren’t for a few “turned-on” critics and fans who actually watched the film, we may never have heard of the movie again.
Art or Vile Crap?
A print of Hooper’s film is housed permanently in the American Museum of Contemporary Art, and it is no mistake, for The Texas Chainsaw Massacreis a true work of cinematic art. Hooper’s apocalyptic vision of post-Vietnam America is frighteningly poignant and the meticulous art direction of Robert A. Burns, who sadly committed suicide recently, is truly unforgettable and beautiful in its revulsion. The cast of the young, doomed travelers are totally believable, so too horrifyingly enough are the family of cannibals that hunt them.
City versus Country
The plot synopsis might read like a bad splatter movie but the film has a lot to say. The film fascinatingly parallels the lives of the two families and their city/country split. Like much of the American horror of the 70s, truly a golden era for the modern genre, the primary factor for the violence is the relationship between the city and the country or the rich and the poor. The film also has a wicked sense of humor and it is quite comic at times. Watch the bizarre dinner sequence at the end of the movie to truly understand this.
Ed Gein and the real nightmare
Despite critics' observations to the contrary, there is also not that much on-screen violence. What horrifies people, what repels them, what makes them squeamish is the very idea! The eyes of the camera never linger too long and they don’t need too! A woman hanging from a hook in a meat freezer, a decrepit old psychopath bashing a woman’s head with a hammer, these are visions of real nightmares. The film itself came from a real nightmare; Hooper got the idea for the film from the tales of real life serial killer Ed Gein his grandparents delighted in scaring him with as a child. Gein was also the inspiration for Hitchcock’s Psycho.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an amazing film and should be compulsory viewing for anyone who likes a scare delivered with real flare and artistry in its brutality. The performances from both the assailants and the victims are terrifyingly real, but the film’s most brilliant feature is the underlying duality of the family of killers and the family of victims. Mirror images of one another, the horrific results that befall the city dwellers are direct results of the economic and social hardships the country family has had forced upon them. The desiccated and redundant rural setting is a constant and ominous reminder of the barbaric bloodlust of its inhabitants. Hooper’s direction is superb and the end result is a stylish, intelligent and frightening vision of the American family that still stands today as a true horror classic.
Oh and it's much, much better than the remake!
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