HOLLYWOOD—There was a movie that during my time on this Earth that I had never seen. It was released in 1974 and created a massive uproar amongst America. That flick was Tobe Hopper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Was there a reason I never saw this picture? Not sure, I guess it was the factoid that it was a movie that rarely screened on the small screen, but last week I caught the entire movie. My first thought was skepticism is rather I should watch a flick that literally had people walking out of the theater.
Remember I had seen the 2003 remake of this flick before seeing the original. I thought of the 2003 film directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Jessica Biel as one of the best remakes in the horror genre; and I can finally attest to that after seeing the original.
Let me point this out, the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” might be one of the worst horror films I’ve ever seen. Yep, I said it, not a fan of this twisted tale of cannibals and a disturbed psychopath with a chainsaw. What is the problem? Character development, this movie literally just threw a bunch of people into a movie and allowed it to play out.
The only characters who seemed to be semi developed were Franklin (Paul A. Partain) and Sally (Marilyn Burns). Sally became more developed during the third of the movie. Franklin was a character from the start till his demise. He was a character that was so annoying you couldn’t wait for him to meet his maker, but at the same time he was a character that delivered laughs and that the audience could connect to. His sister, Sally was just the heroine, who had to fight for her life when it became apparent she was next on the chopping block. All the other teens were just apart of the body count.
The hitchhiker scene was a bit disturbing, but I couldn’t help but ask myself why these kids didn’t kick this guy out of their van a lot sooner. Who allows someone to do the disturbing things this guy does without considering their safety. This movie is a testament to the stupidity of characters in horror films. It’s like no one is willing to challenge those narrative drives that seem to be prevalent in cinema time and time again. I’m still trying to figure out why Leatherface portrayed by Gunnar Hansen in the original is such a terrifying villain.
Its not that he is manipulative, it’s that he is mentally disturbed. All of his marbles are there and his family uses those things against him. Note, I didn’t see the movie in all of its graphic glory, but the TV version didn’t hold back on some of the violence and blood. So a viewer could imagine precisely what was transpiring without actually seeing it.
What I can note is the portion of the movie that deals with Sally finding herself at the mercy of Leatherface and his wicked family. The imagery of the house being riddled with skeletal remains just left me so uneasy. It was strange to watch and almost made me change the channel on multiple occasions. The one thing this movie had going for it was its ending, which sees our heroine find a way to escape the mad house, but not before being brutally attacked by a hammer. In the midst of all this craziness a trucker comes to her rescue, but his whereabouts are not known, as Sally flees in the back of a pickup truck screaming hysterically as her tormentor wields his chainsaw in horror in the air.
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” might be the first flick to allow the villain to not suffer any punishment in the end. The biggest problem with this movie is there is nothing happening. It’s a boredom of a flick that just patiently waits for things to happen, but even when those things happen, they have to direct impact on the viewer in my opinion.
There is a reason this movie received so much uproar. It wasn’t just the level of violence presented to the audience; it’s the face that the movie tackles a taboo subject of cannibalism and a psychopath who wears human skin as a mask. Point blank, this was the worst movie I may have seen in years. I’m kind of glad that this was a movie that I missed for such a log time; it was not worth my time that was wasted.
By LaDale Anderson
