The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - 1974

A far as horror cinema is concerned, there is nothing a streamlined, or purposefully designed and created to terrify audiences as much as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. From its very first image to the last brain frying scene the film is haunting, harrowing, disturbing and any other adjective you can think of to describe the absolute abject terror this film instils within its audience. It might look cheap, you may even feel the acting isn't very good (your wrong), and it may seem utterly unbelievable, and yet all of this essentially makes the film even scarier. The camera work and grainy film stock make it feel as though you are there, crammed inside the camper van. The blistering heat can be physically felt when you watch the film, and to call it unbelievable is to ignore the true life serial killer Ed Gein, upon whom the film is based. It may has taken the concept or artistic license to a extreme, but from the opening voiceover you immediately feel as though this may well have actually happened, and that in the 1970s there may well have been places in America where this could happen.

Horror cinema, especially from the 70s onwards has made great use of the "hick town" middle of nowhere idea and the inbred, cannibalistic tendencies, including most recently films like Cabin Fever. That each of them owes a massive debt to TCSM is evident only when you rewatch it. The story of the making of the film is also as interesting and unnerving as the film itself. Take for example the scene when Leatherface chases Marilyn Burns' Sally up the stairs in the house. Gunnar Hansen, the actor carrying the working chain saw, couldn't actually see Marilyn and so had no idea just how close the swinging chain saw was to striking her. The final scene in the house, with the "he-can't-seriously-be-alive" grandpa, was shot in the day time, in the summer, with temperatures well over 100 degrees and one of the crew accidently injected herself with formaldehyde when creating the set of the house. 

The reputation of TCSM has also helped to create the aura of terror which now surrounds the film. Banned as part of the video nasty era in the 1980s the film built a cult following and reputation for being one of the most violent films ever made. And yet, watching it now, it is amazing how little violence is actually shown onscreen. Though 4 teenagers a brutally murdered, the violence is not explicit in say the way the Saw films are. The horror is all implied - for example in the scene when helpless Pam is hoisted up and put on a meathook. At no point do you see flesh penetrated, instead the image is left to the imagination, making it infinitely more terrifying. The policy is employed throughout and it is through Hooper direction, the set design, the script, and the excellent performances that the sense of macabre horror is created and sustained throughout the 80mins running time. Which is another thing, for a film so short, its incredible how much of an ordeal the experience becomes. From the opening shot, there is a sense of unease the film puts you in, and it only ever gets worse. Just when you think things are getting better, they just get worse, and even the ending, which offers some form of catharsis, doesn't feel satisfying in a cathartic way. Instead you are left with the blood soaked abject horror of Sally as she is seemingly driven off to safety. An expression on her face, that leaves you wondering if death would not have been the better option. 

Texas Chain Saw Massacre may not be the most accomplished or engrossing of horror films. It lacks the majesty found in The Shining or The Exorcist, it lacks the gloss of most slasher films, and the humour or gross out quality of the body horror of the 80s. Yet no horror film ever made has created such a sustained impression of fear on its audience, and for this reason the film is undoubtably the scariest film ever made. It also has one of the greates film posters ever.