DVD Reviewįor fans of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this will most likely represent the ultimate package of the classic title. And the clan at the heart of the tale here is indeed a wasp’s nest of redneck weirdness, but Hooper manages to capture just the right amount of dysfunction so as to remain unnerving without swerving into utter ridiculousness. For as cheap as the film was to make, a lot of love went into the production design, and its exactly what sets the film apart from the bright, glossy predecessors that try instead to instill chills by giving us increasingly hysterical, batshit crazy villains. Opening on the grisly shot of the decomposed corpse that has been propped up over the desecrated cemetery, the film is an example of the spectacular power of texture. While there’s a definite lull in the action, namely after the first three of their crew are dispatched while the siblings have to wander around in the dark a bit looking for their missing friends, Hooper’s film has lost little of its vitality. A need for gas finds Pam and Kirk unwittingly toddling off to the neighboring property from the old childhood home, and that’s where we meet the rest of the hitchhiker’s family, including Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). They’re joined by Kirk (William Vail), Jerry (Allen Danziger), and Pam (Teri McMinn), who all more or less agree to pick up a strange hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), which results in a bizarre and unsettling interaction. A newscast has already informed us that grave robbers have been unearthing corpses there, so the siblings wants to make sure everything is in its right place before plunging down memory lane. Partain), first check out the graveyard where grandpa is buried. Visiting the abandoned country home that two of their group members actually grew up in, Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her paraplegic brother Franklin (Paul A. In fact, what remains most terrifying about Chainsaw is how horrifyingly possible it all seems. The story, cobbled together from various headlines of real-life instances, but most of the outlandish bits borrowed from the case of Ed Gein, is presented realistically. A group of five teenagers driving through Texas get accosted by a family of murderous, chainsaw wielding cannibals living in the woods. In all the glorious reconstitutions, no one has been able to outdo the gritty, grainy, and bizarre levels of unease accomplished here.īy now, we all know the well-tread story. Though decades of horror films have refurbished Hooper’s methods to such a degree that the more infamous episodes of violence may seem less horrific by today’s torture porn standards, the film has lost none of its ambient potency. Necessitating a half-year transfer process, the brand new 4k transfer was showcased at genre fests such as 2014’s SXSW & Fantasia Film Fests and a prestige re-showing at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Inspiring legions of seminal directors, as well as providing the framework for a growing horde of derivative copycats (not to mention a gaggle of flaccid sequels, prequels, and rehashes), it’s now reached its 40th year anniversary. There’s no denying the cultural magnitude of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 grindhouse classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
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