I pick this film as the scariest movie ever made for a variety of reasons. Some reasons are due to the association I have of it to the first time I saw it. I was very young, and I remember hearing about it long before I ever actually had the opportunity to rent it from the video store. It seems like there was a major rumor that it is extremely gory and horribly graphic. In fact, it may have been one of Europe's Video Nasties at one time in the eighties when it was common for any film that depicted acts of sex or violence to make this list of forbidden films. However, when I remember the scenes in the film, aside from the infamous meathook scene, I don't remember very much gore at all. And if I'm not mistaken, the only blood that we really see in the movie is when Sally's finger is pricked with the knife in the unbearable dinner scene.
What scares me about the whole picture is that the whole time I watched it, I remember feeling like I was watching something that was really happening. These were people I knew, friends I could see me riding in a van with, and it would probably be our dumb luck to decide to stop at the worst possible place in Texas. However, I don't think I'd abide by any one of us ever picking up a hitchhiker, let alone one that looked like the guy they decide to give a ride.
I found all the kids in the film to be really likeable, with the exception of Sally's paraplegic brother, Franklin. He seemed very spoiled and really kind of gross, somebody I don't think I'd ever want to spend a Sunday afternoon in the back of a Lester-the-Molester van with no air conditioning. Pam was the type of chick I could really see myself as probably having been friends with, especially in my early college days. In fact, I found her decision to follow her boyfriend into the house to actually be believable. There are so many times that I'm wondering what the hell the characters are thinking, but this is one film where I could really see an honest motivation....just looking to see if they had any gas. After all, these were all good country kids who were probably very accustomed to a close-knit atmosphere in their home towns... really remind me of the kids I grew up with from east Texas and all the small towns all around Shreveport.
Hooper performs masterfully as the director of this debilitatingly horrifying opus. There is truly something about the print and the look of the film alone that makes it even more unsettling. It has an almost grainy quality, as if it were filmed locally, on a very small budget. In fact, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre looks almost like a porno that would have been released during the same era. And what's with the family anyway? Maybe that's the scariest part, the idea that there are, in fact, probably really people out there like that. And one can only sit there, mouth agape, eyes wide, staring at this bizarre tale unfolding before you.
I've heard some say that they felt almost dirty after seeing the movie, that they felt they needed to go have a shower. I am inclined to agree with that sentiment, just as I am inclined to agree with the notion that Hooper's work is almost like watching an underground snuff film... like you've just been handed a print of something that is banned and sold on the black market like a Russian secret.
Not for the faint of heart, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about an hour and a half of shock, surprise, unrelenting terror, a protracted and jarring chase scene, and the most suspenseful ending of any movie made in the last one hundred years. I've only seen it once in its entirety, and I doubt I will ever be able to actually sit down and take it in any time in the future. However, as a sample of what I consider to be the best and most terrifying horror movies of all time, it is undoubtedly, my absolute number one.
Also recommended: Eli Roth's Hostel, Helter Skelter (The miniseries---in fact, isn't the lady who plays Linda Kasabian, the witness for the prosecution, our heroine here??? I just realized that), Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, Chris Kentis's Open Water, Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Greg McLean's Wolf Creek, John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
{I would like to state that several of the movies from the also recommended section for this particular film are not, for the most part, films that I would say were redeemable or well made. In fact, several of these on the list are there simply because they made me have a similar, dirty feeling as Tobe Hooper's film had. However, with the exception of Roth's Hostel and Kubrick's Orange, I don't know if I can find much in the other films that is truly...necessary.}
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