The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

After the 30's golden age, my favourite era of horror is the 70's. The 1970's revolutionised horror. It took horror away from vampires and mythical creatures and towards real life nightmares. Serial killers, maniacs with knifes and an unhinged mind. One of the very best of these is leather face from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The title alone is superb. As a child i saw the name and my mind ran wild with thoughts of the horror that would be contained within that film. Made in 1974, nothing before it had really been so full on with terror. Tobe Hooper said he based it on real life serial killer Ed Gein. Gein would wear masks and create furniture out of human skin. With the birth of TV in every home and the news, people for the first time on a mass scale learnt of people like Gein and brought the terror of reality in to the public.

Hooper at the time was unknown and the film was independent, made with a low budget. This helped create the true feeling of reality. The film takes you in and gives you a feeling that this isn't a hollywood film with big stars that you know isn't real. None of the actors were known and the camera work at times makes it feel like a snuff film of sorts. Even without over the top blood (something i feel ruins modern day horror) it still shows horrific violence. My personal favorite scene is when we first see leatherface. Kirk wanders in to a house trying to find gas, from nowhere leatherface emurges and bludgeons him in the head. Instead of falling down dead with no movement, we see a real life like death. Kirk spasms on the floor with blood on his head. It really looks brutal. Leatherface quickly takes kirk in to his abattoir in panic. A simple man who doesn't understand where this man has come from. We also get a butcher hook impaling and a chainsaw to the chest throughout the ride of this movie.

The irony surrounding the film is the controversy it raised due to the violence within it. No doubt it was shocking for the time and not many films had such an all out rage to it. The irony is that the movie was Hoopers response to the violence of the real world, everything on the news such as riots and the Vietnam War. Hooper wanted to comment on the "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" being fed to the american public. The film was banned in many countries for its portrayal of pretend violence but no attempt has ever been made to ban the evening news.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a great film. It's the perfect balance between violence and suspense. It leaves you with an empty feeling of darkness. Even the girl that gets away is soaked in blood and she cannot forget the horror she saw and was subjected to and will take it with her for the rest of her life.