Hooptober Neun (2022) - Film #11
Films from 6 countries (USA); films from 8 decades (1970s); 2 1970s regional US films; 1 Tobe Hooper film

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is so confident in what it is that it tells you what it is going to do right up front but loses none of the impact for having done that. Creepy from the very first shot, the sinister style is amplified by its primitivism. Even when the travellers are in an ostensibly safe situation, the incident conversations tend to the grisly, and there’s an air of foreboding within the confines of their van that becomes intense from the moment the crew pick up a hitchhiker who takes delight in discussing the intricacies of slaughterhouse techniques.

This fascination with death and the dead runs through the film; from the teeth and bones scattered around as set design to Leatherface’s famous, macabre mask, body parts are ever present and a fairly handy way of leaving the viewer constantly on edge.

The film is surprisingly light on gore (although it’s certainly not gore-free), and impressively effectively regardless, relying on implication and imagination. I had expected slow, trudging, Myers-esque movement from Leatherface, but this guy does not play about, and definitely has Myers beat in the scares department for me, although he loses points for his slightly comical, shambling running style.

Hooper keeps it brief - 83 minutes - and the time generally flies by. The film displays this economy in a variety of other ways, having a very small cast and using a limited number of locations.

There is a slight lull at about two thirds into the movie, but the final twenty minutes or so are nightmarish. Marilyn Burns portrays fear exceptionally well here, and her skills are put to extensive use. However, I found the screaming overdone and that it distracted from what was actually happening. Uncomfortable as the action itself was, the main difficulty in getting through the end of this movie was sensory overload from the noise. Given that this is such a central part of the film, it had a fairly negative impact for me, and is probably the difference between a four or four and a half star review.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an amazing feat of filmmaking in many ways. Influential, innovative and disturbing, Hooper does an awful lot here with his budget, presenting a film that retains an awful lot of its impact even fifty years on.