Summer Scares: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

BY JOHN CARTER JR

Amidst taking a trip out into the country with your friends, you become stranded in the middle of nowhere with no gas, no way of contacting the outside world, and most of your friends have gone missing. With only one of your friends remaining, the light of the sun has been snuffed out by the passage of time, and your only option is to go out to find them yourself or wait until sunrise for their return; however, something about their absence seems very wrong. Against the detesting cries of your remaining companion, urging you to wait it out, you decide to go out to look for your missing friends. You had hoped for a simple summer escapade with your buddies, but your hopes vanish with the crescendoing despair. Had you only heeded their plea to stay, you might not have had to endure the horrors that awaited you. 

Hooks, flesh, cackling men (both old and young), decay, youthful ignorance, cannibalism and leather. These are among the standout images that come to mind when thinking about the 1974 slasher horror classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” directed by Tobe Hooper. The film follows a group of friends as they visit a house out in the middle of nowhere, where they come across a family of murderous cannibals. The film’s main antagonist, Leatherface, is loosely based on the real-life serial killer Ed Gein. What makes “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” so scary other than the various murders, is the disgusting or revolting absurdity of the Sawyer family. 

The film’s main fear-inducing element is the use of the human bodies that have been brutally captured and murdered by the family. Unlike “The Silence of the Lambs” or “Hannibal’s” Hannibal Lecter, this is no fine dining cannibalism film. Piles of bones, human furniture, meat made of human flesh, human skin masks, decaying corpses in freezers, and rotting still-living people are all on display here; not to mention Leatherface’s ugly makeup skills. These all are the fuel for a gross-out horror experience. There is something about helplessness and disgust that go together to create a truly horrific experience. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” uses this to stand out among its contemporaries. I couldn’t finish my pizza while I was watching.

While I am easily influenced by the feeling of disgust, like how I detest “Bevis and Butthead” or Nickelodeon’s “Mr. Meaty” for simply being hot garbage, here, the eliciting of that feeling works perfectly to sell the narrative and the horror. Everybody has something they are afraid of. Some fears are obscure and some are more broad. The idea of getting eaten by the monsters under our bed is something that scares many kids, and the thought of a family of such monsters living in the outskirts of society delivers a chill down the spine of anyone, especially those who live in a more isolated area or even a small town. The film does an excellent job of conveying the fear of being alone with an opposing devouring force, with the only option you have is to run and run some more, hoping that someone will come along the way to help.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is one of the most iconic horror films that came out of the 70s. It is horrifying in its display of disgusting images, brutal murders, and isolation. It gives viewers feelings of such disgust that one might opt out of having even popcorn and a drink with the flick in favor of a trashcan to empty their lunch into. It could be said that the film serves the feeling of what a ghost in Pacman must feel like after the titular protagonist eats a power pellet, with running away in a desperate frenzy being the only option for survival. At the end of it all, the biggest takeaway from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is always to fill up and keep extra gas in case of emergencies.   

I give “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” a 9/10 rating for its use of disgust and its iconic villain’s performance.