The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Remembering the late Tobe Hooper, we look back at "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" more than 4 decades later.

In 1973 a group of like-minded hippies, led by a director - whose sole claim to fame was a PBS documentary on folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary - descended on a dying Texas cotton town, to make a movie that arguably had more impact on the film world and popular culture than nearly any film since Birth of a Nation.

It's almost impossible to understate the significance of this film. There was no such thing as a "slasher" genre before The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Up to that time, it was possibly the only film other than A Clockwork Orange (another heavily censored and banned film now considered a classic) to receive an X rating for violence. Even the idea of power tools in general, and chainsaws in particular have become nearly ubiquitous in the horror genre, thanks to this film.

But hard as it may be to believe, director Tobe Hooper originally thought he was making a PG film! And ironically, in a textbook case of less-is-more, subsequent cuts of the film to try for a PG rating only enhanced the horror, and continued to garner "X' ratings. Eventually an R rating was secured.

Still, despite that most of the horror takes place off screen, the film still managed to shock audiences worldwide. People walked out of screenings. In the UK not only was the film banned until 1999, so was any film that used the words "chainsaw" or "chain saw" in its title. Germany banned the original theatrical cut until 2011, just three years shy of its 40th anniversary!

In 2014, in honor of that 40th anniversary, director Tobe Hooper supervised a new 4K transfer and improved audio for the Blu-ray release. Though it seems completely unnecessary as the true horror of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was never from the gory effects, but from the grainy 16mm format, ordinary looking actors, and gritty hand-held camera style of the film that makes it seem almost like a documentary. 

No matter which version of the film you see, it remains a sweltering, pulse-pounding endurance test.