The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Why did no body warn me that Chainsaw Massacre was also kind of gruesome! I thought it was going to be one of the typical horror movies where the fear comes from the chase scenes and jump scares but even that was wrong. Every death that happened seemed to take place so quickly that I found myself wondering how this could possibly be and hour and a half long movie when surely it could have fit into thirty minutes. There were many moments when I found myself disoriented by the speed at which it all happened which does give the plot justice as it gives the audience a first hand account of how frightening and confusing it would have been.

For instance the first kill I completely missed. I looked away briefly to make a note on all the bones around the property to link it to an obsession with death and I looked back to see Kirk twitching on the flood covered in blood. I had to rewind to see what happened I was so surprised but part of me liked that. It is very typical for deaths to happen throughout the film to draw out the drama and build suspense around the situation and yet Kirk died so suddenly and so quickly part of it made it more believable. Not every single horror movie scenario is going to have the typical slow running to escape a murderer and multiple opportunities where they escape just to end with them finally dying so I liked that most of these deaths happened instantly. It eliminated suspense that they would survive but in turn it increased the fear we had towards the murderer. They were feared deeper because of how brutal he was, no messing around just one hit and dead. Not only does it show his strength but his determination. There was no time to battle with this inner 'will they won't they' and replaced that with a fear to avoid the house he stayed in.

Speaking of which I think it was quite clever to have the killings all take place in the same location. Of course it took away this classic cat and mouse chase where the killer could appear anywhere at any time but at the same time it gave us the inner warning to avoid the main house. So when every character began making their way towards it we found ourselves wanting to warn them not to go because we knew with certainty they would be heading to their death. Rather than curiously wondering when another character would be attacked. Similarly when a character did approach or enter the house it built a knowing suspense of where not when. We knew it would happened we just didn't know where they would appear from. So when Pam entered the house looking for Kirk we knew leather face would soon follow it was just predicting where from. And the close ups partnered with the intense music only amplified that emotion. Also the fact she was placed on that butchers hook grossed me out so much I could barely watch.

In fact there were quite a few details that freaked me out, it did a good job at making an unsettling atmosphere. For one the fact that Franklin kept picking at his nails with a knife was causing so much anxiety in me. I was sure he was going to slip and cut himself and have that be part of the reason their group was attacked and yet he didn't once. It wasn't particularly an attempt used within the fight scenes against the cannibals but it was a technique used by the film makers to create a foundation of unsettling emotions that they then built upon. It was even more curious that they had four main cannibal characters and yet none of them had any kind of back story. We were just presented with four antagonists with no story other than being the bad guys and that felt worse to me. It also applied the feeling that anyone could hold a dark secret. Even the seemingly polite gas station attendant became part of this serial killer family showing you can not always trust everyone. Leading from this was the hitchhiker character who I thought was going to become a red herring character.

For those who may not understand, a red herring character is a character placed in a story that seems to have every piece of evidence point towards them just to end up not being the culprit. Right from the jump, a hitchhiker character is always stereotyped as the murderer which partnered with how creepy he was acting made it seemingly obvious in my mind he couldn't possibly be the final killer. It was too obvious. And then when we saw leatherface I was sure I was correct, I was beginning to think maybe he could even find his way into being the hero yet an hour later he was discovered again by the family and made clear he was also the villain of the story just not the main killer. It truly double bluffed me. And as for leatherface the fact he was wearing a mark of human skin was sickening. But the character that creeped me the most was the freaky old grandpa.

Again the fact there was no backstory or explanation to any of the attackers did make it feel so much creepier. Like we were in the same characters situation where we understood nothing but what we were being shown. And from that I have so many questions, like how old he is and if there truly is some sort of supernatural magic taking place where eating people make you live longer. I assumed once the concept of cannibalism came into it that they would leave it as simply as that. Evil people doing evil things by eating people. And then this old frail looking person came into it and started sucking the blood out of Sally's finger. That was worse than the deaths to me. Having someone suck on my finger to drink the blood genuinely makes me queasy to even write about, it is so much more intimate that it becomes more terrifying. If blood does make you live longer it certainly doesn't make you look younger because he has been through it! And then they tried to give him a hammer to kill the final girl... Bitch. Of course he isn't going to be able to hold that hammer let alone swing it he looks like if you blew on him he'd disintegrate in the fucking wind.

Overall the movie was very unexpected for me. I didn't picture it to be as quick as it was and I didn't know it was going to be as gore-ish as it became. Not just that but the style of filming looked sort of student film esc. I'm not as certain on this as I was with The Blair Witch Project but I wouldn't be surprised if this had a low budget because of how similar the styles were. That does not take away from the horror of the film however. As I said there were moments that even when going against tradition stood out as horror. But unfortunately I would not watch this again unless perhaps once in a blue moon at a Halloween specific watch party.