In a lesser overall film, the dinner sequence might be seen as trash, or an example of a potentially good movie riding off the rails into unintentional comedy. A cheerful song plays on the radio when The Old Man attacks Sally at the barbecue joint, a minor version of what would become a genre cliché of radio hits being made creepier when played behind horrific events. The house’s generator sounds a bit like a chainsaw, but also like a filmstrip projector, further emphasizing the “true story” and “news reel” vibes. In lieu of a score, we often hear radio broadcasts in the background, vaguely reporting the recent graveyard robberies (part of the cannibals’ operations, albeit probably for their artistic endeavors rather than meat production) and other violent news from around the world. No doubt at least some 1970s viewers wondered if this was indeed a true story. The opening crawl (voiced by John Larroquette, of all people) suggests this is based on a true story, two decades before “Fargo” used the ploy. The climactic chaotic weirdness comes on the heels of a slowly building film that gets under our skin in almost subliminal ways. The top 100 ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ songs, ranked When The Grandfather sucks blood from Sally’s finger, we can imagine it’s part of a life-extending ritual. That dinner sequence has a religious quality in the way it’s important for Leatherface, the Hitchhiker and The Old Man (Jim Siedow) to get The Grandfather to strike the killing blow on Sally with the hammer. But something about it perks our imaginations. The screenplay by Hooper and Kim Henkel – in a macro version of that meat-hook scene – is a lot sparser on information than we remember. On my first viewing, I thought he was a corpse, like Norma Bates at the end of “Psycho.” Instead, he’s so ancient that he merely looks dead. That said, a practical effect – the creation of The Grandfather (John Dugan) through prosthetic makeup – contributes to the most chilling part of the movie. Viewers in the 1970s remembered the scene as being bloody - and perhaps even including a frame of hook penetrating skin - only because Hooper’s shooting and editing tricked them. But, as you’ve no doubt heard if you’ve done minimal research on the film, the most shocking scene includes no blood or gore.ĭirector Tobe Hooper gives a close-up of the meat hook, Leatherface places Pam (Teri McMinn) on the hook but it’s shot from the front so no special effect is needed, and then McMinn acts like she’s wriggling on the hook. It was initially considered to be the violence version of pornography. Regardless of its classification, the history of how “Chain Saw” is viewed by the public is fascinating – first as trash, then as dark or unintentional comedy, and finally as a genre classic. The quintet would’ve been fine – even after picking up The Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal, brilliantly setting the uneasy tone) – if they didn’t have the bad luck of going to this particular house to ask for gasoline. None of them have to be stalked, except Sally, and that’s only because she temporarily gets away and Leatherface chases her through the barely moonlit woods. And it might also miss out on slasher qualification because all five teens travel to Leatherface’s (Gunnar Hansen) house, where he then kills them. The fact that it didn’t immediately spawn sequels (there are now seven more films, but the first sequel didn’t come out till 1986, and it’s a comedy) also makes “Chain Saw” get overlooked. Yet when I talk about influential slasher movies with my friends, “Chain Saw” is not brought up as often as “Halloween” (1978) and later films, and I think it’s partially because it’s too good at what it does, especially when Burns so convincingly portrays her horror as a family of cannibals tries to kill her. Marilyn Burns, as Sally, is arguably the first Final Girl, and certainly a Scream Queen who earns that label, especially in the conclusive dinner-table scene. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) is perhaps the first slasher film, or at least a proto-slasher, depending on how you reckon it.
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