Texas Chainsaw Massacre at 50
“Quintessence of experimental horror, deep and visceral workIt is with these words that Jean-Baptiste Thoret introduces himself Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) in his book An American experience of chaos dedicated (2000) to Tobe Hooper’s second feature film. 50 years after the film’s release in the United States (October 1, 1974), remains, in fact, still and always, a unique horrible experience. And to think that its director was only 28 years old when he began making this low-budget film in 1973: between 80,000 and 140,000 dollars at the time, the equivalent of just 1 million dollars today.
A chaotic and tiring shoot for both the technical teams and the actors, forced to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week. All in difficult conditions with high humidity, high temperatures and the obligation to make do with limited resources. So, Gunnar Hansen, the interpreter of Leatherfacehaving only one costume, he had to wear the same mask 12 to 16 hours a day for a month without being able to wash it.
An unhealthy atmosphere on set, a feeling of disgust by film crews and the actresses pushed themselves to the limit participated in the creation of the legend Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But the film itself is a powerful horror proposition driven by a political background that should not be overlooked. No wonder that in its ranking of 100 best horror films of all time, Variety he put it first.
A universal terror
As a reminder, Texas Chainsaw Massacre takes place deep in Texas where five friends go to visit the old family home of two of them. Near the scene is another residence. When one of the girls ventures there, she discovers that the place is inhabited by a family of cannibals. His friends will also soon find themselves confronted with the violence of these terrifying individuals. The fear aroused by Tobe Hooper’s film arises first and foremost from this “realistic”, or at least all too plausible, situation. It’s easy to imagine yourself in a poor, isolated region, and encounter this type of madman yourself. There are also numerous works that have subsequently taken up this concept, such as the recent one X (2022), intelligent rereading of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
But if Texas Chainsaw Massacre it made such an impression at the time, and above all because of its context. Jean-Baptiste Thoret perfectly sums up the American situation of the 70s, explaining that the film “crystallizes many of the concerns of the timethe Vietnam fiasco and the fear of conscription, the post-Watergate paranoia, the 1973 oil crisis or even the hangover of the hippie movementAdded to this are the memories of serial killer, like Ed Gleina terrible figure from the 1950s who inspired Tobe Hooper. As well as symbols of a more universal terror, Jean-Baptiste Thoret adds:
The memory of the camps, the management of corpses or even the Indian genocide.
Tobe Hooper’s cult film banned in France
Tobe Hooper inserts the images like this a real nightmarescary on so many levels and impossible to wake up from. A film in which the border between fiction and reality is so thin that we no longer know if what we see is true or not. Which doesn’t stop Tobe Hooper from making a real cinema proposal, with iconic shots. The brutal energy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre combines perfectly with the quality of the cinematography in the final shot. That of an angry Leatherface swinging his chainsaw above his head in front of the rising sun. A final moment of madness that ends up freezing the viewer.
Obviously, all this was too much work for the five subsequent Culture Ministers who did it prohibit Texas Chainsaw Massacre in France in 1974 after only one week of operation. Despite the success of the feature film in the United States, French audiences, of age, had to wait until 1982 to see it Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the cinema in its full version.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
