The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Fifty years ago, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, one of the most influential films in Hollywood history, hit cinema screens, shocking people around the world and influencing the genre for decades to come. Even the slasher film poster’s blood-dripping message was designed to disturb: “Who will survive and what will be left of them?”

Trespassers will be eaten

The film’s plot was simple: a group of sadistic, grave-robbing cannibals torture, kill and eat trespassers. To add a little flesh to these bones: the film is described on the website Rotten Tomatoes as being about a group of hippies who travel to an old farmhouse, where they discover crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. The group is then attacked one by one by a man in a mask made of human skin — Leatherface — wielding a chainsaw.    

Stunning Success

The film was an immediate success in the US, making today’s equivalent of $150 million. Now considered a classic, one of the scariest films ever made, reviews at the time were mixed. The LA Times simply called it “despicable.” Other critics praised its aesthetic quality and power, although reviews could be confusing, with one journalist calling it a “masterpiece of fear and loathing.” 

The Power of the Film

The film’s power came from three sources. The horror and gore are mostly suggested and felt rather than seen. The film creates a claustrophobic atmosphere of madness, threat and imminent violence, but there is little explicit detail. The tone was deeply disturbing, said one critic: “The driving force is total insanity.” The film’s makers also scared people by claiming that the movie was based in true events — in fact, the movie did have elements of the shocking story of the 1950s serial murderer Ed Gein. The film was also received as a social commentary on the political climate of the time.

Horrific Filming

Making the film in Texas in the summer was a nightmare. With a budget of just $140,000, the cast of unknowns filmed sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. The farmhouse furniture was made of animal bones and latex, and the crew covered the walls with blood from the local abattoir and decorated the floor with animal remains. Some of the actors’ blood in the film was actually real as the stage blood tubes proved faulty In one scene, featuring the chainsaw, an actor was told to stay still or die! In the final torture scene, filmed over twenty-six hours in 46° C (with foul-smelling actors in their costumes, with dead animal parts and fetid cheese for atmosphere), the cast took breaks to vomit outside.

Influential Movie

Co-written and directed by Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was enormously influential. It originated several elements in the slasher genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons, the killer as a large, silent, masked figure, devoid of personality, and the sadistic killing of victims. The film’s roots can be seen in numerous classic movies, including Halloween, The Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project and The Silence of the Lambs.