The Texas tolerance Massacre. (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (DVD))

Member Name: bigmama

Product:	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (DVD)
Date:	22/03/01 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It wasn't that long.

Disadvantages: Why does she have to scream so much?

Before you say it, I know that this film is supposedly a classic, and when it was released (quite a long time ago), it was probably one the most terrifying movies ever, but I come from an era where poeple don't scare that easily. I was shocked however, when a friend told me that it was really worth watching , holding on to all the appeal that it had at the beginning, and I disagreed with him totally.

Now I am not a big fan of horrors period, but there have been times when I have cowered behind the sofa, gleefully panicing about whoever is creating the nightmares (keep away from me Mr Myers) on the screen. This film, for me, was not about the hiding, but more about walking out on the increasing annoyance that I was feeling.

The film opens up with a picture of a dead animal, and then moves to your typical story of college kids getting hacked to pieces. You are probably thinking that you have heard all of this before, but to be fair, it is an old film and most similar plots were made after this, but that doesn't make this any better than the rest.

The group of kids in question, including a lad in a wheelchair along with his sister, travel to texas to investigate whether the grave of their grandparents has been attaked by robbers, which has stories all over the news. They then move to a derelict house (where the brother and sister grew up) to rest and are attracted to a nearby dwelling which hides some awful secrets.

The director (Tobe Hooper) showed his relative inexperience with this film. Even though it was made in nineteen seventy four, there is no real depth to the movie. The only points that come close to scaring me (which is what a horror is supposed to be about, yes?) are the moments of eary silence which I did find entertainingly disturbing.

The villan, in this case Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), to me was just a big bloke in a mask, swinging at anyone he didn't know, and squealed like a baby pig most
of the time. He does know how to throw a chainsaw around though. It doesn't take much acting to perform this role so I suppose he did quite good job of it. He does have his own little family with him, who don't help the film that much either (they are probably only there to help the story along). I find it hard to imagine a man, who looks so weak that he could snap if he fell over, giving Leatherface a thorough beating for evey time that he moved in the wrong direction. And then there is the hitch hiker. The more I saw him giggle and twitch, the more irritaing he became. Is this what a typical 'red neck' is supposed to be, I wasn't amused.

The most annoying person in the whole feature, was the sister of the boy in the wheelchair. I can actually picture the audition for the part. 'How long can you scream wildly for, if it's over fifteen minutes, your'e in'. It became ridiculous, the amount she over acted. I just wanted to walk up to her and tell her to grow up. And being overpowered by a wimp prodding her with a broom was just silly, not much in the way of reality.

The film does look very old, with a lot of slightly less than average scripting and not much in the way of actual depth in the photography (during the night scenes, it was very difficult to take in all of the surroundings). Tobe, did try quite hard to make this film work, but if it hadn't been for the lack of effort in the writing it would have achieved a lot more for me than it did. I think that the only reason it is so well known was because it was banned for so many years.

As for the fact that it was based on a true story. This does make it a lot more disturbing, but when you become as cynical as I have, it ends up feeling like watching another news program (but I do wish that all news was good though). I am glad that it has been released in this country after such a long time, but only for the poeple who can truly appr
eciate it, I envy them slightly. As for me, I don't think it will bother me if I ever watch this film again. I do intend to watch the second though, as I think Dennis Hopper is pretty cool.

Summary: