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Movies / On DVD / The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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Reviews Counted: 41

Fresh: 37

Rotten:4

Average Rating: 7.7/10

Consensus: Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema.

Runtime: 84 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Synopsis: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is, without a doubt, the granddaddy of all splatter films. Inspired by 1950s mass murderer Ed Gein, Tobe Hooper's debut feature opens with five unsuspecting teenagers... THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is, without a doubt, the granddaddy of all splatter films. Inspired by 1950s mass murderer Ed Gein, Tobe Hooper's debut feature opens with five unsuspecting teenagers driving in a van through sun-scorched rural Texas. After a terrifying exchange with a demented hitchhiker, the group ends up at an old farmhouse. At first, the house appears to be abandoned, but soon, the evil residents begin to wreak havoc on the youngsters' lives. With her friends and wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) disappearing one by one, the terrified Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) must summon the strength to escape from the ghoulish family of mass murderers, who are led by the gruesome, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). Hooper's low-budget exploitation horror film became a cult hit and favorite midnight movie that helped define the splatter genre by introducing such standard features as the house of terror, where innocent victims meet horrible ends, and the girl in peril who survives the mayhem to become the heroine. Spawning several sequels, as well as a 2003 remake, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remains an untouchable work of sheer terror that continues to shock audiences all over the world. [More]

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal, Allen Danzinger, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Jim Siedow, John Larroquette

Director: Tobe Hooper

Director: Tobe Hooper
Producer: Tobe Hooper
Screenwriter: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper
Composer: Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 30, 2008

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Reviews for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Artfully documentarylike and shot under conditions that produced genuinely traumatized performances, the original Massacre eschews cheap thrills and attacks the psyche.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
03/20/09
Stan Hall
Oregonian

All these elements set the stage for some of the most prolonged scenes of sustained panic ever captured by cinema, as Hooper infects characters and viewers alike with the thrill of a madness from which there can be no real escape.

Full Review Source: Eye for Film | comment Comment
11/06/08
Anton Bitel
Eye for Film

A cutthroat, unendingly bleak masterpiece of horror cinema.

Full Review Source: TheMovieBoy.com | comment Comment
10/24/08
Dustin Putman
TheMovieBoy.com

It's a masterpiece, pure and simple..a smart young director summing up the basest instincts of his species.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
06/01/08
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

Seeing this again recently has convinced me that it's quite a bit better than I initially judged.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
10/15/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre loses none of its intensity as the years go by.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
09/19/07
Ben Cobb
Channel 4 Film

The violence is outdated by today's standards, but the original Chainsaw still packs a punch with its rough look and disturbing overtones.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
09/19/07
Mike Emery
Austin Chronicle

The picture gets to you more through its intensity than its craft, but Hooper does have a talent.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
09/19/07
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Despite the heavy doses of gore in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tobe Hooper's pic is well-made for an exploiter of its type.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 1 Comment
09/19/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Great American Horror Movie.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
08/03/07
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

The film's intense final half achieves its unshakable effect through a combination of things aside from graphic gore.

Full Review Source: Mr. Brown's Movies | comment Comment
01/12/07
Michael Dequina
Mr. Brown's Movies

A profoundly sensitive look at social prejudices and the toll said prejudices take on the human social organism.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
11/07/06
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

An intelligent, absorbing, and deeply disturbing horror film that is nearly bloodless in its depiction of violence.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
10/03/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The movie is some kind of weird, off-the-wall achievement. I can't imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this, and yet it's well-made, well-acted, and all too effective.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 10 Comments
10/03/06
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In his laughing-outlaw way, Hooper pointed a new direction for horror cinema. [2-Disc Ultimate Edition Reviewed]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
08/15/06
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

Cultish trash set new low standards for brutality.

comment Comment
07/27/06
Steve Crum
Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers

No review available.

comment Comment
07/03/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
04/22/05
Greg Maki
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

The documentary-style approach is what pushes this flick over the top; it's a grim and glorious classic of modern horror.

comment Comment
04/03/05
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

This isn't any slick slasher-thriller, this is pure hysteria horror.

Full Review Source: Slasherpool | comment Comment
01/26/04
Andreas Samuelson
Slasherpool
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon), chainsaw massacres in Texas... More...

October 02, 2006: RT Talks To "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Director Jonathan Liebesman; "Friday The 13th" Sequel In Negotiations
Leatherface is back, and director Jonathan Liebesman is now giving audiences the creation myth of famed killer in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning."... More...

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