The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Plot:

Very loosely inspired by the story of famous Wisconsin killer Ed Gein, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre concerns the harrowing misadventures of a group of young people, as they attempt to escape the clutches of a psychotic, inbred, necro-fetishist family in rural America.

Comments:

I’m going to assume that we are all familiar on some level with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film has been thoroughly analyzed, and any piddling little ruminations I could make on the deeper meaning of the film would be about as superfluous as another Michael Jackson album. Therefore, I’m going to endeavor to give you a fresh slant on the whole thing, and illustrate how the history of critical reaction surrounding the Texas Chainsaw Massacre illustrates precisely why mainstream film criticism has been entirely useless for at least the past 40 years. If you would like to skip my blather and get right to my opinion of the film itself, click here.

One of the reasons internet film critics have become so popular, I might even say desperately needed, is the dearth of honest intellectual activity on the part of the fatuous egotistically onanistic modern film critic. ( See! Amateurs can use big words too! ) TCM is a prime example of this, but NOTLD, Halloween, and just about any other classic horror film you'd care to mention, met with similar petulant ire upon their initial release.

Once upon a time, there was an artist. (Or in this case, Tobe Hooper, who hopefully, someday, will make another film worth watching.) The artist decides to take a chance. He will present his vision! A vision both unflinchingly gritty, and vibrantly surreal. He will be original.

The film critics scream for originality. The compose dirges as to how there is no true originality in modern films, and how much they desperately ache to see something other than the some old Hollywood cookie-cutter flicks.

They are lying their asses off.

If truth be told, film snobs thrive on the predictably of the art house scene as surely as any teeny bopper looks forward to the next Lindsay Lohan picture. The critics, reacting with their typical level of foresight trash the film as degrading, nihilistic, amateurish, and just generally not resembling a Merchant-Ivory production. It gets a reputation as a piece of sociopathic garbage that no decent person would ever go see. This of course cements the film’s longevity. Its name becomes a euphemism for the ultimate in gory horror. ( In the case of TCM, always by those who have never seen it, as the film barely has a speck of blood.) It becomes canonized in film-geek circles, and the film's positive reputation finally begins to spread.

Sooner or later, it’s stumbled upon by a member of the elite. Perhaps an ‘enlightened’ hippie film professor, who’s seeking a pipeline into youth culture. Instead, surprise!, he finds loads of actual subtext in this trashy little film. What a brilliant discovery! He likes to feel all avant garde, so he starts chirping about it to some of his colleges, and the next thing you know, the film is being screened at Cannes or some other masturbatory festival.

The Pauline Kael crowd take time out their day to put down their sherry, raise a moistened finger up to see which way the revisionist hot air is blowing, and change their views accordingly.

Yes, yes, very nice, how about you review the film now?

Well, it’s good.
The themes presented in the film are so effective on a primal level, that you barely notice some of its flaws. ( Poor character development, a bit of a far-fetched premise, etc. ) It is disturbing in its sheer brutality. A brutality not born truly of blood and guts, but of emotional intensity. The movie, for better or worse, helped to spawn a renaissance of independent horror films as well as the slasher boom of the 80’s. Truly a ground breaking film, one that gave the world a chilling glimpse into the dark crevices of the human condition.

8.5