Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Hitchhiker and It's Alive

Today I’ll feature a double feature…sort of. The B-Horror movie It’s Alive had a commercial that scared me to death when I was a kid. I would hear that baby scream at night. Both of these movies came out in 1974 so I’m sure they were billed together at some places. I reviewed It’s Alive a while back if you want to follow that link…now to our featured movie…The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Rated R

This is the first film I think of when I think of Drive-In Theaters…

The spoken intro:

The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Who spoke these words? Future Night Court and film star John Larroquette. So would this also be one of the first mockumentaries?

I don’t like slasher films unless they are smart or good. This one was probably the first one. Just like Animal House was the first of its kind of comedy…I didn’t like the bad copy movies that kept coming after but I love this original.

I saw this 1974 movie in the 1980s at a theater when they reissued it. It was sadly not a drive-in theater. My dad had me for that weekend and asked me what I wanted to see. There it was…The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was on the marquee and of course, I picked it. A wonderful father and son movie? Probably not but it worked for us.

Ok… let’s get on with the movie. The look of it is wonderful…and not in a clear way but in a 1970s film way. The look sets the mood for this movie. It has a long look…what I mean is everything seems to be just a tiny bit stretched and everything looks taller than life in some parts. Also, the sun in the seventies was singled out in films. The film has a soft look to it and the sun glows. I’m not sure if it was the camera lens, the development of the film, or if the sky was clearer than now.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Hitchhiker

We have 5 teenagers in a van…we know where this was heading. That is now days though after the bad slasher movies followed the same blueprint. This was fairly new to the viewers back then. Everything seemed so realistic in this film not cartoonish. The actors and actresses talked like real life…not a Hollywood script. The first taste of the bizarre was a hitchhiker they picked up. A guy that slowly gets crazier as the ride continues until they throw him out.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre.jpb

They get to their destination and that is when things start going sideways. I’m going to save you all of the gory details but it is thrilling, suspenseful, and scary. The closing scene to me, is one of the most famous in horror movie history. Notice the sun in the shot above and how it radiates.

The film’s raw and realistic style, combined with its disturbing themes of cannibalism, madness, and sadism makes you feel for the characters… It’s like you are stuck in the film with them. The state of Texas is a character also…the oppressive Texas heat and desolate rural landscape contribute to a sense of isolation and vulnerability. Even for a fifty-year-old movie… it can still shock and disturb you.

Tobe Hooper directed this movie and went on to direct Poltergeist and other well-known horror movies.

The Plot:

The story follows a group of friends who travel to rural Texas to visit an old homestead. Along the way, they encounter a family of cannibals, including the iconic character Leatherface, who wears a mask made of human skin and wields a chainsaw. The group is systematically hunted and killed in gruesome ways.

Quotes:

  • Old Man: I just can’t take no pleasure in killing. There’s just some things you gotta do. Don’t mean you have to like it.
  • Old Man: [to Sally] Why, old Grandpa was the best killer there ever was. Why, it never took more than one lick, they say. Why, he did sixty in five minutes once. They say he could’ve done more if the hook and pull gang could’ve gotten the beeves out of the way faster.

You can see the complete movie below and the trailer at the bottom.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

49 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”

    1. They did a really good job on this. It’s scarier than most modern ones. I watched it again right before I wrote this…it still stands up.
      Yes I am…I’m glade to be back!

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  3. Still shocking, certainly. When I saw TCM, I felt like it was America eating it’s own people. Just like in “Hills have eyes”. It could be a thrilling double feature.
    I made a review on that.

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    2. That very well could have been the meaning. I never thought about it in that way.
      The look of this film also adds to everything, also the acting isn’t perfect which made me like it more…we are are not perfect in person …we stutter in spots or pause when we shouldn’t…. it adds to it.

      I’ve watched both The Hills Have Eyes…yes I really like the original. I’ll look up your review today.

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    1. It still works and beats the hell out of the cgi heavy modern horror movies. Yea it’s hard to believe it’s that old now! I’m happy I saw it on the big screen in the 80s.
      Like Animal House….it spawned a lot of bad movies but they were great.

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      1. I agree real props beat CGI 99% of the time. You’re right, TCM spawned a plethora of slasher/ripper movies. I saw two of them: Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. The malicious delight of the killers was quite disturbing.

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      2. I like Rob Zombie’s movies…he also redid Halloween…I still liked Carpenters version but Zombie did a great job…it was really good as well.
        I would not suggest this movie to anyone who doesn’t love horror movies…because it’s quite effective.

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      3. I appreciate some horror movies. For me they are like a seasoning in the dish of cinema. A little bit once in awhile, but never a steady diet of it. John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars is one I was quite terrified by but still like. The original Suspiria is another.

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      4. I’ll have to check that one out Lisa! I’ve never seen Ghosts of Mars. I like Suspiria….Bailey and I were talking about that one the other day.
        I have to say…this one and The Exorcist still works for me…two totally different subjects and movies…but they still scare me.

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    1. Yea the reboot…it doesn’t come close at all to this. It’s just an ordinary modern horror movie…this one seems a little too real almost.

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      2. I would love to do that…stay in that house. That is so cool. Not only to see it but to stay in it.
        I was lucky enough to see it in a theater 10 years or so after it was released.
        This is a cool site I was looking at when I wrote this… all the locations…

        https://www.austintexas.org/film-commission/film-tourism-guide/texas-chainsaw-massacre/#:~:text=The%20original%20house%20where%20Leatherface's,now%20the%20Grand%20Central%20Cafe.

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    1. Gore Tex would work!

      You know….after rewatching this…it surprised me….you don’t really see him with the chainsaw cutting people…the only time that happens is when he accidently did it to himself….now when they are walking about…you do see blood splattered walls.

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  10. A Drive In classic for sure. I caught it when it first came out. The theater emptied real quick. The Old Man looked like Milton Berle. My buddies and I used to imitate him when he picked up the girl. He was perfect. I like that line you included about Grandpa being the best killer in these parts.. That got pretty hectic when they were all trying to get him to hold the hammer. I remember a lot of it . Saw it a few times. Great date movie.

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    1. Yes….when they tried to get him to hold that hammer right… was both terrifying and funny. I just love the atmosphere to this one and my next one coming up. It’s hard to put my finger on it. Dont’ know if it’s the acting style or the way they filmed it…or both.

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      1. It was funny.
        It’s independent film making. No one hanging over the directors head telling him who to hire, how to film, changing the story. Hooper did it his way. Total control I would guess. One of the reasons I like indies. Not all great but they take big swings like this one.

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      2. I pretty much say that in my next review…a single person’s vision or a committee….I’ll take the one person any day.
        Same here…yea they strike out some but many times they go deep.

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  11. Gotta admit, not my style. I hate horror movies, and even for most part have dimmed on most Stephen King books, which I absolutely loved about 30 or so years back odd thing is I DO love many real crime docs…love seeing the way cops go about piecing things together. Through my work I have seen MANY photos of homicide victims, at least one involving saws. Not a pretty side of humanity…but I really liked knowing the cops working the cases. Even had a coffee one time with only female Homicide cop in my city back then. CSI looks, but not fashion!

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    1. See those shows should be more terrifying than this! Because they are real.
      But there is one thing I want to ask…about what I said about the sun. The seventies film makers really used the sun well…was it the lenses? Was it clearer then? Was it in post production?
      The sun radiates….but the reason I like this is becasue it’s not cartoonish…it seems very real.

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      1. well, I’d have to see the movie to really get the answer to that, but the photo you showed has lens flare, which happens when you aim right into the sun… more so in the older days because basically it’s caused by light bouncing off and reflecting off glass surfaces within a lens. Some camera lenses would have upwards of 10 different pieces of glass (also called lenses, confusingly) in them. Most modern digital cameras seem to utilize a lot fewer lens elements and hence, maybe less glare. Another possibility is that it might have been cross-processed. That really came into vogue in the ’80s, but they could have done it before then. Basically, instead of using regular film, you run slide film (“positive” film instead of “negative” ones) and then process it through the other chemicals. The result is… hard to describe. If you worked in photography in the ’90s or ’00s, instantly recognizable – it was big in advertising. The result was really super-saturated colors, often kind of artificial looking, heavy on blues and greens often, very contrasty, washed out skies, really dark shadows and just a weirdly “something’s kind of off here but what?” feeling. But even if not that, different films they could have chosen would have different levels of contrast and color balances.

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      2. Thanks Dave! Most of the sun pictures I’ve seen from the 70s have that…and I love that element that seems to be lost now. I kinda get some of what you are saying.
        I’ll give you another example…this will take you back…it wasn’t just in horror films but Grizzly Adams was one that showed a lot of nature and also had some of that effect.
        Thanks Dave for answering that!

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  13. Back growing up I remember seeing the adds for this and being quite honestly freaked out by it. lol. I mean when your 8 or 9 years old your brain is trying to compute on who would run around chasing people with a chain saw?? lol….

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