1974 - THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, original version of this influencial horror film

Finally got around to watching this, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is basically an exploitation film which is fairly well made considering it's very tight budget of $140,000 dollars.  The film struck a cord with the film going public and made the investors a lot of money.  Even today almost 50 years later the film still has a number of effective scenes which shock.  The setting of the house where all the killing takes place is practically a grisly version of a nature museum.  The cannibalistic family of 4  seems like an extreme version of an American nuclear family, if that family happened to be totally insane.

The film certainly foretold the direction of the horror film, sick killings, the exploitation of women as victims and lots of blood and body parts. The film does effective ramp up the suspense and horror as the last teenager, Sally Hardesty is pursued and caught by the notorious "Leatherface," who just happens to be good at dismembering people with a chainsaw.

The director Tobe Hopper, considering the pressure he must have felt to wrap the filming up as quickly as possible and the small budget certainly got the job done.  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is definitely some kind of horror film classic.  The is probably Hopper's best film.  

 

 The success of this film got him work in Hollywood where he directed several unremarkable films.  His film Poltergeist was allegedly directed by producer Steven Spielberg.  Hooper signed with the legendary team of Golan and Globus the head of Cannon studios and directed a film called Lifeforce, basically a vampires from space show that was a box office failure but also a seriously over the top and weird film.  His remake of Invaders From Mars was also a box office disappointment.

Written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper, the running time is 83 minutes