Texas Chainsaw Massacre...what a film

Are we talking about the original or the remake? There isn't much gore in the original. The original is one of the greatest horror films ever made. I haven't seen the remake, but I've seen the sequel to the remake (prequel actually) and thought it was good - it captured the spirit of the original. I'd like to see the remake now.
 
I'd assume everyone's talking about Tobe Hooper's original 1974 version.

'Tis indeed a great film. It's the whole thought that stuff like that really does (and has) happened that scares me so much. Being a woman, I can only imagine how terrifying it would be to find yourself in such a circumstance. Another one that scares me - the whole Buffalo Bill thing in Silence of the Lambs.

Anyhow, I've also seen Texas Chainsaw 2, which I thought was OK (the abandoned underground theme park deely really scared me), and I also enjoyed the recent 2003 remake.
 
The success of the original is not due to big shocks or gore, it's down to the oppressive feel of the movie. The Texan heat, the generator throbbing constantly, the endless chase, the endless screaming, the noise of the chainsaw.... and the interior of that house. I mean, a fully grown chicken in a bird cage.... that shot alone was enough to freak me out. Mummy!!!!!!
 
That was a cutting remark.

:o I'll get my coat.

Seriously, best horror film ever. After the ban was lifted, I watched it with my two flat-mates at the time, and after it was finished, we didn't say a word to each other, but just retreated into our rooms in shock, and stayed there for hours.
 
Its a good film , but freaks me out about knowin its based on a true story :eek: , but its a horror classic and there not much blood in the 70s version. i have the full uncut dvd, freaky but a good movie but shocks you more about the true story thing :eek:
 
i really like the origional but theres hardly any gore in it which makes a great horror movie a great horror movie, however the storyline is great.

if you want a great horro movie with lots of gore and is very scary then go for The Shining

:D
 
I thought it was actually based on a true story until i researched into it myself. Leatherface never existed :( , although it was based on some bloke called Ed Bein or something like that.
 
I first saw the original when FilmFour showed it uncut for the first time. I was left open-mouthed too. I was expecting more gore, but the film was just so unsettling that it 'did' it for me anyway. I just love the film and bought the special edition DVD a while back.

As for who the film was based on (hope I don't sound like a know-it-all), then you're nearly right, wilko88 - the guy was called Ed Gein. He was Wisconsin farmer who had one of those strange mothers. He enjoyed skinning women and making things out of their skin. He also wore their cut-off genitalia. :eek:
There's a great site somewhere with loaRAB of info on these type of scary people (Albert Fish being another) - sorry I'm too lazy to look it up and post a link, but I think it's crimelibrary.com.
Also, they based Psycho/Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill on Ed Gein.

In case you all wondered, yes I'm a gal that's pretty engrossed by all this stuff and yes, I need to get out more! :o :D
 
Yes that's the problem I tend to find with most modern horror films. They just seem too 'comfortable' to watch.
You just see the same formula from tried and tested camera angles to the slickness of the production, so there's nothing that really stanRAB out or affects you.
You get lots of blood and gore if that's what you want, but to me blood and gore doesn't in itself make a horror film good.

I find the horror in horrible little bits like you can find in the original, such as the way that they mock the woman in the house, little cuts away to the family laughing at her when you think that one of them may have pity on her, the pathetic attempts to bash her head in with a hammer but he keeps dropping the hammer.

Those are examples of things that I saw for the very first time, they weren't formula driven, so they worked on me and I found them disturbing and more true to what I'd call 'horror'.

It's a shame that some people nowadays see a film with low production values and instantly dismiss it as crap.
 
There is a film of Ed Gein's life. He was quite a nice guy, apart from the murder and making bits of bodies into art and clothing and furniture, and digging up his dead mother's body and sleeping with it.
The list of stuff they found in his house is really similar to the stuff in TCM. Don't look here if you're squeamish:
Human skulls mounted upon the corner posts of his bed;
Human skin fashioned into a lampshade and used to upholster chair seats;
Human skullcaps, apparently in use as soup bowls;
A human heart (it is disputed where the heart was found; the deputies' reports all claim that the heart was in a saucepan on the stove, with some crime scene photographers claiming it was in a paper bag);
Skin from the face of Mary Hogan, a local tavern owner, found in a paper bag;
A window shade pull consisting of human lips;
A "mammary vest" crafted from the skin of a woman's torso;
A belt made from several human nipples, among many other such grisly objects;
Socks made from human flesh.
A sheath made from human skin.
A box of preserved vulvas that Ed admitted to wearing.

He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. When asked by an interviewer how he found life in the mental hospital he said it was OK, but there are some weird people in here!
 
neither did the chanisaw! I always thought it was based on a true story but it is only very loosly so. Doesnt seem so scary now :(
 
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