My Thoughts after Re-Watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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We are waiting for our youngest daughter to get done with work and, after failing to find a new movie that looked interesting, my wife and I decided to just watch a classic horror film we've seen before. This ended up being The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I haven't seen (at least not in its 1974 form) in nearly a decade.

Here are my thoughts after seeing it again:


This movie was duller than I remember. I think a big part of that was the violence being surprisingly tame, especially by today's standards. Most of the violence is filmed in a way that keeps things from being too violent. However, it also took longer than I recalled for things to get going and even then, there's quite a bit of downtime between the kills.

Plus, for a film that promises a chainsaw massacre, there isn't a whole lot of chain sawing. It might as well have been called the Texas Hammer Massacre because that was Leatherface's (Gunnar Hansen) preferred weapon of choice for a good chunk of it with just one kill that could be attributed to the advertised tool.

Why were the friends in such a hurry? One thing the movie doesn't really make clear is if the van-driving friends were targeted from the start or if it was solely because they accidentally stumbled upon the house, so I don't know if the gas station was really out of gas or the proprietor (Jim Siedow) was lying. That said, one of the most puzzling decisions the friends made was choosing not to have something to eat and wait to see if the gas truck showed up and instead driving to an abandoned farm when they were already low on fuel.

Not that it mattered much. After leaving the van lights on for as long as they did, I'd be surprised if it started anyway.

Franklin (Paul A. Partain) was the worst. I've seen a lot of horror movies and a lot of horror movie characters I was cheering for to die. He is easily at the top of that list. It was like he was purposely trying to be unbearably annoying throughout and couldn't be murdered fast enough.

My goodness, Sally (Marilyn Burns) was a slower runner. Leatherface literally had to find things to chainsaw to keep from catching up to her and she had a headstart, same when she escaped the house. It wasn't as though she was wearing high heels. Was she trying to die?

Speaking of wanting to die, what was up with the truck driver scene? Both Sally and the driver (Ed Guinn) were inside the truck and, instead of driving off, immediately exited. It wasn't as though running over the hitchhiker or the chainsaw scratches on the door were enough to prevent a simple escape.

Oh, and good job leaving the guy who was trying to help you behind, Sally. Just hop in the back of that pickup and not care if the truck driver survived. It's not like we're supposed to root for you.

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Here are some similar entries:

My Thoughts After Re-watching Alien (1979)

My Thoughts After Re-Watching The Blob (1958)

My Thoughts After Re-watching Scooby Doo (2002)

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