I agree that the late 1960s and early 1970s was a brilliant era for horror as directors were smashing down boundaries and paving the way for what would follow in the 1980s and beyond. If you just look at the Oscar success – just in terms of its 10 nominations, let alone the two wins – of The Exorcist, it was a triumph for the way it was marketed (psychological thriller) and for horror hitting the mainstream commercially and critically, being seen in the same light as The Sting, American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers, Last Tango in Paris, A Touch of Class, Save the Tiger, Serpico, The Way We Were, Bang the Drum Slowly, Paper Moon and The Way We Were.
Specifically in terms of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it is almost as pure as horror gets – a film that sets out to terrify and does exactly that for about 70 minutes of its 84 minute running time. Leatherface is terrifying. The bizarre hitchhiker is scary. The 'cook' is unnerving and weird. The entire family – mummified grandmother and vampiric grandfather included – is a gruesome ensemble. Tobe Hooper took the nuclear family and inverted it, bastardising what had previously largely – films such as Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life aside – been the source of goodness in the American way of life. It's a subversive piece of cinema which is generally overlooked as such because of the sheer shock value and the impact of the title.
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