The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Tobe Hooper's independent almost documentary horror film, ultra grungy in it's realism, based on the same real life case that inspired Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), tells the tale of a group of five teens in outback Texas that stumble upon a farm occupied by a demented family of murderous cannibals.
A movie in which anticipation and suggestion create and maintain the suspense as much as any on screen action in a film which is relatively bloodless yet it still spawned the splatter horror genre.
The final third is grueling to watch with a dinner table sequence which remains horrible no matter how many times i've seen it, and with the crazed Leatherface flinging and swirling his chainsaw in all directions - creating a horror icon in the process - the film etches itself in the annals of horror.
However much of the opening hour is quite dull. The five teenagers in their beat up van traversing the Texan dust roads are thinly sketched and not particularly likable with the acting average at best, although Marilyn Chambers does improve a lot when she becomes the film's 'final girl'.
But, you know what? Any gripes i may have don't really matter, it's me, it's personal. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a landmark film in the history of horror cinema and i just watched a glorious restoration of it with f*cking Dolby Atmos 7.1 sound.
How awesome is that?
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