Click here for a list of all other films reviewed and considered for this October 2012 series of horror reviews.
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| A demented family portrait. |
The most terrifying movies I’ve seen all come out of the
1970s, the time of the New Hollywood Golden Age, when studios were willing to
back risky projects because audiences were willing to lay down money for challenging
subject matter. Sometimes they just wanted visceral thrills. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre certainly
provided the latter, although I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a challenging
film or that it has anything of real importance to say. Its sole purpose is to
scare the shit out of whoever is daring enough to see it. Tobe Hooper and Kim
Henkel’s story is a depiction of a demented hick family in central Texas, where
they prey on helpless victims, offering them a sadistic nightmare of torture.
