![]() Note the way it highlights Pam’s bare back, which foreshadows her imminent hanging on the meathook (the meathooks, I also think, are hinted at in the railway-tie swing). But it was a difficult shot technically, passing under the swing and keeping the proportions right, and it does a lot of work. We see a shot like this and it’s disarming in its frank vulgarity, typical of bargain-basement exploitation films of the ’60s. In the first place, there’s the sugar: this is an ass-cam shot, an echo of the earlier shot of the two girls standing in front of the Coke machine. On the DVD commentary track this is referred to as “the best shot in the film,” so it’s worth analyzing. (1) the short dolly shot of Pam getting up from the swing and walking toward the house. I say Hooper shows real talent here because I think it’s a movie that’s really quite well directed and not just a happy accident. Still, nothing that came after this movie lived up to its initial promise. Poltergeist was a silly mess, but I don’t know whose fault that was. Showed real talent in this film, and I rather liked Lifeforce. Leatherface carving into his own leg, for example, or the Hitchhiker being run over. I’d also add that despite the low budget most of the gore is very well handled. The meathook scene is as explicit as you’d expect, and Franklin’s demise sprays out lots of blood. That we just imagine all the blood and gore has become a cliché now, but it’s not entirely true. But contrary to a lot of what is said today it is pretty explicit and they do show a fair bit of blood. ![]() Just to stick with that opening scroll for a second, here’s how it gets started: “The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin.” Why Sally and Franklin “in particular”? Sally survived! Jerry, Kirk, and Pam all die tragic and pretty horrible deaths. It’s interesting to watch Deranged alongside Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as some of their most notable elements are very similar, without there being any question of influence, at least that I’m aware of. A movie that stuck closer to the Gein story was the cheap but effective Canadian production Deranged, which was released a few months earlier. For what it’s worth, the opening scroll never says that this is a “true story,” but just an “account” of “one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history.” That crime was the Ed Gein case, which was also the basis for Psycho (which tells you something about how loose an “account” this is). Hooper wanted him to try and sound like Orson Welles. Though any connection between what the backwoods family of cannibals are up to and the movement of celestial bodies is hard to see except as an example of cosmic irony. What do they mean? Hooper: “a lot of scholars get excited by this.” Well, OK, but is their excitement grounded in anything? I can only point to the matter of astrology that is raised later, and see it as implying that the stars are not in their proper alignment (recall that discarded title, Saturn in Retrograde). The titles appear against shots of solar flares. ![]() Instead he initially got an X, which he cut to an R (the cut material was later restored). Tobe Hooper improbably wanted a PG(!) rating. What they ended up with, however, was perfect. Original working titles included Leatherface, Saturn in Retrograde, and Head Cheese. Or rather, it is correct, but it’s not the way it’s spelled in the title here. The title is sometimes spelled “Chainsaw,” as it is in all of the other instalments and the 2003 remake, but this is not correct. ![]() I mean, we’re not talking about Citizen Kane or Vertigo here. And the fact that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre should be such a movie is itself remarkable. This is another one of those movies that has had so much said about it and is so well known that commentary is almost pointless. ![]()
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