I just watched this again last night and am floored by how effectively unnerving it is. Hardly any blood and guts, and none are needed with all those eerie closeups: the graveyard corpse, the bones scattered about the living room, the nest/swarm of daddy long-legs, Sally's eyeballs...ugh A movie that should be played loud, too. The sound effects are even more unsettling than the visuals.
While I have not seen this movie recently enough to have a good memory of exactly what happens, I am able to understand the concept of imagination and suggestion. I much prefer writers and directors who use the powers of suggestion, and audience imagination, to fill in the blanks rather than giving us ALL the details in visual, gory, fashion. Don't get me wrong, some good visuals and gore can really cement a mood or theme, but I find it being over used to cover poor quality writing and directing.
I'm a horror film aficionado, & TCM is a masterpiece of the genre. It's atmosphere & relentless drive as it ratchets up the tension are what makes it so truly unnerving. I also have a real love for TCM II. Knowing he could never top his original for sheer, unrelenting terror, Tobe Hooper used the gore & the era it was filmed in to create a truly mad & depraved black comedy.
It’s also a bit of a technical feat as well. Filmed in 16mm, on an Eclair NPR at 50 ASA. Let’s just say they needed a lot of light.
Can't say I had the same admiration for any of the sequels. In fact I have a hard time thinking of a franchise that kept doggedly trying (and failing) to re-capture lightning in a bottle.
Of the sequels/remakes/prequels/reboots, the only one I care about, (& own, along with the original), is TCM II. If Tobe had just tried to replicate what made the original work with TCM II, I feel it would have been an abject failure.
It was a tour de' force that spawned imitations and arguably a sub genre. He set the bar high up where he never reached it again himself.
I dunno. The general plot of family members seeking revenge on the cannibal clan might've worked better played straight. The sequel only lights up when Dennis Hopper is onscreen, IMO. On the other hand the dead-serious LEATHERFACE (the 2nd one, not the 1990 movie) proves how disastrous such a plot line could've turned out. The comedic elements -- such as the patriarch becoming a celebrated entrepreneur -- hit the Reagan Era on the nose, but are now pretty dated. I get that people enjoy it. It is what it is TCM III was actually promising at the time. David Schow, a genre stalwart writing the screenplay, a barely-known Viggo Mortensen, and Ken Foree (who if he'd padded his resume a bit, might've usurped Tony Todd as horror's Denzel Washington). The "Excalibur" teaser trailer was a surreal work of art. The final product, not so much. From there it's severely diminishing returns, despite the novelty of TCM 4 having the Lone Star State's favorite son, Matthew Mcconaughey, hamming it up without abandon. The remakes are worth a watch, but aren't very good taken on their own. R. Lee Ermey carries both films from start to finish, which is quite an accomplishment considering he wasn't playing against type in either of them...
I grew up within 100 miles of where it was filmed. Way too close to home in how they captured the barbecue/meat processing store. And I have some relatives my dad married into that kinda' had the same look of the house and impulsive behavior but more on the good natured hillbilly side. The one aspect that set the mood of the movie is the dude in the wheel chair who kept on whining. I was torn between pity and irritability because the actor who played him was so natural and real. That was what made it so disturbing. It came off a bit like a snuff film in a grind house gritty way. It looked like a dangerous movie made by dangerous people.
I'm not sure if I'm remembering this rightly but I think that actor in the wheelchair kept in character during the shoot and wound up everyone on the set. I think most people watching the film would push him in Leatherface's path just to shut him up!
Hoopers & Bells soundtrack made Texas Chainsaw as scary as all hell. That soundtrack besides the film scenery still gives me a hard time to watch this film at night, especially alone. Gunner Hansen stated Paul Partain was a real annoying person during the filming. When the part came for Franklin to get killed in the wheelchair Gunner Hansen was happy and relieved as a way of getting revenge for Partain for being a pain during his role of Franklin during the filming. Dated but still powerfully raw and attracting younger fans through today 2021. Tobe reached for the sky with Chainsaw.
I hadn't seen the film for years so my memory is a bit foggy but one particular clever character detail that still is disturbing was the spastic and loud war vet son who had a plate in his head coming back from the war and would heat the tip of some type of hanger wire and use to scratch an itch on part of his scalp that came into contact with the exposed part of the plate that created a small smoke plume cooking his skin and then he'ld eat the residue off the tip of the wire. I can't remember if that was in the original or some sequel but that was some creative character build I don't think Hitchcock would've attempted or tolerated or stomached.
Does anyone know if a soundtrack album was ever made? I was sure I’d read that one was pressed up in a micro promo edition, but I’ve never found evidence to confirm.
Looking for an official cd or lp release for what seems like millennia. I thought with the 40th anniversary blu ray 4k a stand alone release of the soundtrack would have been issued on cd. Or possibly included on the Maria truck deluxe package released in 2014 but no on both accounts.
TCM is one of those movies that even if I had the BD I would still dread to watch again and again because of how it changes the way I feel like no other movie. Pretty much similar to why I don't watch "The Exorcist" multiple times. Both are classic groundbreaking cinema which I admire and respect but sometimes I just would rather watch "Dumb & Dumber". Maybe I'll start using that as a palette cleanser.
Went and saw it at its 1999 re-release in the UK cinema. Could not see what the fuss was all about. Bit like when I finally saw the Exorcist. Really??!!??
I'm the same way. I love horror movies, but I've seen TCM a couple of times over the years, and it's never rated much more than "ehhhh....it's okay" for me.
Most (not all) artists are much more interesting on their way up than they are on their way down. Tobe Hooper was one of those artists (IMO).
I saw THE EXORCIST on its re-release, and by some odd twist of fate, I was the only one in the theater for that showing. That was a very scary two hours.