October 11th was the 50th anniversary of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so it made perfect sense to make it the fourth film in our attempt at the Hooptober 11 challenge.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Who will survive and what will be left of them?
A group of five young friends face a nightmare of torment at the hands of a depraved Texas clan.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was banned in the UK from 1974 to 1999 due to the “perceived degree of terrorization of women. And they’re not wrong. Like most slasher films, the women in the film definitely get the worst of it. Like The Evil Dead, this banned status gave the film legendary status in the UK, and I first saw it at the house of a friend who is a hardcore horror fan and had a bootleg copy.
That was probably 1997ish and my Hooptober rewatch is (I think) only my second viewing. And I have to confess, I was kinda bored. It’s certainly a memorable movie, and the style and tone is spot on, but there was so much screaming and running. So much. I didn’t care about the characters that were getting killed, so there wasn’t a lot of suspense, and by the end it felt like the chasing was in there just to pad out an already short movie.
Maybe I was just tired. Maybe I’m just too jaded. Either way, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre hasn’t made its way onto my top ten horror films.
That said, the running was much better than the running in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre contributes to three categories for Hooptober – 70s, made in Texas, and of course, a Tobe Hooper film (which is the one constant in the Hooptober challenges).
[Hooptober 11 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 22nd October 2024]