Now showing on DuranDuranTulsa's Horror Show...The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #thetexaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre #tobehooper #RIPTobeHooper #leatherface #gunnarhansen #ripgunnarhansen #marilynburns #ripmarilynburns #EdwinNeal #terrimcminn #paulapartain #rippaulapartain #JimSiedow #ripjimsiedow #AllenDanziger #williamvail #JohnLarroquette #vintage #vhs #70s #durandurantulsa #durandurantulsashorrorshow

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a movie whose fame hurts it. I can only imagine how frightening it would be to find this on an unlabeled VHS tape in a dusty old box in the attic in a world where the name "Leatherface" is not an icon. The film influence means it's been imitated over and over but it still remains one of the most frightening movies I’ve ever seen.

The story concerns a group of friends visiting in the middle of nowhere. On their way, they cross paths with a family of cannibals. Marilyn Burns plays Sally, Paul A. Partain her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin, Edwin Neal plays the hitchhiker they pick up, Jim Siedow as the proprietor of the Last Chance Gas Station, and Gunnar Hansen as the saw-wielding “Leatherface”.

With a title as shocking as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre you’re expecting gallons of blood, a plot ripped right out of every generic slasher film that followed in this film's footsteps, the dead teenager count to be high, and the kills evenly spaced throughout the 84-minute running time. That’s not the case. This film is shocking and frightening because the attacks come suddenly, randomly, and are over before you can fully process them. The cheap tricks - musical stings, fakeouts, etc. - are all absent.

At no point does The Texas Chain Saw Massacre feel artificial. You can’t predict who will die first because the killers aren't stalking Sally, Frankly, and their friends, the events are merely a series of increasingly cataclysmic misfortunes. The camera does not linger on blood or gore (in fact there's very little of both) in an attempt to get you to relish in the typical horror money shots. Everything is photographed casually, like a documentary about something we've just stumbled upon. Even the strange props inside that indicate how ghoulish this family of cannibals might be aren’t flashy. They look like cheap lawn ornaments you see in people’s back yards, the ugly ones who were probably inherited from untalented family members or broken and repaired over and over.

The picture fills you with unease and dread from start to finish. In these films, the young adults who meet their doom are normally "punished" for using heavy amounts of drugs and being promiscuous. When they don't and it still ends in tragedy you're forced to confront the violence in a way you don't normally. The idea of being alone in the woods, in a place you don’t know while a hulking man with a power tool chases after you, even though you haven't done anything? It’s the stuff of nightmares. Then, you get to that ending. The non-stop barrage of panic and screams. You don’t know how it’s going to end and even with that final shot, it feels like nothing's over.

Now showing on DuranDuranTulsa's Horror Show...The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #thetexaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre50 #tobehooper #riptobehooper #leatherface #gunnarhansen #ripgunnarhansen #marilynburns #ripmarilynburns #EdwinNeal #terrimcminn #paulapartain #rippaulapartain #JimSiedow #ripjimsiedow #AllenDanziger #williamvail #JohnLarroquette #vintage #vhs #70s #durandurantulsa #durandurantulsashorrorshow

Now showing on DuranDuranTulsa's Horror Show...The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #thetexaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre #tobehooper #RIPTobeHooper #leatherface #gunnarhansen #ripgunnarhansen #marilynburns #ripmarilynburns #EdwinNeal #terrimcminn #paulapartain #rippaulapartain #JimSiedow #ripjimsiedow #AllenDanziger #williamvail #JohnLarroquette #70s #vintage #vhs #durandurantulsa #durandurantulsashorrorshow

Up next on my Spooktober Filmfest...The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #thetexaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre #tobehooper #riptobehooper #gunnarhansen #ripgunnarhansen #marilynburns #ripmarilynburns #edwinneal #terrimcminn #paulapartain #rippaulapartain #JimSiedow #ripjimsiedow #allendanziger #williamvail #johnlarroquette #vintage #vhs #70s #spooktober #Halloween #October

Now showing on my Spooktober Filmfest... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #thetexaschainsawmassacre #texaschainsawmassacre #tobehooper #riptobehooper #leatherface #gunnarhansen #ripgunnarhansen #marilynburns #ripmarilynburns #edwinneal #terrimcminn #paulapartain #rippaulapartain #JimSiedow #ripjimsiedow #allendanziger #williamvail #JohnLarroquette #70s #vintage #vhs #spooktober #halloween #october