The Humane Vision of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

It was the first time I saw Tobe Hooper’s work. texas chainsaw massacre under the best possible circumstances. Not yet 16 years old, I was left alone in my parents’ basement on a sweltering summer night, slowly flipping through the channels. I went to IFC (Independent Film Channel) and paused what appeared to be a documentary. Two hippies, a handsome boy (Kirk) in denim and a pretty girl (Pam) in red shorts and a halter top, stumble upon a modest home in a desolate Texas outpost. They plan to trade it for gas so they can get their friend’s van back on the road again. It’s the early ’70s, and a bunch of aimless young people are in a similar van, all chasing vague dreams of love and freedom far from the suffocating familiar surroundings of their parents’ homes. Ta.

The two climb the stairs of the balcony and approach the front door. In an act of spite, Kirk pulls a human tooth from the floor and hands it to his girlfriend. “Pam, I brought you something.” “Let’s go!” A cry of disgust. She retreated to her locker in the front yard.

After knocking several times with no answer, Kirk entered the house. A gigantic figure wearing a butcher’s apron and a mask made of human skin jumps into view. Today, Leatherface needs no introduction and has become a veritable symbol of backwoods carnage. But to me, a wide-eyed 16-year-old, this hulking, ofish monster was an eerie mix of comical and malevolent. What was I looking at? And who was behind the camera watching all of this mayhem with clinical indifference? texas chainsaw massacre It was the first movie that scared the director more than the villain.

Leatherface brings down a large hammer on Kirk’s head. There was an unpleasantly wet sound, and the body collapsed into violent convulsions. After the final blow, Leatherface drags the victim into another room and slides the metal door shut. That door really bothered me, both with its slamming finality and its sleek, industrial look, like it belonged in a slaughterhouse rather than a home. It also became clear that this horrific event was a daily occurrence at this location.

Cut outwards. Pam is understandably worried that her boyfriend won’t come back. As she rises from her locker, we cut to a low tracking shot, drawing attention to the vast house that swallowed Kirk now looming ominously before her. Hooper and screenwriter Kim Henkel said they wanted to do a modern retelling of the film. hansel and greteland this shot has an appropriate fairy tale quality, showing a young girl lost in the forest and wandering into a witch’s house.

As I entered the house, calling for Kirk, I stepped into what was, without a doubt, one of the most bizarre living rooms in all of cinema. Tons of bones litter the floor and hang from the ceiling like morbid dreamcatchers. The centerpiece of the room is made of skeletal remains, either a makeshift couch or a voodoo altar. A chicken clatters and twitches in a rusty cage. As with the sliding metal door, this detail also made me nervous. It looked like a crude imitation of a “normal” pet. It’s like some space agency deemed chickens interchangeable with budgies and parakeets.

The star behind the scenes here is the film’s art director, Robert A. Burns. With a DIY approach to set design, this oddball even branched out into taxidermy to create the film’s opening shot of a dead armadillo smoldering in the Texas heat. In his capable hands, this house and its murderous family resemble a perverse inversion of the American Dream. Displaced by an automated slaughterhouse, the inhabitants of this idyllic home turn it into their own slaughterhouse, consuming the very society that vomited them.

As panic mounts, Pam attempts to escape the artificial hell she has wandered into. Leatherface screeched and grabbed her at the door, pulling her back into the house. This time, the metal door of fate does not draw a modest curtain on the trials that await its victims. Leatherface carries Pam into a filthy room, with a giant meathook in the center of it. A low tracking shot of Pam’s slender back flashes through our heads as she is attached to the hook. Clutching her ballot in a futile gesture of defiance, she found the strength to scream as Leatherface brought the chainsaw to her boyfriend’s body, lying face down on the table. This scene is the most vicious and desperate scene ever put to film, and constitutes the heart of the film. And you can barely see a single drop of blood.

Here we can gain an insight into its genius. texas chainsaw massacreand its complex moral vision. Hooper does not attack us with practical consequences. To do so would detract from the gravity of the violence unleashed, and would also make the film much less scary. On the other hand, in recent movies, Terrifier 3 is full of gag-inducing murders, but its focus on practical mechanics dehumanizes the bodies it destroys, making them feel more like encounters at an entertainment venue than a true crime story. You can get close to things. Hooper’s films, by contrast, refuse to dehumanize victims and villains alike. Instead of a pierced body, there are disturbing details such as Pam’s tormented face, the steel pole she is gripping, and the rust bucket beneath her suspended body.

But the scene isn’t over. When Pam and Kirk are dispatched, Leatherface runs into the living room, looks out the window in panic, and cries like a wild animal. As the camera zooms in on his masked face, he frantically taps his temple, giving us a clear view of his cavity and frightened eyes. This wasn’t the typical “slasher” I’m used to. He didn’t have the inhuman efficiency of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. He was evil, but also clumsy and frighteningly human. And I felt some sympathy for him.

One might wonder what good a film like this would do for the pages of a Christian publication. That’s a fair question. My humble attempt at finding answers was to focus on key scenes from this remarkable film. Another way to state the above argument is as follows. texas chainsaw massacre It offers a vision of irreducible evil, an act so abhorrent and cruel that it defies reductionist explanation. But the movie also doesn’t fall into the temptation of introducing some basically superhuman, outlandish villains that we encounter in the movies. silence of the lambsHannibal Lecter. Despite his brutality, Lecter has more in common with Count Dracula and Darth Vader than with someone like Jeffrey Dahlmer. Leatherface and his family, on the other hand, are better known. They are human monsters, not imaginary figures.

Hooper would abandon this rich and disturbing depiction of human depravity for the slapstick sequel. And in fact, most of the sequels to this film trade an earnest exploration of depraved nature for elements of gore and sleaze. Original for better or worse texas chainsaw massacre This film stands as one of the great films that explores evil, with all its human weaknesses and mundane tasks. At first glance, this seems to be an excruciating, grueling test of patience. But that’s not the case. in fact, texas chainsaw massacre It’s bewilderingly fascinating.

Part of the reason is the moments of beauty that intrude into brutal scenes. Given that this film centers on torture and mass murder, such statements risk sounding ridiculous. Is it possible that a film like this could qualify as beautiful in any meaningful sense of the word?In weaker hands; texas chainsaw massacre It would be a vision of pure contempt, as would any film that explores uncaring moral disorder. Movies fueled by hatred are always ugly, no matter how well directed. Despite the tragic subject matter; texas chainsaw massacre This is a deeply caring film that never forgets the humanity of any of its characters. Also, the austere beauty of the natural environment cannot be overlooked. I’ll never forget the film’s final moments, when Leatherface roars and pirouettes with his chainsaw as the Texas sun blazes on the horizon.