{"id":1227,"date":"2025-08-01T03:26:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:11:17","slug":"the-texas-chainsaw-massacre-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1227","title":{"rendered":"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre-1974"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre-1974<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Tobe Hooper<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #55<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Top 40 Horror Films #12<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Top 10 Most Disturbing Films #5<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #209\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"15815343\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed December 31, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is one of the grittiest, rawest, and most frightening horror films I have ever seen, and it still holds up incredibly well today.<\/p>\n

Featuring a documentary-like look, it is horrifying due to its grainy, visual, and realistic feel. It is not psychological horror- it is in-your-face, brutal horror.<\/p>\n

The perception of an incredibly hot, sticky, backwoods Texas summer is incredibly well done and only adds to the terror.<\/p>\n

A group of five teenagers travels to the vast fields of Texas \u2014 aka the middle of nowhere \u2014presumably on a road trip. On their drive, they pick up a strange hitchhiker who ends up stabbing one of the teens and cutting his arm.<\/p>\n

Spooked by this odd occurrence, they stop for gas and directions, but veer off course and accidentally wind up at a slaughterhouse owned by cannibals.<\/p>\n

The group of teens is led by Sally Hardesty, played by Marilyn Burns.<\/p>\n

As the teens are chopped off grotesquely, similar to a slew of similarly fashioned, but less interesting horror films to follow, Sally winds up the lone survivor of the group.<\/p>\n

Burns plays the first \u201cfinal girl\u201d, a title made famous in horror films as the last female remaining alive- it was almost always a female- to take on the maniacal killer.<\/p>\n

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre features one of the horror genre\u2019s best villains- Leatherface.<\/p>\n

The viewer knows little about him since he does not speak- is he mentally disabled? Is he an intelligent man? He is disguised behind a mask made of strewn-together human skin and wields a scary chainsaw.<\/p>\n

We know nothing about him- only that he loves to kill.<\/p>\n

The ambiguity is immeasurable.<\/p>\n

Besides the way the film is shot, another shocking element is the story’s reality. Could this happen to the viewer? The answer is yes, of course it could. How many times have we been driving and gotten lost in unfamiliar surroundings?<\/p>\n

There are no supernatural beings or CGI effects in this film- only a group of youngsters crossing paths with maniacs, and this could happen in real life. This realization adds to the fright.<\/p>\n

The famous- or infamous- dinner scene is revolutionary in disgust and distaste. The family attempts to serve Sally as dessert to the elderly patriarch, and as he begins to suck blood from Sally\u2019s finger, it will force the squeamish to turn away.<\/p>\n

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a short film, running at only 84 minutes, but the breathtaking finale- Sally running through the endless woods followed by Leatherface, seems interminable. Will he catch her? How can she possibly escape?<\/p>\n

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is dirty, ugly, and intense. It is no-holds-barred brutality. It is one of the best horror films ever made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre-1974 Director Tobe Hooper Starring Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen Top 250 Films #55 Top 40 Horror Films #12 Top 10 Most Disturbing Films #5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Scott’s Review #209\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 … Continue reading The Texas Chain Saw Massacre-1974<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7594,8035,8034,96,9662,9659,3986,13,41,217,9660,3987,9661,1063,9658,1062,162,7530,7532,7464,7536],"tags":[7595,8037,8036,97,9667,9664,3990,248,73,218,9665,3991,9666,1064,9663,1065,167,7533,7535,7460,7537],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-favorite-horror-film","category-5-most-disturbing-film","category-55-favorite-film","category-1974-films","category-allen-danziger","category-edwin-neal","category-gunnar-hansen","category-horror-films","category-indiefilms","category-indie-horror","category-jim-siedow","category-john-dugan","category-john-larroquette","category-marilyn-burns","category-paul-a-partain","category-tobe-hooper","category-disturbingfilms","category-top-100-films","category-top-20-horror-films","category-top-250-films","category-top-40-horror-films","tag-12-favorite-horror-film","tag-5-most-disturbing-film","tag-55-favorite-film","tag-1974-movie-reviews","tag-allen-danziger","tag-edwin-neal","tag-gunnar-hansen","tag-horror-films","tag-independent-films","tag-indie-horror","tag-jim-siedow","tag-john-dugan","tag-john-larroquette","tag-marilyn-burns","tag-paul-a-partain","tag-tobe-hooper","tag-most-disturbing-films","tag-top-100-films","tag-top-20-horror-films","tag-top-250-films","tag-top-40-horror-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22716,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/22716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}