Taking Sides: Texas Chainsaw Massacre Vs Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Eaten Alive on the other hand wasn't finished by Tobe.

well, exactly.

i think eaten alive is truly underrated. i love the use of that one set. it's like a really disturbing play. I would love to see it on stage!

"Restored" version of TCM playing here this week. Not something I'd normally associate with film restoration.

I always thought Texas Chainsaw Massacre (actually Chain Saw, it turns out) had a great look, all grainy and suitably grim, so I don't know that the restoration made much difference for me. There were no awkward splices or patched-together segments, so that was welcome.

Very quiet crowd; I think there was a time it would play to riotous audiences. (Favourite local legend: Leatherface’s scares don’t always happen on screen, however. At the Kingsway Theatre in Toronto the flick inspired audience participation when someone dressed in a butcher’s outfit ran down the aisle brandishing a real, revving chainsaw.) About half full tonight, and the first sound was laughter during the old guy's broom attack. (Yet no laughs for things I find funny--when he goes back to shut off the lights, or "Look what your brother did to the damn door!") Applause at the end.

What I really noticed this time (first viewing in probably 15 years) were the details of the radio broadcast at the beginning. There's this incredible litany of calamity above and beyond the grave robbing. First line of the film: "...it is believed the indictment is only one of a series to be handed down as the result of a special grand jury investigation"--not hard to read into that. From there, it's collapsing buildings, more murder, political chaos in South America, people chaining children in attics. The mood is apocalyptic, and it sets up the rest of the film perfectly.

As outsider or transgressive or whatever-you-want-to-call-it art, I don't think it's lost anything to time. (The filmmakers clearly had aspirations in that direction--there's the line in the opening broadcast about a "grisly work of art.") That the film went on, in the context of the new video industry, to go viral and top rental lists for years is still rather amazing. I saw it many times in my teens and 20s. This is my age speaking, but I now question why I'd want to see it more than once. I mean, I know what I was like then, and what the answer to that is, but still--it's an extremely unpleasant film.

Otm, a genuinely monstrous movie in the right mood

It was interesting seeing the restored Wake in Fright (aka Outback) recently, which definitely feels like a precursor to TCM in some ways - both films shimmer with oppressive heat, are set in backwoods locations, and feature dysfunctional family units that bond around acts of violence. And both films can be experienced as grotesque gothic horrors, or as deep black comedies.

Lots of weird astrological shit in TCM, too.

I haven't seen TCM in years but loved Wake in Fright. The latter felt much nastier. I suppose because the monsters were drink fuelled men rather than a sole bogeyman.

Also it had an existential streak that I don't think was there in TCM. So basically I concentrated on the differences.

Well I guess in TCM the existential despair is felt by the 'monsters', rather than the victims - eg that amazing scene where Leatherface is crying and singing to himself and almost contemplating his own repulsiveness.

But of course we are all monsters, etc

Indeed we are..:-)

I meant to mention the final shot, which has to be in the running for greatest ever in a horror film. Carrie and the '78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers come to mind too...undoubtedly lots of them.

The most disturbing scene by far is where everyone at the dinner table ("dinner table") is taunting Sally. Yes, there's some existential despair from the old guy, when he complains that some things just have to be done, whether you like it or not. He gets over it quickly, though, and joins in on the taunting and laughter. Best line: "Do you like this face?"

http://letterboxd.com/gemko/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre/

Listen, and understand. This movie is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

http://m.tmz.com/#Article/2014/08/05/texas-chainsaw-massacre-marilyn-burns-dead-dies-houston

Wow. She's so memorable in that final shot.

http://moviemorlocks.com/2014/08/07/everything-means-something-i-guess-remembering-marilyn-burns/

This is my age speaking, but I now question why I'd want to see it more than once.

Same here, pretty much. My first time was a scratchy print at a midnight movie, predating home video availability, and I believe it's the closest I've ever gotten to experiencing that grindhouse vibe. I agree it's unpleasant, but also has an extremely effective way of getting under my skin that other, even more unpleasant, films did not. I think it's a low-budget, ramshackle masterpiece, but I don't think I want to see it again.

I saw TCM on the big screen last night, the second time I'd ever seen it. That was amazing. The audience was good and responsive. Leatherface leaping out of the woods got a bunch of screams, and I could see the crowd collectively flinching at the meat hook. The final shot took a few seconds to sink in before the applause began. Lots of laughs all throughout as well.

I was pleased at how well the first half of the movie holds up. The first time I saw it, I thought that the van scene was rather long and felt looser than the rest. Seeing it again, it is, but it works fine. Franklin really holds those scenes together. One of the most affecting moments is the one where he's entering the house alone, while the rest are upstairs laughing, and you can feel his separation from them.

My sister and I recently came to the consensus that Franklin is the worst character ever in any movie we've ever seen ever. Ever. Worst in the 'thank god he got chainsawed the fuck apart' sense.

Leatherface's first appearance from behind the sheet metal door is easily one of the top five horror shots of all time. Masterfully executed.

i've watched tcm so many times that the jump scares have lost a little impact (though yeah, masterfully executed), but what has never dulled for me is the unbearably...filthy vibe of the whole thing.

Love Franklin.

Yeah, I can't imagine the movie without him. On the other hand, him getting chainsawed is when Sally is thrust into the horror and the movie gets really good, shifting from sudden brutal kills to grinding nightmarish intensity.

Tobe Hooper obit roundup

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4865-the-daily-tobe-hooper-1943-2017

Does anyone know of good writing on Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

I think Robin Wood wrote about it for The American Nightmare. Let me check when I get home--if he did, I'll scan it and post it here. (There's also a paper I wrote my last year of university...can't vouch for that, though.)

I'm too much of a wuss for TSM, I guess, but that *is* one hell of an ending.

And yes, that Wood piece is great.

Also, given the Hooper/Spielberg connection, I have to ask: anyone see any connection/influence going on with the T-Rex roaring majestically at the end of Jurassic Park and the last shot of TCM? I brought this up to my class when we covered TCM, and a bunch of them laughed, but I don't know how convinced they were.

I'm sure there's a much more efficient way to do this, but here's the American Nightmare piece--it's a much longer piece that talks about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (I'm guessing you read it in one of Wood's collections, cryptosicko? I think copies of The American Nightmare are pretty scarce.)

1/2: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBAMy05ZmRuQ1M0MEU/view?usp=sharing
3/4: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBASzVxT0dGckNDenM/view?usp=sharing
5/6: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBARkR5a0JuSlhoZ2s/view?usp=sharing
7/8: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBANV9qX1paaUhqOVU/view?usp=sharing
9/10: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBAbi1tM1Y0QlU5Qk0/view?usp=sharing
11/12: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBASC1xSk1GMmY0REU/view?usp=sharing
13/14: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBAaDhwbXRJWDZMYnc/view?usp=sharing
15/16: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBARnFMZlowZDdJMUU/view?usp=sharing
17: http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SjjGanCdBAeVVWZkdUQ3VDdEk/view?usp=sharing

Thanks so much. I like Robin Wood but haven't read this piece. I'll have to find the TCM piece as well.

(or is this the "much longer piece"?)

I think this is it, jmm--I thought he had a separate piece on Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the book, but it's part of this piece. (The TCM section starts on pp. 9-10.)

Also, given the Hooper/Spielberg connection, I have to ask: anyone see any connection/influence going on with the T-Rex roaring majestically at the end of Jurassic Park and the last shot of TCM? I brought this up to my class when we covered TCM, and a bunch of them laughed, but I don't know how convinced they were.

It never occurred to me, but it is a funny connection/coincidence.

"The American Nightmare" is in Wood's (essential) Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan.

John Darnielle and Walter Chaw discussing TCM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54DwBGKQZ4c

oops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4d4sr4YCk

No Tobe Hooper thread...The Funhouse was my last bit of viewing for the Tarantino book. Not sure why I never saw it on release; my interest in horror films was exponentially greater then than now, ditto my admiration for TCM.

Haven't read Tarantino's chapter yet, but the film was okay. Looked good; expected something dingy-looking, but I PVR'd it from a local movie network, and I forgot it's 2023 and no one shows dingy-looking films. De Palma regular William Finley has a good five-minute scene. There was enough overlap with TCM in the father-monster relationship, and also in the dazed, traumatized survivors of both films, that I had the feeling Tobe Hooper had visions of thesis papers. There was a 10-minute stretch near the end where the monster screamed and flopped around while his would-be victim just stood there and then screamed and then stood there some more that was quite ludicrous.

Quite fond of that film. Finley appears in at least 3 Hooper films but I don't remember him in this one, always good to see him.

He's the whiskey-swigging magician who pretends to nail a stake into his daughter's heart; he's got this banter with the audience that's great (and Hooper includes, at a very low volume, some of the background heckling--captions help).

god, TCM3 was bad. gets off to such a good start atmospherically, and then sits in a holding pattern it never escapes forever.

also got tired of all the new family members turning up. at least Chop Top in TCM made sense as he was likely fighting IN Vietnam at the time, but didn't they have at least one relative who like wanted to be a Senator or something

also in watching TCM again, god Franklin gets bullied so hard, Sally totally lost his knife

awful lot of raspberry blowin in this ting

So I remembered the funniest line from TCM2 being “I’m fallin’ apart on ya, honey” but IMDb says it’s “I’m fallin’ hard for ya, honey.” The way I heard it makes more sense I think…?

i just watched it and I thought it was the former too

Cause skin is literally falling off of him as he says it

Yea that's why I thought that's what it was! Corny meta humor

https://i.ibb.co/jfDT9HN/FB-IMG-1674962885533.jpg

Me, nine years ago in this thread: "This is my age speaking, but I now question why I'd want to see it more than once." It was playing at a nearby rep tonight--4K restoration, what a gimmick; the print I saw nine years ago was also a restoration--so I of course was there, just so I could see it with an audience.

I've come to know the guy who runs the theatre a bit, so I was glad for him that it was almost full. I've crossed that too-many-times point with room to spare; my admiration for the film was even more detached than last time.

On the way home, though, I was thinking there's a book in the endings to some of the most prominent American films of 1974: TCM, Chinatown, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, California Split, The Parallax View. They all speak directly to the tumult and exhaustion of the previous decade: the apocalyptic violence of the first two, the numbness and spiritual depletion of the next three, and the way The Parallax View comes full circle to how it begins, the sense of time in a loop.

oh wow, the texas chainsaw massacre! that's one of my favorite chainsaw massacres.

doesn't hold a candle to Poughkeepsie's annual massacre

rally for the deer

"Night Moves" has another very '70s ending. Literally left going around in circles, iirc.

'75, but very much in line with the others I mentioned (plus the famous line about one side losing more slowly than the other).