Texas Chainsaw
Kirk and Pam leave the others behind, planning to have sex. They discover another nearby house, running gas-powered generators. Hoping to barter for gas, Kirk enters the house. A large man wearing a mask made of skin attacks Kirk with a hammer, killing him. When Pam enters the house, she finds its living room strewn with human and animal bones. The man grabs her, impales her on a meat hook, and starts up a gas-powered chainsaw to dismember Kirk's body as Pam watches. In the evening, Jerry searches for Pam and Kirk. When he enters the other house, he finds Pam's nearly-dead, spasming body in a chest freezer. The masked man kills Jerry with a hammer.
Texas Chainsaw
The next morning, Sally regains consciousness. The men taunt her and bicker with each other, resolving to kill her with a hammer. They try to include Grandpa in the activity, but Grandpa's grip is weak, and he drops the hammer repeatedly. Sally breaks free and runs onto a road in front of the house, pursued by the brothers. An oncoming truck accidentally runs over the hitchhiker, killing him. The truck driver attacks Leatherface with a large wrench, injuring him, and escapes on foot. Sally, covered in blood, flags down a passing pickup truck and climbs into the bed, narrowly escaping Leatherface. As the pickup drives away, Sally laughs giddily. Leatherface flails his chainsaw in frustration as the sun rises.
Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that the "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world", including Watergate, the 1973 oil crisis, and "the massacres and atrocities in the Vietnam War".[9] The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching the local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film".[12] The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through the crowd.[13]
The special effects were simple and limited by the budget.[37] The on-screen blood was real in some cases,[38] such as the scene in which Leatherface feeds "Grandpa". The crew had difficulty getting the stage blood to come out of its tube, so instead Burns's index finger was cut with a razor.[39] Burns's costume was so drenched with stage blood that it was "virtually solid" by the last day of shooting.[24] The scene in which Leatherface dismembers Kirk with a chainsaw worried actor William Vail (Kirk). After telling Vail to stay still lest he really be killed, Hansen brought the running chainsaw to within 3 inches (8 cm) of Vail's face.[34] A real hammer was used for the climactic scene at the end, with some takes also featuring a mock-up. However, the actor playing Grandpa was aiming for the floor rather than his victim's head.[40] Still, the shoot was somewhat dangerous, with Hooper noting at the wrap party that all cast members had obtained some level of injury. He stated that "everyone hated me by the end of the production" and that "it just took years for them to kind of cool off."[40][41]
After its initial British release, including a one-year theatrical run in London,[61] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was initially banned on the advice of British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) Secretary Stephen Murphy, and subsequently by his successor, James Ferman.[62][63] While the British ban was in force the word "chainsaw" itself was barred from movie titles, forcing imitators to rename their films.[64] In 1998, despite the BBFC ban, Camden London Borough Council granted the film a license.[65] The following year the BBFC passed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre uncut for release with an 18 certificate,[66][67] and it was broadcast a year later on Channel 4.[68][69]
Leatherface has gained a reputation as a significant character in the horror genre,[110][111] responsible for establishing the use of conventional tools as murder weapons and the image of a large, silent killer devoid of personality.[112][113] Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com said, "In our collective consciousness, Leatherface and his chainsaw have become as iconic as Freddy and his razors or Jason and his hockey mask."[114] Don Sumner called The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a classic that not only introduced a new villain to the horror pantheon but also influenced an entire generation of filmmakers.[115] According to Rebecca Ascher-Walsh of Entertainment Weekly, it laid the foundations for the Halloween, Evil Dead, and Blair Witch horror franchises.[116] Wes Craven crafted his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes as an homage to Massacre,[117] while Ridley Scott cited Hooper's film as an inspiration for his 1979 film Alien.[118][119] French director Alexandre Aja credited it as an early influence on his career.[120] Horror filmmaker and heavy metal musician Rob Zombie sees it as a major influence on his work, including his films House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005).[121][122]
Five friends travelling through rural Texas stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. The group soon find themselves picked off, one-by-one, by a masked madman with a chainsaw.
So, true story or not? Certainly there was no real family of cannibalistic chainsaw murderers slaughtering people in Texas, nor any actual series of chainsaw-related killings. Writer/director Tobe Hooper said the inspiration for the film came from his spotting a display of chainsaws while standing in the hardware section of a crowded store:
Here's what Tobe (director) and Kim (writer) told me themselves one night during the filming. They had heard of Ed Gein, the man in Plainfield, Wisconsin, who was arrested in the late 1950s for killing his neighbor and on whom the movie Psycho was based. So when they set out to write this movie, they decided to have a family of killers who had some of the characteristics of Gein: the skin masks, the furniture made from bones, the possibility of cannibalism. But that's all. The story itself is entirely made up. So, sorry folks. There never was a massacre in Texas on which this was based. No chainsaw either. And, in spite of those of you who have told me you remember when it happened, it really didn't happen. Really. Believe me. This is an interesting phenomenon. I've also had people tell me that they knew the original Leatherface, that they had been guards at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas, where he was a prisoner. Maybe they knew somebody who dreamed of being Leatherface. It is, I suppose, something to aspire to.
When Chop Top and brother Drayton (Jim Siedow) discover that Vanita is still alive after finding her in the Sawyer family's home in an abandoned amusement park called the Texas Battle Land, which Chop Top bought using government checks, the brothers hold her captive and decide to let the decrepit patriarch of the Sawyer family, Grandpa (Ken Evert), kill her with Chop Top's help. Vanita is saved when protagonist Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper) arrives and engages Leatherface in a chainsaw duel. The battle between the Sawyers and Lefty reaches a climax when a hand grenade, accidentally set off by Drayton, explodes and kills Grandpa, Lefty, Drayton and possibly Leatherface, as well as presumably destroying the puppet-like corpse of Nubbins Sawyer.
Narrowly escaping the grenade explosion, Chop Top follows Vanita to the top of the Matterhorn attraction in the Texas Battle Land, which the Sawyers converted into a shrine known as "Chainsaw Heaven". Slashing Vanita and himself several times with a straight razor, Chop Top is finally subdued when Vanita stumbles upon the mummified corpse of Great-Grandma Sawyer and tears a chainsaw out of the corpse's hands. In the ensuing struggle, Vanita slashes Chop Top across the abdomen with the chainsaw and sends him plummeting into the ruins of Texas Battle Land. He is presumed dead.
Meanwhile, Jenny is approached by Vilmer's truck, and he offers to drive her to the accident. Their small talk soon grows disturbed, and Jenny sees the bodies of Sean and the other motorist in the back of the truck. She leaps from the car and runs into the woods, where Leatherface appears with a chainsaw. She flees, soon stumbling upon the farmhouse, and runs inside. Leatherface breaches the front door, and Jenny jumps from the second-story window onto the roof. She manages to leap from the roof and hang from a telephone line, but Leatherface cuts it with his chainsaw and she falls into a greenhouse below.
Inside, Vilmer taunts Jenny, but she manages to take control by obtaining a shotgun. She takes Darla's car keys and attempts to leave, but is stopped by Vilmer. She is taken back inside and dressed by Darla, who confides that Vilmer works for a secret society operation, the "same people who killed JFK." Jenny is taken to the dinner table, surrounded by the corpses of the Sawyer family in addition to Leatherface, who is now dressed in drag. Vilmer explains Leatherface's plan to take Jenny's face. A melee ensues, which is interrupted by the arrival of Rothman, a mysterious man in black, near dawn. He expresses disdain for the manner of Vilmer's exploits, and displays an array of piercings and scars on his abdomen before licking Jenny's face. After he leaves, Vilmer crushes Heather's skull in frustration and begins cutting himself. Leatherface and Vilmer attempt to decapitate Jenny with a chainsaw, but she manages to break free. 041b061a72