In the annals of horror movie history, it’s hard to imagine a world without Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.  It’s a movie that transcends its own hype (one of the few, I should point out).  In junior high school I remember this playing at the drive-in and kids coming to school bragging about how they saw it.  They said it was based on a true story and that it was really, really scary. 

Unlike other things that were talked about excitedly on the school playground, when I did finally see The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it indeed was “really, really scary”.  For years I thought that this was due to where I grew up.  In the rural south, it’s really easy to imagine a seemingly abandoned house full of crazy, inbred cannibals because there really are old abandoned houses everywhere.  In fact, this past Christmas I drove from Athens, Georgia to the Atlanta airport (a one and a half hour drive at worst) and my route took me past eight such houses in varying states of decay.  They stand mostly in pastureland or next to pine tree forests that lead to God knows where.   

In Southern California, it’s much harder to find an abandoned house, and so when my wife watched The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with me for her very first time, I thought she would shrug it off.  In fact, it disturbed the shit out of her, particularly the scene with Grandpa at the dinner table.  Later on, when she moved with me out to Georgia, she was surveying a patch of woods for her Geology degree and stumbled upon an opening to an old underground Civil War armory.  When she went to look inside, there were heaps of bones and rotting entrails.  Hunters had used it to dress deer carcasses, but she told me her first thought was that someone with a chainsaw was right around the corner.   

That was four years after I first showed her the film.  Think about that for a second.  What other movie can you imagine would garner that kind of reaction four years after your only viewing of it?     

Chances are, if you’ve seen an explosion in real life, you didn’t think about Die Hard or Mission Impossible, but when you see a man with a chainsaw, even briefly, you think about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre if you’ve ever once seen the film.  You can’t help it.  It crawls into a deep dark spot in the back of your mind and settles there forever.  

If you’ve never seen the film before, the story follows five young people on a road trip to visit the grave of a relative.  On their way back, they come across a house that is the home of a particularly twisted family.  That’s all I’ll say.  If you’ve never seen this film, you should because it’s important.  It’s not important in a Million Dollar Baby / Oscar-winning way.  It’s important because it fundamentally changed the horror genre and had a visible impact on every single horror film that came after it.

That’s no mean feat.  Even movies about supernatural horror subjects have shots or scenes within them where The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s effect can be seen.  Director Tobe Hooper’s film, based on a taut screenplay he co-wrote, is practically a lesson on how to scare the absolute bejesus out of someone, and Cinematographer Daniel Pearl’s debut on film plays no small part in that.  Pearl went on to shoot the award winning video for The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” as well as the 2003 remake of TCM.  His use of light and shadow, foreboding tracking shots and out of focus/into focus shooting gives the movie an incredibly unnerving feel.  It’s evident from the very first frames where complete blackness is spasmodically broken by camera flashes revealing rotting body parts. Hooper and Pearl (and co-writer Kim Henkel and art director Robert Burns) created a film that does not let up over its 84 minutes, and they ultimately leave viewers feeling like they’ve just finished running for their own lives. 

Dark Sky’s re-release of this film is very much welcomed and they’ve done it right.

Presentation 
The film is fully restored and remastered, which is exactly the kind of treatment a film this important deserves.  Forget the fact that it was a low budget, independent affair shot in the 1970s.  This film gets strong reactions from everyone who sees it, and the restored print will intensify those reactions.  There is no dust, dirt or grime in the frame.  The soundtrack is immaculately remastered.  Any chance that a viewer could find something wrong with the film to help pull themselves out of the intensity of the story is gone.  Dark Sky did this very, very well. 

Extras 
There are a ton of extras on here.  First up there are the two commentaries, one by the actors Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danziger and art director Robert A. Burns and another by Tobe Hooper, Daniel Pearl and Gunnar Hansen (the actor who plays Leatherface in the movie).  Both are worth your while.  I’m almost positive that the actorscommentary must have been on an earlier DVD release as some of the people talking have since passed away, however that’s no reason not to trade up for this version if you’ve got an older one.   

Hooper, Pearl and Hansen focus on the technical side of things but still make for an enjoyable listen.  The actors focus on the atmosphere on set and tell some fun stories. All of the accounts of horrific shooting schedules and almost unbearable set conditions are mimicked in the documentaries but they are still fun to hear.  

Next up, the documentary “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth” tells the story of the making of the film and the subsequent problems and bad blood created after its success.  This was made back in 2000 and was also featured on a previous release. 

However, the documentary “Flesh Wounds” is brand new and well worth your time.  Broken into parts it focuses on seven “stories” that spring from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre which were not really covered in the 2000 documentary.  The first is a piece on Daniel Pearl which is fun and insightful.  Others include a segment on the house itself and what became of it and a segment on the TCM alumni who are recently deceased.  Definitely watch “The Shocking Truth” first as it will give you the background you need to better understand this documentary, but don’t miss this either. 

The Gunnar Hansen tour of the TCM house is dry but if you’re a fan of the film, you’ll enjoy seeingwhat’s become of it and probably laugh when you see the staircase.  Additionally there are deleted scenes, outtakes, bloopers (which are actually pretty funny), trailers, TV spots, radio spots, a still gallery and even outtakes from the 2000 documentary.  All told, there are so many extrason this package that I’m surprised there’s not an Easter egg where a still of a kitchen sink pops up. 

The Bottom Line 
If you own the film already and are a fan, you need to pony up some cash and get it again.  It’s never looked better.  It’s never sounded better and it will still scare the crap out of you even if you’ve seen it more than once.