The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Rating:
Summary: A TRUE classic
Review: Texas Chainsaw Massacre...a movie that made me respect the horror genre when I saw it for the first time 5 years ago. I remember how amazed I was by the visuals of this...and how the picture was sort of grainy (you know, older looking). It really gave it that creepy effect. I didn't know what to expect, but I had heard nothing but good things about this movie. When LeatherFace first made his appearence, it happened without warning. That was the first time I EVER jumped when seeing a horror movie. Put away what you know about other horror movies you've seen before. This is nothing like them. Everything about this movie is fantastic. The acting, the sound, the way scenes are shot, everything. But what's more, the family of cannibals. Those three brothers and their grandpa, will always be with me.

I'm sure you've heard enough about this movie, so I won't waste your time with it (but nothing about TCM is ever a waste of time...except for the 3rd and 4th ones). Instead, I'll just tell you how cool the extras are.

On this DVD, is a commentary. One of the funnier commentaries I've heard actually. Gunner, Tobe, and some other guy talk about the movie and how terrible it was filming in the house with all the rotten meat and skin hanging around. They joke around about how slow Marilyn was when she's being chased, and how the truck at the end wasn't supposed to have trouble starting. I had a lot of laughs hearing what they had to say. The deleted scenes...RULE. Seeing LeatherFace put on make up for dinner is so charming, and there's also scenes of LeatherFace getting mad after losing Sally in the chase the first time, the HitchHiker's face close up after...well you know, and much more. It kinda sucks that they're deleted scenes, they would've fit into the movie really well I think. Other features include some script excerpts, cool photo galleries (not lame ones mind you, ones of make up processes for Grandpa, promo items, and more), a bloopers reel that WILL make you laugh, and then...there's the trailers for all the movies in the series. Let me tell you something about these trailers, don't take them seriously. Please. Especially the third one. I'm not even going to go into detail, but it stuns me to this day, why the third one is considered the worst *coughSarcasmcough*

Buy this DVD. For one that was released way before DVD format got popular, it has great extras. The picture/audio quality is really good as well. But of course, get this DVD if you think you have good taste in horror movies...or just movies in general. I love you LeatherFace. I'd be your friend.

Rating:
Summary: HORRIFIC AND TERRIFIC...
Review: I first saw this this low budget horror film on the silver screen when it was first released in the nineteen seventies. I went to see it with my then husband and spent most of the film cowering under my jacket. I remembered it as one of the most frightening films that I had ever seen.

Time has jaded me somewhat, as I was able to watch it the film the second time around without resorting to cowering under my jacket. Of course, the second time I saw it was on my television screen and not a giant theatre screen, which probably helped. It is still, however, one of the most frightening films ever made.

Based upon a true story of a nineteen fifties psycho named Ed Gein, the film has a quasi-documentary feel to it with its grainy footage and cast of virtual unknowns. The film is a visual cornucopia of terror and horror, though there is actually very little gore shown on screen. The unusually macabre sets and the relentless sound of the chainsaw bandied by Leatherface are enough to make the viewer tremble.

The storyline is simple. A group of five teens set off in their van and end up in a rural area, where two of the teens, Sally and Franklin, a brother and sister, are checking out some of their family history. Unfortunately, they come across a house inhabited by one heck of a family of crazies. From the moment they do so, the viewer is taken on a heart-pounding, one-of-a-kind film experience. Deftly directed by Tobe Hooper, this film is a masterpiece for its genre. It is simply one of the scariest and best horror films ever made. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best horror movie ever
Review: A lot of people have misconceptions about this movie. People who haven't seen it, that is. Just the other day I read a review in the newspaper of a different movie, that mentioned "explicit gorefest movies like Texas Chain Saw Massacre". But anybody who has seen it will realise, there isn't actually that much gore at all. A few subtle spatters of blood, but that's it.
This movie proves that explicit gore it not neccesary for true horror. Its power relies on shock, and the fact that you can believe that this could possibly happen. (It didn't, if you were wondering). Forget slasher trash where the killers are supernatural, and are "seemingly" killed over and over. Let's face it, when you know there getting back up, it just isn't scary.
I don't expect you to take my word for it. Just go see it, then buy it. Don't let anyone else's advice stop you, just 'cause they didn't get it. See it and make up your own mind.

Rating:
Summary: a MUST SEE horror movie
Review: When I sat down to watch this movie i was expecting it to be a regular slasher film like Haloween or Friday the 13th but after watching this great masterpiece I proved myself wrong. This movie is the most well crafted horror movie i've ever seen and easily the best, from the sound of leatherface's buzzing chainsaw to the piercing screams of Sally this movie entertains and petrifys you from many aspects. So any horror fan that has not seen this beauty u must pick it up immediatly.

Rating:
Summary: Do Not Watch
Review: Ok, we rented this movie by mistake. We were under the impression that this was going to be another cheesy horror flick, like Nightmare On Elm Street. Little did we know, this movie contained scenes that were ABSOLUTELY DISTURBING. Me and my friend are trying to forget we even saw it. If you are a normal person that lives in an everyday neighborhood, you will not like this movie at all. This movie did not SCARE us, it just SICKENED us. THE WORST MOVIE WE'VE EVER SEEN. This movie literally makes you want to vomit. We read online reviews that said don't watch it, but we thought we could handle it. We didn't listen to the warnings. Well this is true advice, rent a comedy. Whatever you do, DO NOT watch this movie or any of it's sequels. I hope the creator of this movie goes to hell.

Rating:
Summary: Still NOT anamorphic widescreen
Review: This new "special edition" released Oct.'03 of TCM still is NOT anamorphic widescreen, just like the previous release...in fact the only thing that makes it a "special edition" as compared to the previous release is the double sided packaging! The movie itself is great & normally I would've given this 5 stars, but as far as I'm concerned it's a complete waste of money if it's not anamorphic.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Outragoues!!
Review: Well folks, I just sat down and watched this heart-pounding work of art on my brother's Playstation 2 with him and a friend of his and once again laughed and screamed at the same time! One of my former teachers, Mr. Wedel, has shown my class some kinds of movies based on true stories (like the super-boring Gettysburg), but he certainly never would've shown the class this TERROR-IFIC film! Tobe Hooper, YOU CREATED A MASTERPEICE!!!!!!

*Great DVD X-tras!

*Decent Sound!!

*TERROR-IFIC MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!

This movie can only get better and better every time I watch it! I also salute Leather-Face once again as a worthy opponent (even for villain who was made in the 1970's) !!!

I just recently ordered The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from this same site. From what I read from other customer reveiw is that TCM 2 is unrated in Canada and rated R here, that's how freaky the sequel is AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT FOR MYSELF!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: This Movie Is TERROR-IFIC!!!!!!
Review: I just finished watching this movie and was not dissapointed! Although, I thought the ending was a bit lacking but overall, a great, "TERROR-IFIC" piece of horror. The "night falls" scene where Leather-Face (played magificently by Gunnar Hansen, by the way) makes his second appearence and kills Franklin (an annoying, wheel-chaired cripple) and then chases Sally (our blonde damsel in destress) through the forest (havin' lotsa fun! Heh heh!). And the "dinner party" scene is pretty freaky, too!

And of you horror lovers like this, be sure to try THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, EATEN ALIVE, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and CROCODILE (2000). Also the remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE!

Rating:
Summary: Let's Hope the Remake Is Better
Review: The very title of this film is the thing of which horror film legend is made. And so it has been since I've been around (I'm 35). Somehow I managed to never view this flick until I heard that a new version was coming and I wanted to be able to compare the original to the 21st century version.

Despite everything I'd heard, I was really disappointed. The movie begins on the road as five young friends (yes, two are brother and sister) cruise through small Texas towns in a van. After stopping for gas only to learn that the tanker has yet to arrive, they head to the nearby residence of a former relative. There the trouble begins.

Two of the friends head for a nearby swimming hole and discover a neighboring house. From that point, it's essentially what we'd call today "cut and paste". A droll and simple movie. Kill, kill. Slash, slash. No, I wasn't expecting Ben-Hur or Psycho, but after all the hype I figured this movie had more to offer than a brief cookie-cutter plot that could have come from the mind of a ten-year-old.

Grandpa's last effort at killing was something of an oddity, though.

Rating:
Summary: A classic without a reference point
Review: Why is the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" a classic? It seems to lack the very details that make something a shining representative of its genre. The characters are annoying, the dialogue mundane, the production qualities basement-budget, the gore gratuitous, and the character development nonexistent. People are introduced to be degraded, chopped into pork ribs, and hung from meat hooks. The plot consists of college students (who are so boring you hardly care when they're cut down) wandering around whimsically before being lunged at by the maniacal Leatherface and his Energizer-battery chainsaw.
The film is absolutely grotesque. At the time, it was a true original. I would argue that that's what made it a classic. No one had gone to this extreme before, and movies that shock and repulse tend to leave a big impression. Dissect this film and you're left with cruddy shreds of celluloid with little redeeming value. But as a whole it shocked a nation, even if it took liberties with the Ed Gein story. I admit that the first half was the equivalent of shock therapy. Most of the characters died quickly and bloodily. But the second half became repetitive and truly disgusting. One long chase scene, with a notorious climax at the family dinner table that seemed to go on forever. It was excruciating, and I don't mean that in a good sense. Horror movies that truly disturb me also make me smile at how effective they are at piercing my nerve endings. "Texas Chainsaw" both disturbed me and made me pull out a garbage bag in case I needed to heave my guts.
Atmosphere is everything in this movie. And dread. Can you praise a film solely on the merit of its emotional impact? Even if the rest of it is a gore-soaked slasher flick? If "Texas Chainsaw" had come out after the glut of "Friday the 13ths" and "Halloweens" and "Nightmare on Elm Streets" would it still be considered a classic? Or would that pedestal crumble into a heap of pulverized bones?
I enjoyed this film to a point, and then I was repulsed. I had to suppress a gag reflex every time the poor girl (with a nails-on-chalkboard scream) was humiliated by the family of backwoods cannibals. The ending truly defied logic, making me wonder if it would have been more terrifying if the story had adhered to the Ed Gein biography more stringently.
As it stands, the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remains a classic. It lives in infamy, reminding us of the first time we saw such relentless human degredation splattered onto the big screen. If it had been released twenty years later, it would simply seem redundant.