TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE ORIGINAL MOVIE

Romero’s 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead, but Hooper lamented that Romero’s successors made films that “were so Hollywood-looking. “My sensibilities had been finely attuned to what I wanted to see as an audience member.” In the early 1970s, the horror genre had been goosed by the innovations of George A. “I really was trying to make a film that I wanted to see and hadn’t seen before,” Hooper said. But the real terror starts once they get to the family home, noticing another house nearby. Stories of graveyard-robbing are all over the news, and an edgy hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) attacks them along the way. They and their buddies venture to the family’s old rundown house in the middle of nowhere. They’re mostly nondescript, and it’s not even clear which of them is the main character - that only happens by default once Sally (Marilyn Burns) outlives the rest of her crew, including her brother Franklin (Paul A. At first, it’s merely the saga of five young people on a road trip in Texas. Technically speaking, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t a post-apocalyptic film, although you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

That it also happens to be relevant to so many of our modern concerns is merely icing on the cake of a truly disturbing, visionary work.

TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE ORIGINAL MOVIE

And with a sequel arriving on Netflix on Friday, which I haven’t seen yet, now’s as good a time as any to reflect on a movie that’s like a raw wound, a nasty little piece of business that feels unholy, downright evil. If anything, the film is even uglier and scarier now than when it came out. But where other movies - especially horror movies - lose their vibrancy as they get older, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre refuses to let you mock it. Sure, there are some awkward performances and a few other elements of that 1974 horror film that haven’t aged well. I’ve never seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the big screen, but I have a feeling that irritating phenomenon doesn’t occur at repretatory houses when it’s showing.

This tendency by some people is supposed to signal to the rest of us how much smarter they are than the movie: Look how silly this film is with its odd-speaking characters and their antiquated attitudes! There’s nothing lazier or more smug - yes, not everything in certain masterpieces holds up, but that doesn’t mean you need to let everybody else in the theater be aware that you realize it. It’s always annoying to go to a revival screening and listen to oh-so-hip audience members laugh at what’s archaic or dated about some classic film.

Texas chain saw massacre original