My Top 3 Video Nasties: #3 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

In 1954 Gein was arrested after a robbery at a local hardware store and was connected with the disappearance of the hardware store's owner. After searching his rural Texas farmhouse, local law enforcers were horrified to see severed heads as ornaments, decomposing body parts hanging from beams in the kitchen and a suit made entirely of human flesh. Hooper uses the Gein story to produce a psychologically disturbing and graphic horror film.

On an idyllic summer afternoon, a group of teenagers stumble across a secluded farmhouse, looking for petrol for their van. As each teenager enters the house they are butchered by Leatherface, a chainsaw-wielding maniac and his family who are also mentally unstable. Perhaps the most graphic part of the film is the psychological terrorisation of the character 'Sally' in the final third of the film.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a great example of a successful low budget horror film, costing only $80,000 to make. The movie had such an impact that a remake of the same name was produced in 2003, it was a decent remake but failed to re-create the terror of the original.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) banned the film on the authority of James Ferman, the secretary of the BBFC at the time, refusing it an adult rating. Despite this local councils such as Camden in London granted their picture houses permission to screen the film, contrary to the protests of the BBFC.

In 1999 the film was released uncut in the UK with a BBFC Spokesman saying:

"The board's conclusion, after careful consideration, was that any possible harm that might arise in terms of the effect upon a modern audience would be more than sufficiently countered by the unrealistic, even absurd nature of the action itself. It is worth emphasising that there is no explicit sexual element in the film and relatively little visible violence."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not for the faint-hearted, but is artistically shot. The last third of the film as Leatherface stalks Sally in the backdrop of the sunset is macabre yet very artistic and visually striking. The soundtrack is rather sinister compromising of eerie gut wrenching effects that reach a fever pitched level during psychologically disturbing scenes such as the torture of Sally in the final third of the movie.

Watch it, digest it, dissect it ...

Original Trailer: