Review for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Blu-ray

I remember seeing ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ several times in the late 1970’s. It was like forcing yourself to go on the scariest ride at the theme park and a chance to see something of a dark-side merely hinted at in other less disturbing horrors. I had no notion that the very worst scenes had been cut – just that it was genuinely horrific and it’s loose, almost documentary-like hand-held camera –work making it seem all the more realistic and horrific.

Watching it for the first time in probably thirty years a few aspects of the film surprised me. Firstly that it is still relentlessly horrific – though less so than I remember it despite several cut scenes being re-instated. Secondly, so frightened by the film first time round, I had failed to notice how brilliantly Tobe Hooper and gang had constructed the film despite its minimal budget. The creepy and wildly inventive sound-scape alone (hear presented in glorious surround) should have put them in line for an Oscar. It may be grim subject matter but there is no doubting the herculean efforts that went into realising its vision – more than a year in post-production alone.

I remember the sickly feeling the film left me with on first viewings and maybe this was why I had avoided the film for so long. At the time of its airing, the Yorkshire Ripper was still at large (eventually caught on a road that my then student girlfriend was living on) and it was around that time that Dennis Nielson was caught with a flat full of murdered ‘guests’ including a severed head that had been boiled in a saucepan. In other words, as crazy as the film seemed, it struck a darkly realist chord as it endlessly made its way around the flea-pits of Britain in the late 70’s and early ‘80’s, some five or six years after it was made.

So now the film is 40 years old. But despite the flared jeans, hot-pants and psychedelic shirts, there is little that is dated about the film. Despite having been studiously copied (it’s likely that its influence was heavily felt on movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween), and many of its most grisly and shocking moments copied and multiplied in bloody intensity, it still has the power to shock. Much of that can be attributed to the sheer madness of it all, from the crazed, almost Lynchian surrealism of the hitchhiker scene right through to its grisly last supper (I won’t say more in case you haven’t seen it).

At times it still feels like your worst possible nightmare – far worse than anything your own mind could conjure, even in its most fevered state.

This new version, which ships with two blu-ray discs and a reversible cover (or steelbook if you prefer and don’t mind the extra fiver) is completely restored with a 4K 1080p transfer and major clean-up, as well as containing an un-cut version of the film. It also has a stunning 7.1 audio mix which really brings out the intensity of its score and sound-track.

For those who haven’t seen the film, here’s a rough-guide to its narrative. I won’t run you to the end because that would be telling and you can only see a film like this for the first time once.

A group of five youngsters return to the child-hood home of two of the group somewhere in the wilds of Texas. Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), her invalid brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) and their friends Jerry (Allen Danziger), Kirk (William Vail), and Pam (Teri McMinn).

Someone has been disturbing graves and creating hideous artworks from severed body parts in an almost ritualistic way and they want to check that their Granddad’s grave is OK. If that isn’t weird enough, as they travel towards their now derelict old house, they pass an abattoir and we learn that much of the killing is now automated with a triggered gun. Just as a conversation about the ‘old ways of killing’ ensues they see a lone hitch-hiker out in the mid-day Texas sun so they stop and let him in. He’s half covered in blood and it’s clear that he’s mentally disturbed, cutting his own hand with a knife and offering to take a photo for $2 before burning in in silver foil. He then produces a razor of his own and viciously cuts the arm of the wheel-chair bound member of the group, Franklin. Throwing the hitchhiker off the bus he leaves a strange icon on its side in blood as they try to pull away.

Later they make their way to the old house, stopping on the way for gas at a station that has run dry and seems to be manned by two backward hicks.

Moving on to the old house, they start to explore whilst two of the group set out to a near-by house to get some provisions. But the nearby house is silent except for a distant scratching pig-sound. Cue Leatherface and some of the most disturbing ‘kills’ you’ll ever see committed to celluloid.

From here the nightmare continues and it seems that Leatherface may not be acting alone.

For me the most disturbing scene, other than the obvious ‘hook’ scene, is where one of the girls enters the house to find her boyfriend and falls into a room filled with bones, feathers and rotting flesh with a large live chicken pushed into a small cage, squawking whilst the camera pans around some of the most hideous effigies and ‘art-works’ made from bones and leathery-skin. As the girl throws up in terror, it’s one of the singularly most unpleasant minutes of cinema I’ve ever sat still for. Truly horrific. Although I guess the dinner scene, and everything that leads up to that is equally grotesque and distrubing. Yeeeaaach.

For fans of the film, this edition is packed with incredible features, old and new, representing the most complete package you could imagine for a single feature film.

There’s a whole new commentary from the very normal, quite likable and highly intelligent Tobe Hooper (who also appears in various features) as well as a second commentary from Daniel Pearl, Sound Recordist Ted Nicolaou and Editor J. Larry Carroll.

There’s a previously released audio commentary with Tobe Hooper and Actor Gunter Hansen (who played Leatherface) and Daniel Pearl as well as a fourth audio commentary with actors Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger and Paul A Partain as well as Production Designer Robery Burns who did such an incredible job on the houses sets.

If four commentaries aren’t enough then Disc Two carries masses of illuminating features. ‘Cutting Chain Saw’ is a featurette with editor Larry Carroll who tells about the full year it took to cut the movie, and the constant frustrations through lack of finance. We hear what it was like to be the oldest guy on the set from the relatively young who wore the Grandpa make-up which would (almost literally) set the mould for many future horror films.

There are deleted scenes, out-takes, a look at all the locations (in an episode of ‘Horror’s Hallowed Grounds’) which show the house is now a Restaurant and the gas station a small road-side bar.

Through featurettes like ‘The Shocking Truth’, ‘Flesh Wounds’ and ‘Off the Hook’ (featuring Teri McMinn who was the one who did the hanging around), ‘The Business of Chain Saw’ (with Production Manager Ron Bozman) we hear about the trials and tribulations of making the movie in scorching temperatures with little or no support, very little money and a terrible mis-calculation on what the point-percentages would actually turn out to be. By the time the film was distributed, a mafia-run company had taken the lion’s share of the massive profits.

There are also interviews with cigar-chomping Tobe Hooper, a tour of the TCM house, radio spots and more. It’ll keep you occupied for days.

Image quality is surprisingly good – much better and less grainy than I remember it and, despite the budget approach, it generally holds up well even on a 50” TV.

Although its graphic violence and dark and claustrophobic atmosphere will not be for everyone, TCM is a really excellent film and this package is probably as good as it’s going to get. If you know what you’re getting into and have a stomach for such things, you’ll definitely want to add this to your collection.