Here's a true exploitation flick that somehow managed to work it's way into horror classic status. Again, you'll notice I side-stepped the abhorrent remake and went back to the roots. That's my tip, folks: when in doubt, watch the original. How many remakes can you actually say are as good as the original? And even fewer actually manage to exceed the quality of the original. I'm lookin' at you Platinum Dunes! Stop ruining classic properties, come up with an original idea of your own and we'll see just how creative you guys can be. Show us your gusto!
Ok, all done with that, on to the flick. The opening narration, by none other than John Larroquette, tells us that the following events really transpired in a sweaty little town in Texas. If you've seen this or the remake you know the simple plot: 5 kids are on a road trip in the middle of the Summer: Sally, her invalid brother, Franklin, 2 guys, and another girl. Believe me, that's all you need to know about the characters. They pick up a hitchhiker which, as expected, doesn't end well. This is where the weirdness starts, and it really doesn't let up after that. The hitchhiker is clearly insane, he has a big spot of blood on his face and has pictures of slaughtered cows with him, which is a pretty good indicator that something could be amiss. After he cuts his own hand open, followed by cutting Franklin's arm, the kids toss the kitchhiker out and make their way to their (final) destination: an old, abandoned house that belonged to Sally and Franklin's grandfather. That house is pretty creepy, but it's the house next door they should have avoided.
A guy and girl go to check the house out after seeing gas pumps out back. I guess borrowing gas from your neighbor in Texas is like borrowing sugar anywhere else. Of course, the curious guy walks in the house looking for a tenant, and eventually he finds one: a large man in a skin mask and an apron belts him on the head with a sledgehammer and he's down for the count. This strapping gentleman is the fella we'll come to know as Leatherface. If you've watched enough horror movies you know what's coming next. When one friend disappears in the house all the other friends have to check it out too, one-by-one to disastrous results. One girl gets hung on a meat hook while Leatherface cuts up her boyfriend with the chainsaw, then another guy gets the old sledgehammer to the noggin.
After that, it drags out and gets really damn weird. Sally gets chased through the woods by our chainsaw wielding antagonist for, what seems like, an hour. They're in the woods, running, chasing, running, chasing, until Sally finds a house. She gets out of the house, and we're back to the woods: running, chasing, running, chasing. Then she winds up in the hands of, what turns out to be, Leatherface's uncle, who ties her up to bring her home to the family, where we find out the hitchhiker from earlier is Leatherface's brother. Then we get the dinner scene. Just weirdness from start to finish. I can understand that they're playing up the documentary feel of the film, and I couldn't imagine being in that situation. But if you're watching it now, in our cynical society, a society that has been morally desensitized by these kinds of films, it just feels dragged out and pretty damn weird (maybe even a little annoying). The scene is wall-to-wall cackling from the insane family while Sally screams and screams endlessly.
I like this film because of the feeling it gives, and I think that's what the filmmakers were after. It's fairly unsettling, but not dread-soaked like the remake is. The grainy film stock and the lack of musical score makes it feel like a homemade film, which I'm sure is the byproduct of a low budget. But it suits this kind of dirty, grimy horror perfectly. The remake looks like a movie, which is fake. This looks like real life, which is far more terrifying than a movie.
Next: The Shining
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