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| MISCELANNOUS |
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| THE SAW IS FAMILY: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Series By Yodasnoog |
| As I have mentioned before here on SJCM, when I was a kid my mother used to tell me of how gory and violent the original Chain-saw Massacre was. But when I finally saw it (on a trusty Laserdisc bootleg) I was surprised at the lack of gore, but shocked at the high suspense, and overall high grit factor of the whole experience. So I thought I’d reminisce about the original, and it’s sequels. |
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| THE TEXAS CHAIN-SAW MASSACRE The original of the series has maintained its power to shock over the years. In my opinion, this comes from the way it is directed, instead of giving you all the death and carnage on a platter, Tobe Hooper decides to skid round it, showing only snippets here and there; mainly letting your own mind imagine the gore for itself, which is far worse. Telling the story of a bunch of teens travelling across Texas in a van that cross paths with the inbred cannibal family that is Leatherface, the hitchhiker, the cook, and grandpa. With many squirmy and excruciating scenes such as a girl being suspended from a meat hook in her back while she’s still alive, and Leatherface chain-sawing poor defenceless (and annoying) Franklin, who is in a wheelchair. Based on the real life exploits of Ed Gein, Chain-saw Massacre has that undeniable gritty seventies vibe to it, which all the great horror movies of that era have, something that you can’t really describe but you know it when you feel it. Anyway onto the sequels… |
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| THE TEXAS CHAIN-SAW MASSACRE 2 Over the years this has actually become my favourite, when I first saw it I thought it was pretty bad; I thought it looked like a TV movie with a moderate budget. But about a year later, Ada-Padz and myself caught a remastered, uncut version on FilmFour, and I really enjoyed it a lot, it’s amazing how much a nicely presented print can do for a movie. The sequel tells the story of radio DJ Stretch (Played by Caroline Williams, who looks great in those hot-pants: Blearrgggh!) who hears two people that call into her show get killed live on air. In steps Lefty (Dennis Hopper, who chew the scenery like a mother fucker in this movie) who is the uncle of Sally & Franklin from the first movie, and is determined to catch Leatherface and Co. Stretch decides to help Lefty by playing the tape of the murder on the radio, which ends up being a bad idea as Choptop (twin brother of The Hitchhiker, and played by the brilliantly psychotic Bill Mosley) comes to collect the tape and kill Stretch. Eventually Stretch ends up in the family’s hideout, the underground of an old fairground. The movie has many great scenes, including my favourite when Leatherface forces Stretch to wear the face of her skinned friend along with his cowboy hat and then dances with her, it’s a really fucked up and sadistic scene…but cool. Some reviews I’ve read didn’t like the way that Leatherface has a libido and human emotion in the sequel (due to him trying to fuck Stretch with his chain-saw, then trying to help her), but I think it gives him more character, it also shows that he is human and not just some mindless killing machine, it’s always better when killers have something more to them. Hopper really does take the biscuit thought, spouting off about “the lord” and running around like a mentalist with a fucking huge Chain-saw screaming like he’s having a bad acid flashback from his Easy Rider days. If you’ve only seen this once and hated it, give it another watch and see if it changes your mind. |
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| LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAIN-SAW MASSACRE III This is on the other side of the scale from TCM 2, this time the comedy is left turned down and the violence is turned up a notch. Telling the story of a couple that are driving a car somewhere, passing through Texas. When they stop for gas, they meet a man who needs a ride, but after an encounter with the crazy hick gas station attendant, he appears to get shot. The couple speed off, but Leatherface and Family are in hot pursuit. This is easily the most violent of the series, well…upfront violence. In one scene, the girl of the couple is tied to a chair and has her hands nailed down so she can’t get up. Ken Foree (Dawn Of The Dead) as a supporting role as a hunter who battles the family, Foree is always cool. This basically pays no attention at all to TCM 2, which is pretty stupid considering Leatherface had a chainsaw stuck in his gut when we last saw him. Another thing, is where the fuck did all these new family members come from. We have about 3 new brothers, an old woman and a little girl. Surely they couldn’t have inbred a new family that fast? Maybe they’re just relatives that have come to stay, you know the type, you want to relax and watch TV and they want to kidnap and torture young women, yeah I know the type. But the star of Chain-saw 3 is by far the gas station guy, with his post-Jerry Lewis voice, and his tendencies to look through his peephole and jerk-off. The man is a star. “Fuck you mister!” (You may have noticed that I’ve left out The Return Of The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre (or Next Generation or whatever), that is because I haven’t seen it, and refuse to see it. Any film that reduces Leatherface to a Chain-saw wielding cross dresser is blasphemous in my eyes. No offence to any cross dressers out there… especially the Chain Saw wielding types.) |