The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 

Genre: Slasher

Melanie's rating: 7,5

Of course we had to start of Chainsaw Cinema with a Texas Chainsaw Massacre review :D. I took this review from my personal blog, where I posted this review some time ago.

Here's what Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about:

Sally Hardesty and her wheelchaired brother Franklin along with three friends travel to a cemetary where there have been grave robbings. To continue their trip, they pick up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker turns out to be crazy so they drop him off and proceed with the trip. They go to visit an old house where Sally and Franklins' Grandfather used to live. One follows a trail from the back of the house and that's when it all begins. 

This was my first time watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I did already watch the remake and the prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Texas Chainsaw 3D, but they are very difficult to compare. I expected that it would be a lot like the remake, but that wasn't really true. The remake contains a lot more (interesting) dialogue, is a lot more bloody and makes Leatherface look more as a tool of his family rather than an actual person. 

Now, the interesting dialogue is of course what I liked more about the remake, it was easier to watch and especially more interesting to watch. I think that Michael Bay's attempt for remaking this movie is done very well actually. The gore doesn't matter a whole lot I think, we know that the effect of a chainsaw will be bloody, it's doesn't have to show all those details to make it more interesting. There's indeed a lot more gore in the remake and while I liked it, I also liked the 'softer' version of it. What I liked more about this movie was that Leatherface seemed to be more a person. He is frustrated when someone escapes, and shows that very clearly. Also, he gets hurt by his own chainsaw and he actually screams in pain. In the remake he seems more like some sort of indestructible robot or something. 

What is very notable about this movie is the noise. There's a lot of noise. Noise in a screaming form, not the most pleasant one. Screaming is kinda normal in a horror movie, but this amount of screaming was just nonsense. The sound isn't all too well because it's an older movie, so while they were talking I had to turn the volume up, but then the screaming started so I had to turn the volume down again because it was very annoying. In the end it resulted in changing the volume a lot. 

I liked the acting, especially from Edwin Neil (the hitchhiker), but I didn't like it very much from the main characters. Especially Paul Partain (Franklin) annoyed the crap out of me. 

The camera work is kinda variable, some shots are too dark to see anything, but the end shot with Leatherface being frustrated is done beautifully. Amazing scene I think.

I like both remake and original, perhaps the remake a bit more. I do think it's difficult to compare these two though because they're very different.