The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

In director Tobe Hooper's exploitative, low-budget (reportedly $150,000) seminal, hand-made cult horror film - it was one of the most effective, box-office successes of the 70s; the grindhouse horror classic, a real rural nightmare, was originally shot in 16mm, giving it a raw, documentary feel.

Hooper's notorious first film, about a terrorized group of teenagers, was loosely based on the true crimes of grisly, notorious Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, as was Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Three on a Meathook (1972), Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile (1974), and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Its tagline: "Who will survive and what will be left of them?" hinted at the massacre to follow, although it was fairly bloodless, surprisingly. It actually had less gory chainsawing scenes than might have been expected, although it was full of bashings, hackings, and impalements - usually beginning with Leatherface jumping out of the shadows. The tagline asked:

"Who will survive and what will be left of them?"

The lead horror character, chain-saw toting, human skin-mask wearing Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) was part of a crazed, inbred family of psychopathic cannibals who ran a human meat-packing plant; Leatherface was both repulsive and muscular, in his Grand Guignol pursuit of victims -- five young hippie Texans (including Marilyn Burns as victimized Sally) to butcher with a power tool.

There were numerous sequels (prequels, remakes, etc.) to the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, stretching almost 50 years!, with many non-continuous plot lines and creative connections between the films:

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), also directed by Hooper, a very dark comedy starring Dennis Hopper and Bill Moseley; it was set twelve years after the events of the first film
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (1990) (aka Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), directed by Jeff Burr, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kate Hodge; it was a direct sequel to the original that ignored the previous film
4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994) (aka The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre), directed by Kim Henkel and featuring future stars Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger; in the earlier series of films, this was the last sequel to the original 1974 film
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), a gorefest remake or reboot from producer Michael Bay, with Jessica Biel as one of the terrorized teenagers; the most successful of all of the films so far at $80.5 million (domestic)
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), producer Michael Bay's prequel or origin film to his rebooted 2003 remake and another direct sequel to the 1974 film, starring Jordana Brewster, Matt Bomer and Doira Baird, originally rated NC-17 until cuts reduced it to an R-rating
7. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) - directed by John Luessenhop; the Leatherface franchise received a face-lift (or another reboot) with the production of this 7th installment of the original; it was a direct sequel (that ignored all the other films); the homicidal maniac Leatherface was portrayed by Dan Yeager, with Alexandra Daddario as his victim Heather; the film featured cameos of previous TCM actors, including Marilyn Burns (Sally in the original), John Dugan (Leatherface's grandfather), and even Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) himself
8. Leatherface (2017)
9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

The film opened with a sober narration about a crime spree - vandals desecrating graveyards in a remote section of Texas, although it was not based on a true incident.

• a small group of five young hippie Texans would soon become Leatherface's innocent victims - they were enroute to the possibly-vandalized grave of grandfather Hardesty. The five main characters were: Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), Franklin Hardesty (Paul A. Partain), Sally's brother, paraplegic and wheelchair-bound, fat, and sadistic, Jerry (Allen Danziger), Sally's boyfriend, Pam (Teri McMinn), Sally's friend, and Kirk (William Vail), Pam's boyfriend
• after visiting the gravesite, while on their way to the Hardesty homestead, they picked up a scary-looking hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), later revealed as Leatherface's brother, who cut himself with a pocket-knife, and also slashed Franklin on his arm with a straight-edged razor
• they stumbled upon a small house while awaiting a delivery of gasoline at the local service station, where the slaughter was about to begin; the film's most indelible image was in the following shocking sequence; Pam's boyfriend Kirk entered the unlocked front door of a deserted-looking clapboard house, as he repeatedly called out: "Hello, hello...Anybody home?"; he heard squealing noises and saw a open doorway in the hall beyond which was a red-colored wall covered with skulls and bones; a sliding door suddenly opened, and Kirk was immediately and surprisingly attacked by a lunging, apron-wearing, roaring chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, wearing a butcher's apron and a stitched, human-skin mask
• Kirk was clobbered in the head (twice) with a large mallet or sledgehammer - his legs kicked and twitched during a wild convulsive seizure as he was dragged into the killer's lair - and its steel-metal door was forcibly slammed shut; later, Kirk was butchered into pieces inside the lair
• after being snatched on the porch, screaming Pam was hung on a meat hook through her upper back; she was compelled to watch the chain-saw butchering of Kirk before she was placed in a deep freezer
• while searching for Kirk and Pam, Sally's boyfriend Jerry had his head bludgeoned with a sledgehammer, after he had discovered a deep-frozen, half-dead Pam in a large chest freezer
• in a night scene, wheel-chair bound, whiny Franklin Hardesty, Sally's brother, was slaughtered when Leatherface applied his roaring chainsaw (held high over his head) to his stomach
• in the concluding lengthy scene, Sally Hardesty (the sole survivor) was bound and gagged, and held captive at the clan's dinner table; her finger was cut and served as a bloody appetizer for the weakened, withered, vampiric and patriarchal Grandfather (John Dugan)); as she watched in horror while being restrained, she saw the Grandfather suck on her wounded finger; she was about to serve as the "dinner" main course for the deranged clan of captors

Sally's Screaming Ordeal at the Dinner Table - She Was a Finger Appetizer & Dinner

• the Grandfather was given a hammer to strike at Sally ("Hit that bitch!"), who was forced to kneel in front of him with her head over a large metal bucket, but he was too weak to do any harm
• during the chaotic scene, she escaped by plunging through a window and frantically running down the farmhouse road, while being chased by the hitchhiker (Leatherface's brother) and Leatherface himself (dressed as a woman); the former was gruesomely run over by a semi-truck; with a bloodied face, Sally screamed at the horrific sight as the body was crushed by the huge truck tires

Sally Taking Flight From House

Semi-Truck Accident, Killing the Hitchhiker (Leatherface's brother)

Sally's Reaction

• she was able to climb into the red cab of the semi, as Leatherface approached with his churning chainsaw; Sally fled again out the other side of the cab with the frantic driver, and hailed down a passing pickup truck; she jumped into the back, and with a bloody and deranged-look, she laughed as the spinning and twirling Leatherface - in the golden dawn - swung his buzzing chainsaw through the air in a frustrating, exaltant dance