Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Reapers 2024

- Faultline 2024

- Yesterday Is Almost Here 2024

- House of the Wizard's Blackened Soul 2024

- I Like It Rough 2023

- Listen Carefully 2024

- Exodos 2024

- Meat Machine 2024

- Amnesia 2024

- Gunner 2024

- Cryptids 2023

- Helemaal het Einde 2024

- Devon 2024

- The Coffee Table 2022

- The Devil's Disciples 2024

- Forgive Me Father 2024

- Le Monstro 2024

- Home-less for the Holidays 2024

- Carnage for Christmas 2024

- Don't Look Up - Again 2024

- Scott and Sid 2021

- Saving Christmas 2024

- Spiders in the Wall 2024

- 7vens Law 2024

- Dark Night of the Soul 2024

- The Journey 2014

- Do Not Open 2024

- Christmas Cowboy 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Stalkers 2024

- Massacre at Femur Creek 2024

- American Trash 2024

- Devil's Knight 2024

- A Woman Under an Inferno Sky 2024

- Down Below 2024

- Opportunity 2024

- The Box 2024

- I Curse This Land 2024

- Jurassic Pet 3 2024

- Fried 2023

- Bad Guys in Hell 2000

- Charisma Killers 2024

- Broken Innocence 2024

- 9 Windows 2024

- The Bloody Baxters 2022

- Derailed 2024

- The Disposable Soma - The Little Assassin 2024

- The Last Front 2024

- Tales from the Void - Into the Unknown 2024

- Alien Country 2024

- Beautiful Friend 2023

- Aiden 2024

- Deadly Display 2023

- Sundays with Dad 2024

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Blutgericht in Texas

USA 1974
produced by
Tobe Hooper, Lou Peraino, Jay Parsley (executive), Kim Henkel (associate), Richard Saenz (associate) for Vortex
directed by Tobe Hooper
starring Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A.Pertain, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen, John Dugan
written by Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, music by Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper, art direction by Robert A. Burns

Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface, Ed Gein

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

A group of teenagers - Sally (Marilyn Burns), her wheelchairbound brother Franklyn (Paul A.Pertain), her boyfriend Jerry (Allen Danziger), Kirk (William Vail) & his girlfriend Pam (Teri McMinn) - pick up a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal - henceforth called Hitchhiker) on their trip through rural Texas, who thanks them by freaking them out by cutting himself in the hand & Franklyn in the arm. Fortunately the kids get rid of him, but unfortunately they decide to spend the night at the abandoned house of Sally's & Franklyn's parents nearby. Not a good idea, since their neighbours there are laid-off butchers who, despite being out of work, have not given up their trade. First Kirk & Pam stumble over their house, & Kirk is soon met with the wrong end of a sledgehammer being wielded by a weird man wearing a leathermask (Gunnar Hansen - henceforth called Leatherface), while Pam accidently enters the room where the butchering family store their bones & make artworks of them - much to her horror. But much more horrific is that she is caught by Leatherface, who hands her up on a meathook & has her watch as he cuts her boyfriend apart ... Our remaining teenagers after some time grow worried over the whereabaouts of their friends, so Kirk goes looking for them - to get a taste of Leatherface's hammer firsthand. Meanwhile it has grown dark, & Sally & Franklyn are understandably worried about their friends, so they go on a search too - which ends all of a sudden when - without warning - Franklyn is cut to pieces by Leatherface's chainsaw. Sally however can escape the maniac, but her escape route leads her to the house of horrors, whicvh she flees in horror when meeting the corpses of grandpa & grandma (that grandpa [John Dugan] is not really dead we do not learn until later in the picture, he certainly looks dead though). Finally our girl reaches a gas station & considers herself in safety - until she finds out the owner (Jim Siedow - henceforth called Old Man) is actually the head of the family, and he beats her unconscious. When she re-awakens, she finds herself at the head-end of a perverse dinnertable, bound to a chair made of human remains, & considered to be the main course, with the whole murderous family - the Old Man, Grandpa, Leatherface & Hitchhiker - staring at her with appetite, & Grandpa even sucking blood from her finger. Then they come up with the idea of letting Grandpa slaughter her - he was once considered the best in the business -, but the old man is much too old to lift the slaughtering hammer, much less wield it, providing Sally with an opportunity to escape, with Hitchhiker & Leatherface in hot pursuit. Once she reaches the main road, Hitchhiker is run over by a truck while she manages to hitch a ride, with Leatherface menacingly waving his chainsaw as Sally is leaving into the rising sun.

 

Being highly controversial upon its release & considered pure trash by many, Texas Chainsaw Massacre today has the status of being one of the true classics of modern horror movie - & I happen to totally agree. Despite having the reputation of being a pure gore-flick - which it garnered from its critics upon its release - this movie shocks more by its macabre details than its - relatively restraint by today's standards - use of gore. Also great care was given to the creation of a menacing atmosphere, & by the use of weird filters so even the scenes shot in broad daylight have a certain eerie feeling. The totally depersonalized Leatherface as the main killer also adds to the horrors, as his raw presence & unpredictability totally lack the relative elegance & sophistication of even Halloween's Michael Myers. That the teenagers' characters are etched out just well enough to have us care for them without reverting to too much clichés or taking up too much screentime introducing them is another plus that does set Texas Chainsaw Massacre apart from movies of similar ilk.

Director Tobe Hooper, despite all the qualities of that movie, never managed to make another film that was even half as good. Most of his later movies were pure trash, & even those that were somewhat entertaining were so on a vastly inferior level - & often for all the wrong reasons.

But whatever Tobe Hooper's shortcomings, in 2003 the talentless Hollywood-airhead Michael Bey produced an impersonal popcorn-remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Simply put: You MUST NOT watch that movie !!!

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Texas Chainsaw Massacre here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!