Texas, in the middle of nowhere: five teenagers fall prey to the hands of a cannibalistic family. Soon enough, Sally is running for her life as the last survivor, hunted by a monstrously masked killer wielding a chainsaw, only to end up at dinner as the guest of honor…
With the depiction of the iconic ‘Leatherface’ and a bloodied, screaming Sally, Tobe Hooper first introduced the concept of monster and “Final Girl” to horror cinema in 1974. Shortly after, his once banned and censored directional debut was considered one of the pioneering works within the backwoods horror genre. Instead of relying on explicit gore, Hooper opted for creating the right atmosphere: a palpable nightmarish audio track combined with unsettling editing and cinematography. The viewer is almost smothered under the Texan heat, while the chainsaw drones on incessantly. Even to the audiences of today, unease bombards the senses, as the characters’ madness crawls off the screen and under the viewer’s skin.
“I can’t imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this,” wondered film critic Roger Ebert. Apparently, Hooper found inspiration for this movie in the midst of an overcrowded hardware store, when his glance fell on a chainsaw…
Alicia Schümperli
Übersetzung: Alicia Schümperli
