was texas chain saw massacre a snuff film

#WAS TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE A SNUFF FILM MOVIE#

It's also - and this may seem like an odd claim - not a mean-spirited film, which separates it from the Friday the 13ths and Saws of the world. Not unlike Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, in some regards, some of its amateurish aspects lend to its raw and intense power. Like the case of the hillbilly rapists in John Boorman's Deliverance, there's a sense that Hooper engaged in some 'stunt casting' with the cannibalistic Sawyer family (even though that's not the case).

#WAS TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE A SNUFF FILM MOVIE#

In addition, its low budget and lack of glamor gives the movie the unsettling aura of a snuff film - that feeling that what you're watching is either real, or as close to real as possible. It was made long before horror films were considered big business.

The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn't designed to be part of a never-ending franchise. There's an utter lack of pretention from its filmmakers and its cast, particularly from its leading actress, Marilyn Burns, and Gunnar Hansen, who plays the mentally challenged cannibal Bubba 'Leatherface' Sawyer. I suspect that it has something to do with a complete lack of self-consciousness. So what makes The Texas Chain Saw Massacre so effective in all the ways its copycats aren't? Not even Hooper himself, who went on to helm the first sequel in an effort that could charitably be described as unfortunate. As many imitators as the original Chain Saw (1974) has (and I won't deny the film inadvertently helped create an endless assembly line of tiresome, mean-spirited and witless slasher films and franchises), no one has ever been able to capture or come close to recreating the malevolent magic of that relentlessly terrifying film. ĭespite paving the way for many, many imitators, the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper is just that - original. Gotta/enk's cohort James Comtois (Colorful World Infectious Opportunity) tells us why the Saw is Family, now and forever.

Was texas chain saw massacre a snuff film