THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)
Label: Dark Sky Films
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (BD)
Rating: R
Duration: 83 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, DTS-HA MA 1.0 Mono, 2.0 Stereo, 7.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR 2160p UHD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danziger, William Vail, Jim Siedow, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal
When I was just barely in the double digits my parents rented a laser disc player (what's that, right kids?) and a few scary movies movies and one of them was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and the other was the erotic demon shocker Mausoleum (1988) starring the fabulous demon-boobied Bobbie Bresee, which is the namesake of this here blog. They wouldn't let me watch the flicks with them but that night our house was filled with the sounds of chainsaws and screaming - and I knew I had to see what I'd missed. The next day I found myself home alone with the laserdisc player still hooked-up to the TV ...and one thing led to another, and I treated myself to a terrifying and weirdly erotic double-feature of TCM and Mausoleum, an event that has seared it's images into by brain ever since. I popped in the laserdisc and from the very first frame of TCM I found it unsettling, filling me with an unease with that image of the sun baked armadillo dead on the side of the road, it was a harbinger that I was about to endure something awful. Layered on top of sickening images of the disinterred corpses creepily staged at a cemetery with that unsettling flash photography I found I was a bit nauseated just a few minutes into it.
Enter a group of twenty-somethings travelling cross country in a Volkswagen bus, we have Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns, Eaten Alive) and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain, Race with the Devil) travelling across the backroads of Texas with friends Jerry (Allen Danziger, Eggshells), Kirk (William Vail, Mausoleum), and Pam (Teri McMinn), to visit the grave of the Hardestys' grandfather which may have been desecrated following the the macabre acts of vandalism mentioned previously. Along the way they have the unfortunate urge to pick-up a very strange looking and weird acting hitchhiker (Edwin Neal, My Boyfriend's Back) who has prominent birth mark on his face, which I thought was blood as a kid - I kept thinking why would they pick-up someone with blood on their face? Once inside things get weird fast, the hitchhiker goes on about the joy of killing cows at the slaughterhouse and how tasty his brother's homemade head cheese is before he takes Franklin's pocket knife and slices open his own palm! Watching this for the first time I quickly realized I was seriously in over my head, totally out of my depth in the deep end of a truly unhinged fright flick. Now everyone in the van, and me watching at home, are on edge of their seat and panicked by this act of self mutilation, then suddenly the nut grabs Franklin and slices open his arm before being thrown out the van. Running alongside the van as it speeds off he smears his blood on the van and the group continue on, shaken by the experience. Arriving at the cemetery they confirm that their grandparents graves have not been disturbed and head off to check out the now abandoned Hardesty family farmhouse. Before arriving and they realize they are running on fumes and top off at a gas station only to be told they are out of gas and that the fuel truck won't arrive until the next day. With the Hardesty farm house just a few miles away they decide to make the short trip of it and return to the gas station later that night to refuel.
At the house Kirk and Pam wander off to a swimming hole rumored to be nearby while Sally and Jerry explore the dilapidated house leaving poor wheelchair bound Franklin on his own, frustrated that he is unable to navigate the crumbling home. Early on it's established that Franklin iis an annoying shit, but he takes it to the next level at the house. Unable to follow his sister he's left on his own to complain while giving disapproving raspberries in the direction of his sister. The poor bastard is a handicapped and you would think you might have some sympathies for him, and as I get older and more feeble I do, but he is such an unlikable character who seems to want to wallows in his own self pity that he comes off as more pathetic than sympathetic.
Pam and Kirk never do find the swimming hole but they do come across a neighboring home on the edge of the property after they hear a gas-powered generator humming away in the distance. The curious Kirk enters the home in hopes of bartering for gasoline and unexpectedly meets one of the inhabitants - a hulking figure wearing a dead-skin mask, Leatherface (Gunnar Hanson, Mosquito), who bashes in his skull with a mallet. The encounter happens real quick and before you know what's happening Kirk is dead on the floor, his legs creepily twitching away, before being dragged and disappearing behind a sheet metal door.
Pam hears the commotion and come inside looking for Kirk whom she assumes is playing a joke on her. While searching she enters a room blanketed in chicken feathers and eerie bone sculptures made from the carcasses of animals and what appear to be human bones and teeth. Realizing that she's stumbled into a waking nightmare she attempts to leave but Leatherface appears and snatches her up, impaling her on a meat hook! While she hangs there helpless and squirming Leatherface starts to carve-up Kirk's corpse with a chainsaw.
As night sets in the group back at the Hardesty homestead begin to worry about Pam and Kirk, Jerry mounts a one-an search party and sets off into the night finding his way to the horror house, unaware of the nightmare that await him inside. While searching the house he hears a noise coming from a freezer, opening it he finds a wide-eyed Pam barely conscious, bug-eyed and still alive just as Leatherface brings a meat cleaver down upon his head.
Now it's completely dark outside and siblings Sally and Franklin begin to quarrel like siblings do about what to do next, they decide to set off through a brush thicket in search of their friends when Leatherface emerges from the darkness with his fully-throttled chainsaw massacring Franklin as the hysterical Sally lets loose the first of many marathon screams sessions - it is a supremely effective kill. Every death onscreen in this move carries a visceral weight to it and that makes it so damn effective - it's a nearly bloodless film but it's brutal and nerve shredding.
Sally escapes Leatherface and makes her way back to the gas station seeking the help of the the proprietor (Jim Siedow, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) who turns out to be the father of Leatherface and the Hitchhiker, of course. He sadistically beats her with a broom before tying her up and throwing her in sack. Siedow is absolutely unhinged in the role, he brings a lot of demented insanity to the character, it's an absolutely nightmarish encounter. He throws her in his truck and makes his way back to the farm house where the strange clan sit down for a family dinner with Sally featured as the main course. They wheel out the desiccated corpse of their Grandpa (John Dugan, Texas Chainsaw) who looks mummified until he gets a taste of Sally's blood and then he becomes a bit more animated. Apparently he was quite the killer back at the slaughterhouse and the family want him to do the dirty deed once more. They kneel the hysterical Sally over a large wash bin at Grandpa's feet as he limply attempts to smash in her brains in with a hammer. It's such a nightmare scenario and infused with the crazy energy of the demented cannibal clan and the shrill terror of Marilyn Burn's maddening screams, her duress is nerve-shattering, and the camera work which focus on the terror conjured in her tear-filled green eyes is quite effective.
While Grandpa swings away with the hammer to the cheers of the family Sally somehow manages to get away by leaping through a window pane of glass, sprinting for the main road with both Leatherface and the Hitchhiker just behind her. The film ends with a semi truck happening upon the bizarre scene with the Hitchhiker splattered on the road and Sally jumping into the bed of a passing pick-up truck laughing and screaming hysterically as Leatherface spins the chainsaw in the air in anger.
I remember watching it for the first-time like it was yesterday, my nerves were shredded. I was alone, shaking and scared out of my mind and for some reason I loved it - it was at that moment I knew for sure I loved to be scared. Subsequent viewing bare witness to the continuing power of TCM, a tightly crafted film with not an ounce of filler to it. Everything onscreen carries with it a weight that cannot be denied - it's a terror classic without equal.
Audio/Video: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1973) arrives on region-free 4K Ultra HD from Dark Sky Films by way of HDR10 infused 2160p UHD widescreen (1.85:1). I remember being wary of the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray edition, thinking to myself does anyone need a spiffy restored version of this sweaty, gross and gritty 16mm terror flick, could a new 4K restoration even be worth it, or worse take something away from it? Well, that release while imperfect showed me that you could offer up a pristine version of the film and not lose an ounce of the baked-in grit and trauma of TCM, it's inherent to the source, regardless of resolution and restoration. This new 4K scan from the 16mm source looks authentically grainy and feels true to the original production and source. The 4K resolution offers more fine detail and texture throughout without compression issues. While depth and clarity are restrained by source limitations they are appreciably superior to the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray, this is quite a glorious upgrade.
The most evident improvement here comes by way of application of Dolby Vision HDR10 with it's wider color-gamut, green and reds are nicely plumped, and the black levels are deeper. I enjoyed the Dolby Vision HDR, which for the most part seems applied judiciously. Pam's red cut off shorts look fantastic, as does the green of Sally's eyes in the final scenes.
For the film's UHD we get a brand new Dolby Atmos upgrade, plus we get DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0, 2.0 stereo and 7.1. I am a huge fan of the original mono mix but the Atmos track is quite nice, offering a terrifyingly immersive experience handling the extremes of the buzz of the chainsaw, blood curdling screams and ultra creepy sound design with aplomb. Notably, we do not get the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix from the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray, but the original mono and Atmos tracks are much appreciated,
Dark Sky Films carry-over all the extras from their previous editions, plus a new feature-length documentary. On the 4K UHD disc we get the feature film plus the four archival commentary tracks. We have Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper, actor Gunnar Hansen and cinematographer Daniel Pearl, Audio Commentary with actors Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain and art director Robert Burns, Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper Solo, and Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper, Daniel Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou. These are each fantastic and cover a lot of the same ground but each also offering bits and pieces exclusive to those commentaries, it's an exhaustive set of tracks that are well-worth a listen for die-hard fans.
Onto the jam-packed second disc we get a mix of both new and archival extras, new stuff comes by way of the never-before-seen feature-length documentary The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which runs 83-minutes. This handsome talking heads doc features director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead remake), filmmaker Jamie Blanks, Fangoria's Phil Nobile Jr., TCM remake director Marcus Nispel, Mick Garris and quite a few more waxing nostalgic on the terror classic, commenting on what made it so frightening and why it was a game-changer, I love these sort of talking heads docs wherein filmmakers and critics talk about how much they love a movie - it's a great watch even if it doesn't offered much new, aside from personal recollection of how terrifying the movie is. Aliso, while not new, we do get the 54-min The Cinefamily Presents Fiedkin/Hooper, which was previously only available on a bonus DVD inside the Black Maria Edition Blu-ray edition. In it Friedkin interview Hooper on stage during a Cinefamily screening events and it's pretty great,
For our region-free readers who might own other region editions I will point out that not all the previous extras from past releases are ported over here, such as the 14-min Tobe Hooper Interview and the 8-min Kim Henkel Interview that appeared the Second Sight Films Blu-ray edition back in 2014, which will also appear on their forthcoming UK 4K edition. That forthcoming UK edition also sports an new and exclusive Audio Commentary Amanda Reyes and Bill Ackerman, in addition to featuring the new The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre doc. Notably, the The Cinefamily Presents Friedkin/Hooper extra looks to be a Dark Sky Films Exclusive. Just know that both edition have their own exclusive extras.
The 2-disc Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray release arrives in a cool Steelbook packaging with the original illustrated movie poster artwork on the front - which is bad-ass. The back side is plain white, which feels a bit lazy to be honest, they should have something there to fill the void, but regardless, it looks cool. Inside the Steelbok there's another image, a cool pic of the demented dinner scene towards the end of the film which puts you in Sally's chair - uh-oh. The artwork on the disc inside is the same on both, an image of the finale with Leatherface swinging the chainsaw in the air at sunrise. This 2-disc set also gets standard 4K UHD edition with slipcover featuring an illustration by artist Jason Edmiston, which you can peep with this Steelbook edition via a 2-sided fold-out poster that features the new illustration and the original illustrated movie poster artwork on the reverse.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (Feature Film UHD)
- Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper, actor Gunnar Hansen and cinematographer Daniel Pearl
- Audio Commentary with actors Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain and art director Robert Burns
- Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper Solo
- Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper, Daniel Pearl, editor J. Larry Carroll and sound recordist Ted Nicolaou.
.jpg)
Disc 2 (Extras Blu-ray)
- Never-before-seen feature-length documentary The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (83 min) HD
- “The Cinefamily Presents FRIEDKIN/HOOPER,” a conversation about the film between Tobe Hooper and The Exorcist director William Friedkin (54 min) HD
- “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth” (73 min)
- 'The Shocking Truth' Outtakes (8 Min)
- “Flesh Wounds: Seven Stories of the Saw” (72 min)
- A tour of the TCSM house with Gunnar Hansen; (8 min)
- “Off the Hook with Teri McMinn” (17 min) HD
- “The Business of Chain Saw: An Interview with Production Manager Ron Bozman. (16 min) HD
- 'Granpaw’s Tales’ with Actor John Dugan (16 Minutes)
- ‘Cutting Chain Saw’ with Editor J. Larry Carroll (11 Min)
- Deleted Scenes and Outtakes (25 min) HD
- Blooper Reel (2 min) HD
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: TCSM (20 Min)
- Dr. W.E. Barnes Present "Making Grandpa" (6 min)
- Still Gallery (3 min)
- 40th Anniversary Trailer (2 min)
- Trailer 1 (2 min)
- Trailer 2 (2 min)
- TV Spots (2 min)
- Radio Spots (1 min)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) looks terrifyingly terrific on this extras-packed 2-disc UHD/BD release from Dark Sky Films. Fear not, the new 4K restoration with Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grading has not sapped an ounce of fright from it, in fact it only serves to enhance the disturbing pulse-pounder with a glorious restoration and Atmos audio.
Also available as a standard 4K edition with Slipcover.
