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A group of young people goes out to the graveyard their friends' grandfather is buried in after the news reports that several of the graves have been vandalised.  Sally Hardesty and her wheel chair bound brother Franklin are worried their grandfather might have been dug up like the others.  They find out that there was nothing to worry about, his grave was untouched.  While they were in the area they decide to check out their father's old run down house.  They pick up a nasty hitchhiker and then throw him out of the van after a short jaunt.  They stop at a gas station to fill up and are told they have to wait for the truck to come and fill the station's tanks first.  They go on to the house, which is very near anyway.  There the horror begins as they meet the neighbours.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre (original spelling) is a much talked film that is one of the keystones of modern horror movies.  It is also very much a product of its time and additionally has to be approached seriously or it falls flat on its face.  The film borderlines between extremely disturbing and crazily ludicrous.  Despite the dated quality of the film the direction is fine and the acting is better than average but not amazing.  The pace is starts off nice and slow then builds up to higher and higher levels of horror.  The horror however a point near the middle of the film is so cunningly crafted to portray the utter insanity of the villains that it takes on almost a comedic tone despite being film and acted non-humourlessly.  Herein lies the controversy over whether or not the film is a piece of quality work or not.

The film has fairly decent exterior shots and very good weather/lighting conditions.  There is only a small lyrical soundtrack present but there is also an excellent musical score which crops up only when absolutely needed and adds great flavour to the film.  The film is disturbing and drops the audience into the heart of utter madness, but it is not so bad that it needs any kind of warning to the curious.  A lot of the violence and gore is left up to the imagination and that is a big cause in the view that it is a truly nasty film.  Texas Chain Saw Massacre is creepy and details dark and disturbing subject matter and as a film has dozens of imitators.  From a reviewer's and a horror buff's standpoint it is a film worth watching, even more than once, but for some people it can be a total waste of time.  Rent it if you can, if not do not worry about it.

( Thank you for reading my review.
Bob Male)

All ideas, opinions, and information are from the reviewer and are not representative of any company or group involved with the creators and/or staff of the materials being reviewed.