The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

I kept anticipating, thinking to myself, "Oh, it's coming! It's coming!"

Basically, when it came out, the world wasn't ready to taste this massacre.

I saw it on an old VHS, of course! At the time it was the only way of seeing it.

It's true, the story is relatively simple.

But I'm someone who thinks that a great script

does not necessarily make a great film.

It's so simple that we, as viewers, feel it in our own flesh and blood.

These characters represent us and through them we feel the sense of dread and danger.

This apparent simplicity is film's greatest strength.

Because on paper the film is almost like a true crime story.

And it's populated by communities that are completely remote from each other.

That stimulates a lot of fantasies around what happens in those remote areas.

Tobe Hooper used to say it himself,

"The moment you left Austin,

you'd find abandoned villages, dead towns, it's scary!"

He said the idea of being lost in such a place terrified him!

They're not there thinking, "Oh, we need the cool guy."

"We need the independent strong woman."

"We need a bimbo who is a bit dumb."

None of that! You can feel that each actor

brings a personal touch!

Having a disabled person as one of your lead characters

was extremely rare at the time.

A genuinely original aspect of this is that he is very unlikeable.

- Oh, yeah. Yes! - He is horrible! Unbearable.

He's a complete asshole!

That's fairly unique.

Looking at it to think that one of the main characters is such a dick!

What's interesting is that Tobe Hooper portrays a completely dysfunctional family.

The hitch-hiker scene!

I remember as a kid, that genuinely terrified me.

When he gets in the van you hope he's going to be a nice guy.

- You think, "they're doing him a favour." - The hitch-hiker is horrible!