After hearing that their grandfather's cemetery has been vandalized and raided for body parts, a young woman, her wheelchair bound brother, and three friends travel to Texas to check on the plot and stay at the family house. Along the way they pick up a psychotic hitchhiker, encounter some weirdos at an abandon gas station, and fall into the clutches of Leatherface, a chainsaw wielding lunatic--all members of a cannibalistic family preparing for their latest barbecue. Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is a low budget and highly influential horror which is (thankfully) not nearly as gory as its reputation deems and induces audience queasiness through staging and suggestion. Although its a fairly short film in length, it takes its time to build to a phenomenal nighttime chase sequence through the brush, and is somewhat diminished when it devolves into the freak show at the conclusion. John Larroquette's extended opening narration also proves highly contributory. In and of itself, Hooper's movie is a terrifying experience and a crucial entry in its genre. Only in looking through the lens of the countless retreads, remakes, and ripoffs does one begin to question its veracity, which is of course through no fault of its own.
