History Film / TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974

%%* CorruptHick: Drayton and Nubbins.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Sally jumps into the back of a pickup truck driven by a GoodSamaritan, and he drives away with her. As her screaming turns into delirious laughter, Leatherface has a tantrum and wildly flails his chainsaw -- during which the film abruptly cuts to black and rolls credits. It's an incredibly abrupt ending, cutting from nothing but ten consecutive minutes of pure terror...to just black and silence.]]

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Inverted. Apparently, the reason why there was little bloodshed in the film was because director Tobe Hooper wanted it to have a PG rating, but the violence itself and overall frightening imagery were enough to land the film an R rating.

* %% CorruptHick: Drayton and Nubbins.

* %% TheDragon: Leatherface.

* ButtMonkey: Poor Franklin just can’t catch a break, besides being in a wheelchair he also rolls down a hill while trying to pee, then he gets his arm sliced by the hitchhiker’s straight razor, then he is taunted by his friends about the hitchhiker coming to get him, he also gets stuck while trying to move around the house and finally [[spoiler: he is sliced and diced while stuck in his chair and becomes the only person killed by Chainsaw in the movie]].

* CorruptHick: Drayton and Nubbins.

* TheDragon: Leatherface.

* DumbMuscle: Leatherface is not very bright and implied to be mentally handicapped.

* FatIdiot: Leatherface is a 300 pound killer who is mentally handicapped.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Inverted. Apparently, the reason why there was little bloodshed in the film was because director Tobe Hooper wanted it to have a PG-rating, but the violence itself and overall frightening imagery was enough to land the film an R-rating.
* AxeBeforeEntering: Leatherface cuts his way through a door to get Sally. His ''own'' [[BlackComedy door]]. Drayton (The Cook) is not pleased at all and beats him for it.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Sally jumps into the back of a pickup truck driven by a GoodSamaritan, and he drives away with her. As her screaming turns into delirious laughter, Leatherface has a tantrum and wildly flails his chainsaw -- during which the film abruptly cuts to black and rolls credits. It's an incredibly abrupt ending, cutting from nothing but ten consecutive minutes of pure nightmare fuel...to just black and silence.]]

[-[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} Who will survive and what will be left of them?]]]]-]

-->-- '''Narrator (Creator/JohnLarroquette)'''.

''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a seminal slasher film by Creator/TobeHooper, [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based on the "true" story]] about [[DeadlyRoadTrip a group of teenagers traveling]] through rural Texas, who happen upon a secluded old house inhabited by the world's most horrifying family -- in particular a disturbed young man with an interest in leather masks and amateur butchery. The film was completed in 1973 and released on October 1st, 1974.

Hooper initially took his inspiration for the film from the real-life serial killer Ed Gein (who was also the inspiration for ''Film/{{Psycho}}'''s Norman Bates, and later for Buffalo Bill of ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'') and based the character Leatherface on him.

The film was produced on a budget of $140,000[[note]]$876,000 in late 2021[[/note]], and Hooper cast mainly unknown actors from the local Texan population. When it was completed, Hooper struggled to find a distributor, due to the graphic depictions of violence (although the film is not ''nearly'' as bloody as its reputation suggests.) The movie was ultimately rated R, instead of the PG rating Hooper had intended.

Controversial upon release, the film was a success and went on to spawn [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre a franchise]]. The film has [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 three]] [[Film/TexasChainsaw3D direct]] [[Film/TexasChainsawMassacre2022 sequels]], none of which are connected to each other; it also spawned a [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2003 remake]] and a direct [[Film/{{Leatherface}} prequel]], the latter loosely in-continuity with ''Texas Chainsaw 3D'' as well.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Purposefully invoked when Pam is hung on the meathook. Hooper was seeking to cut down violent content to try to get a better rating, so he opted not to show the impalement. Instead, he established her wearing a shirt with no back, emphasized the hook and showed splatters of blood in the room. As he said, "The mind fills in the gaps for you." Other scenes in the film, such as Franklin's murder, make use of this as well.

* HarmlessVillain: Lampshaded with Nubbins. [[spoiler:Apart from cutting Franklin, he's not a very good villain. His kill count is virtually zero. Drayton scolds him for grave robbing and leaving Leatherface alone. It is thanks to him that Sally escapes. And when he manages to catch up to her in the final chase scene, he doesn't really do anything to slow her down. And in the end [[TheDitz it's kind of his own stupidity that leads to his downfall]].]]

** A case could also be made for the noise the steel door to the abattoir room makes when Leatherface slams it shut. Then there's the chainsaw itself.
** As they go to look for Jerry, Franklin mentions three times that he hears something nearby. [[spoiler: It's Leatherface, who appears and prompty carves him to death as Sally looks on in terror.]]

* IronicEcho: Sally tells The Hitchhiker that they can't drive him all the way home because they're in a hurry, later when she is tied up in his house he taunts her and says "I thought you was in a hurry!".

* MaleGaze: Pam's red shorts get a lot of camera shots.

* PleaseIWillDoAnything: Sally actually says this at the dinner scene, presumably offering sex as a way to avoid being killed. The Sawyers laugh in her face; to quote Carol J. Clover's discussion of the scene in her 1992 book ''Men, Women, And Chain Saws: Gender In The Modern Horror Film'', she has misunderstood the psychology. [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil They just want to eat her.]]

** Leatherface pulls these of few times. It's a little hard to see thanks to the mask, but if you look closely when he licks his teeth, you can see that he smirks while doing it.

* SoundtrackDissonance: In the Hitchhiker's first scene, an upbeat showtune (Fool For A Blonde by Roger Barlett) plays on the radio. The music is very emphasized when the Hitchhiker starts slitting into his palms. Since this song is now known for being from this film, it's clear that it left that kind of impact of the audience.

* StoutStrength: As per FatIdiot, Leatherface is a big guy who clearly enjoys Drayton's food, and he is immensely strong.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Kirk and Franklin are both ambushed and killed almost instantly by Leatherface in two of the slasher genre's earliest jump scares.
* TechnicalPacifist: Maybe there's a better trope to describe it but The Old Man participates in beating, kidnapping, and torturing Sally but in his own words he "Just can't take no pleasure in killing, there's just some things you gotta do, don't mean you have to like it."

* TypoOnTheCover: Calling it a typo is rather harsh and ironically, it's ''not'' on the cover of the film, but it's within the film itself. The word "chainsaw" is written as a singular word, but the film instead says "Chain Saw" with the words separated. However, this does help differentiate the film and the franchise as a whole.
* UnbuiltTrope: As this is the very first mainstream classical slasher film, it had no previous slasher films from which to draw inspiration or copy, and it really shows in how different it is when compared to other "conventional" slasher flicks. It avoids a ColdOpen where the villain is established. There's also a ''family'' of killers instead of one singular slasher and said slasher is a normal human who isn't MadeOfIron. There's no SortingAlgorithmOfMortality among the characters, as there's very little DevelopingDoomedCharacters since little about their personalities is fleshed out, and as a result, there are no archetypes among them. The very first kill that reveals Leatherface has no ScareChord, and the carnage is mostly {{bloodless|carnage}}. [[spoiler: FinalGirl Sally Hardesty loses her brother and all her friends before the third act, and she has no final confrontation with them. The film just ends with her escape and that's it.]] All in all, despite being the first slasher film, it's actually very unlike the slasher films that succeeded it in later movies.

* VillainousBreakdown: Leatherface twirling around, waving his chainsaw in frustration as he realizes his victim got away.

** Sally is helped by the driver of an 18 wheeler who leaves his vehicle behind, smacks Leatherface with a wrench, and runs down the road, never to be seen again.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Sally jumps into the back of a pickup truck driven by a GoodSamaritan, and he drives away with her, saving her life. Leatherface has a tantrum as she escapes. Cut to credits. It's an incredibly abrupt ending, cutting from nothing but ten consecutive minutes of pure nightmare fuel...to just black and silence.]]

* AxeBeforeEntering:
** Leatherface cuts his way through a door to get Sally. His ''own'' [[BlackComedy door]].
** Lampshaded by Drayton (The Cook). He is not pleased at all and beats him for it.

* BlowingARaspberry: Twice:
** Nubbins (The Hitchhiker) does it several times to taunt the kids as the van speeds away.

Controversial upon release, the film was a success and went on to spawn [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre a franchise]]. The film has [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 three]] [[Film/TexasChainsaw3D direct]] sequels, none of which are connected to each other; it also spawned a [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2003 remake]] and a direct [[Film/{{Leatherface}} prequel]], the latter loosely in-continuity with ''Texas Chainsaw 3D'' as well.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Sally makes it out alive and the killers will probably be caught, but everyone else is dead and there's no way she'll be mentally well after all she's been through Also, as shown in [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 the sequel]], the family is still roaming free several years later.]]

* UnbuiltTrope: This is the very mainstream slasher film, it had no previous slasher films from which to draw inspiration or copy, and it really shows in how different it is when compared to other "conventional" slasher flicks. It avoids a ColdOpen where the villain is established. There's also a ''family'' of killers instead of one singular slasher and said slasher is a normal human who isn't MadeOfIron. There's no SortingAlgorithmOfMortality among the characters, as there's very little DevelopingDoomedCharacters since little about their personalities is fleshed out, and as a result, there are no archetypes among them. The very first kill that reveals Leatherface has no ScareChord, and the carnage is mostly {{bloodless|carnage}}. [[spoiler: FinalGirl Sally Hardesty loses her brother and all her friends before the third act, and she has no final confrontation with them. The film just ends with her escape and that's it.]] All in all, despite being the first slasher film, it's actually very unlike the slasher films that succeeded it in later movies.

* FatIdiot: Leatherface is a 300 pound killer who suffers from mental retardation.

* ScreamingWoman: Sally spends the the final third of the film screaming her head off.

* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: When Sally enters the attic, she sees an elderly male and female sitting on chairs. The male (Grandpa) is later revealed to be alive, but the female (presumably, Grandma) is very obviously dead.

* PetTheDog: Drayton (The Cook) Sawyer tries to somewhat comfort Sally a few times, but averted by the fact he fully intends to kill her that evening.
** This could be a touch of FridgeHorror. Drayton may be the "compassionate" kind of slaughterhouse worker who wants to treat the cattle kindly before killing them.

The film was produced on a budget of $140,000[[note]]$735,000 in early 2020[[/note]], and Hooper cast mainly unknown actors from the local Texan population. When it was completed, Hooper struggled to find a distributor, due to the graphic depictions of violence (although the film is not ''nearly'' as bloody as its reputation suggests.) The movie was ultimately rated R, instead of the PG rating Hooper had intended.

* TypoOnTheCover: Calling it a typo is rather harsh and ironically, it's ''not'' on the cover of the film, but it's within the film itself. The word "chainsaw" is written as a singular word, but the film instead says "chain saw" with the words separated.

** The slasher genre had not yet developed the concept of the silent, unstoppable killing machine that would become the norm after ''Film/Halloween1978'', so when Leatherface takes a thrown wrench to the head, he's knocked down. And having fallen with a running chainsaw in his hands, he accidentally cuts himself, which quite reasonably causes him to scream in pain.

* FinalGirl: Sally ends up being the sole survivor to confront the family. She's often considered the first-ever final girl, with the heroines of the later [[SlasherMovie slasher genre]] following her her footsteps. Also a bit of an UnbuiltTrope, as Pam is just as much a "good girl" as Sally is, and Sally never TookALevelInBadass. She never even gets into a fight or confrontation with Leatherface. She's just a normal girl who happens to survive over her friends.

* The film has at least one long tracking shot of Pam in those red shorts before her death.

** Lampshaded by Drayton (The Cook). He is not pleased at all and beats his brother for it.

* HarmlessVillain: Lampshaded with Nubbins. [[spoiler:Apart from cutting Franklin, he's not a very good villain. His kill count is virtually zero. He gets scolded by his older brother for grave robbing and leaving Leatherface alone. It is thanks to him that Sally escapes. And when he manages to catch up to her in the final chase scene, he doesn't really do anything to slow her down. And in the end [[TheDitz it's kind of his own stupidity that leads to his downfall]].]]

* HopeSpot: During the first chase scene, Sally makes it to the barbecue joint and thinks the owner can help her. Unfortunately, the owner is actually Leatherface’s brother, and he’s none too willing to let her escape.
* HostileHitchhiker: The hitchhiker travels with the group for a bit and start talking about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket-knife and cuts himself, then takes a Polaroid picture of Franklin and demands money for it. When the group refuses to pay, he burns the photo and slashes Franklin's arm with a straight razor. They force him out of the van and drive on. It gets worse later when it’s revealed that he’s another member of the Sawyer family and is just as depraved as his brothers.

* UnbuiltTrope: This is the very mainstream slasher film, it had no previous slasher films from which to draw inspiration or copy, and it really shows in how different it is when compared to other "conventional" slasher flicks. It avoids a ColdOpen where the villain is established. It also avoids DevelopingDoomedCharacters because the characters personalities aren't that fleshed out beyond the slow paced beginning. There's also a ''family'' of killers instead of one singular slasher, and said slasher is a normal human who isn't MadeOfIron. There's no SortingAlgorithmOfMortality among the characters, as there's very little DevelopingDoomedCharacters since little about their personalities is fleshed out, and as a result there are no archetypes among them. The very first kill that reveals Leatherface has no ScareChord, and the carnage is mostly {{bloodless|carnage}}. [[spoiler: FinalGirl Sally Hardesty loses her brother and all her friends before the third act, and she has no final confrontation with them. The film just ends with her escape and that's it.]] All in all, despite being the first slasher film, it's actually very unlike the slasher films that succeeded it in later movies.

-->-- '''Narrator (Creator/JohnLaroquette)'''.