The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: a harrowing landmark now on Netflix

Horror fans have long debated what truly birthed the slasher subgenre. While the Universal monster films, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Black Christmas were influential, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is often remembered as the film that kicked off the slasher craze because it felt authentic in a way earlier horrors hadn’t.

A misleading ad campaign that claimed the film was based on a true story helped, but director Tobe Hooper primarily tapped into the anxieties of 1970s America—Vietnam-era violence and the Nixon scandals—making a blunt, secretive killer feel plausible. Hooper’s editing persuaded audiences they had seen more gore than appeared onscreen, and the film presented death in an uncinematic, unsensationalized manner.

The brutal slaughter of the four teenagers who join Sally (Marilyn Burns) on a trip through West Texas is delivered with a household-like matter-of-factness, amplified by the maternal quality of Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and the character’s concealed face.

United States, West Texas

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