October 27: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (50th Anniversary)

50 years ago, five youths on a weekend getaway in the Texas countryside fell prey to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his cannibalistic family, and horror cinema would never be the same. Violent, confrontational, and shockingly realistic, director Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE terrified audiences in a way never thought possible when it was unleashed on a politically and socially tumultuous America in 1974. Facing a storm of controversy, censorship, and outcry throughout its troubled release, this masterpiece of horror has stood the test of time to become a landmark motion picture and cultural milestone. (MPI Media Group)

Print courtesy of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre Collection at the Academy Film Archive

“The movie is some kind of weird, off-the-wall achievement. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this, and yet it’s well-made, well-acted, and all too effective.” – Roger Ebert

“As disgusting, harrowing, and ugly as the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is, the film has moments of eerie beauty.” – Noel Murray, The Dissolve

Kim Morgan discusses The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the New Beverly blog.