Film

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Name: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Genre: Horror
Released: 1974
Cast: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail, Teri McMinn

Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece strips horror down to its essence: five ordinary people trapped in a rural nightmare with a family of killers. Shot on a shoestring in sweltering Texas heat, it's visceral, claustrophobic, and genuinely terrifying. Not for the squeamish, but essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand why horror matters.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you crave grimy, sun-baked dread built from sound, heat and gathering unease, and you'd rather be unsettled by atmosphere than by gore you can count.

Skip it if you need a quick scare, because this is slow to warm up, drenched in heat and grime, and its brutality lingers in ways that are hard to shrug off.

What it asks of you: Patience first: long stretches of driving, talking and silence before anything happens, and a camera that lingers on discomfort rather than cutting away to comfort you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Hills Have Eyes1977

Wes Craven's brutal desert answer to Texas, with a similarly relentless structure and a family of antagonists that feel disturbingly real. More explicit than Hooper, but equally committed to dread.

But The rape scene exists in service to the narrative, but it's still difficult to sit through. Some find the film's brutality exhausting rather than cathartic.

The Last House on the Left1972

Craven's debut, made just before Hills, shares Texas's raw energy and moral ambiguity. A home invasion that becomes something far darker, with a grim logic that respects neither audience comfort nor easy answers.

But Shot on shoestring budget with untrained actors, and deliberately ugly. The pacing is patient to the point of suffocation, which is precisely the point but not everyone's idea of entertainment.

The Strangers2008

Bryan Bertino distills Texas down to its core: ordinary people in an ordinary house, terrorised by faceless intruders for no reason. The randomness is what haunts. Minimalist, effective, deeply unsettling.

But Deliberately slow-burn. Long stretches of waiting and listening. If you need plot momentum or conventional scares, this will feel like a patience test rather than a film.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raw2017

Both treat the body as the site of horror, and both refuse to judge their characters even as they commit atrocities. The violence is visceral because it's intimate.

Julia Ducournau's French film about a vegetarian girl discovering cannibalism at veterinary school channels the same transgressive energy as Texas: the horror is internal and bodily, not external. Stylish, sensual, and deeply disturbing.

But Heavy on body horror and sexual content. The film luxuriates in the grotesque in ways that feel alien to American genre convention. Not squeamish-friendly.

The Witch2016

Robert Eggers shares Hooper's commitment to period authenticity and dread. A family isolated in the wilderness, their own paranoia as much a threat as anything lurking outside. Witchcraft reconfigured as genuine horror.

But Dialogue is sparse and Puritan-accented. The pacing is deliberate, almost operatic. Not a plot that races to resolution; it's about atmosphere and inevitable doom.

Don't Look Now1973

Roeg's masterpiece of paranoia and grief, released just before Texas. A couple in Venice pursued by something they cannot quite understand. Pure cinema: every image matters, every cut destabilises.

But Deliberately cryptic. The film withholds clarity and trades in suggestion. If you need a neat explanation, you'll leave frustrated and confused.

The Wailing2016

Na Hong-jin's three-hour Korean epic shares Texas's refusal to provide moral clarity. A village gripped by something unknowable; investigation spirals into paranoia. Genre-transcendent and deeply unsettling.

But At three hours, it demands patience. The third act pivots in ways that alienate viewers seeking straight answers. Subtitles and ambiguity: not everyone's evening.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers1978

Cronenberg's remake taps the same paranoia as Texas: ordinary people in ordinary spaces, with the threat indistinguishable from the familiar. San Francisco becomes as isolated and hostile as rural Texas.

But Science-fiction elements and a more stylised visual approach feel very '70s. Some find the political allegory heavier-handed than the original's unstated dread.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer1986

John McNaughton's unflinching study of an ordinary killer. No theatrical flourish, no explanation. Just a man and his methodical horror. Shares Texas's refusal to moralise or provide catharsis.

But Genuinely disturbing in its flatness. The video tape sequence is difficult to endure. Not entertaining in any conventional sense; it exists to make you uncomfortable.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer poster

Come and See1985

Elem Klimov's Belarusian war film channels Texas's philosophy into a different register: ordinary people ground down by forces beyond comprehension. A boy's innocence erased in real time. Apocalyptic and pitiless.

But Not a horror film, but far more horrific than most that claim the title. Relentlessly bleak, with graphic violence and child suffering. One of cinema's most punishing experiences.

Funny Games1997

Both are metacritiques of horror cinema. Texas showed what violence could do; Funny Games asks what it does to us for watching. Haneke learned from Hooper.

Michael Haneke's Austrian home invasion film does to the audience what Texas does to its characters: it traps you, and then makes you complicit in your own suffering. A direct confrontation with why we watch violence.

But Deliberately antagonistic toward viewers. Haneke breaks the fourth wall to mock your expectations. Some find it essayistic and tedious rather than frightening.