Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39354 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
This sensational, extremely influential, 1974 low-budget horror movie directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Salem's Lot), may be notorious for its title, but it's also a damn fine piece of moviemaking. And it's blood-curdling scary, too. Loosely based on the true crimes of Ed Gein (also a partial inspiration for Psycho), the original Jeffrey Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who pick up a hitchhiker and wind up in a backwoods horror chamber where they're held captive, tortured, chopped up, and impaled on meat hooks by a demented cannibalistic family, including a character known as Leatherface who maniacally wields one helluva chainsaw. The movie's powerful sense of dread is heightened by its grainy, semi-documentary style--but it also has a wicked sense of humor (and not that camp, self-referential variety that became so tiresome in subsequent horror films of the '70s, '80s, and '90s). OK, in case you couldn't tell, it's "not for everyone." But as a landmark in the development of the horror/slasher genre, it ranks with Psycho, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Who will survive, and what will be left of them?
If you're reading this review because you have never seen this film, stop now, navigate back to the product information page, and click "order". Created in summer of 1973 by Tobe Hooper, TCM has become one of the most recognized and influential horror films of all time. Achieving super cult status, spawning sequels, action figures, Atari games, it's safe to say that this one is a force to be reckoned with.

"The film which you are about to see, is an account of a tragedy that befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected, nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them, an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day would lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

The infamous monologue that is forever etched in the minds of horror lovers everywhere begins the tale of five youths who embark on a roadtrip across rural Texas to visit a relative's burial site. However, the trip becomes a nightmare as they one-by-one fall victim to a family of cannibalistic savages in the Texas backwoods.

Reviewing a horror classic as revered as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is hardly necessary as there is certainly nothing I can say about it that hasn't already been said. However when I see an overall rating of four stars for a movie like this, I am forced to throw my two cents in. TCM is a horror classic and will remain viewed as such for many generations to come.

The True Beginning
This is a concept that today remains disturbing. Purely the concept and characters are the sole reason to watch this movie. Shot on some of the worst equipment ever created and with virtually no special effects, this movie still is able to be extremely entertaining. The family of Leatherface is entertainingly dysfunctional, and is part of the thoroughly creepy concept. An amazing film for the lack of budget, and is truly a good way to expose the world to the demented.

Great Classic
I own the remake, I'd never seen the original before until recently. If your looking for a gore and blood fest in this movie, its not there. This is more of a darker type of movie. If your a fan of the remake that was released a few years ago, I'd say you'd like the 1974 original. I highly recommend buying this 2 disc edition the case and bonus disc are pretty sweet.