The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

"There are moments when we cannot believe that what is happening is really true. Pinch yourself and you may find out that it is!" -Pam Willard.

It's summertime, and there's currently a scorching heat wave in my neck of the woods. With that in mind, I've decided to look at a few flicks that I always felt were ideal summer viewing. What can I say about this classic that hasn't already been said? It's definitely an intense shocker that will make you have sleepless nights. A group of friends are traveling to the graves of one of their family members due to reports of grave robbing. After an encounter with a creepy hitchhiker(Edwin Neal), they go to an abandoned house owned by another family member. This house is in close proximity to a huge farmhouse. In need of gas, two of the friends decide to see who's home. They soon get their answer when they meet Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who wears a mask made of human skin. Eventually, he kills all but one of the friends (Marilyn Burns), whom he and the hitchhiker proceed to torture before she manages to escape. Like Psycho (1960) before it and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) after it, this film was partially inspired by the case of Ed Gein. Gein was a farmer from Wisconsin who was arrested in 1957 after police discovered his home littered with human remains. Another thing I've always liked about the film is its atmosphere. The viewer truly feels like they are in the middle of nowhere in the dead of summer. The climax's closeups of Sally's eyes is reminiscent of the eye shots in Sergio Leone's films, but taken to another level. Despite the outrage that the film caused in some quarters, it became a smash, and its director, Tobe Hooper would later direct Eaten Alive (1976), Salem's Lot (1979), and Poltergeist (1982). Interestingly, it would be a dozen years before the film's first sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986), also directed by Hooper. Other sequels and reboots followed. None have matched the original film, although I always got a kick out of seeing then-unknown Renee Zellweger in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995), also known as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But the best trailer for me is the one for Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990). The sight of the chainsaw emerging from the lake like it's Excalibur always cracks me up.