i be 11 year old . i would give an old kid 50p to borrow his copy of texas chain saw massacre . i take it home and put it in the top loader . it take me a fair while to press down on that chunky silver play button and recollect the story i would hear about the film . rumour be fly around the school the filmmaker have go mad whilst make the film and kill each other leatherface be real it be a documentary and the killing be all real . chain saw be a snuff movie . so and i press down the hefty button and brace myself for what be to come and eye peel and resist the need to look away a if i be look at a traffic accident . when the film be over i felt disturbed . i hadn not witness real human killing and i hadn not just see a snuff movie and but chain saw have reach deep down inside of me and plant a seed of unease and i felt cold to my very core but i do not know why . a the year pass my recollection of the film become more and more distorted . most notably my memory of the killing within the film bloody and gore fill scene . blood . lot of blood . the reason i have ramble on about these event be that and until re watch the film and i appear to share the same memory a those that have see it around the same time a me . this be a testament to chain saw masterful construction and a film power by the age old technique of suggestion . there be hardly a drop of blood show within the film and yet people will remember it in bucket load . in fact and director tobe hooper only show u what be necessary and maybe because of the low budget he be work with ( hooper later output would suggest this ) and but it force creativity from the filmmaker that be sadly lack in his other work ( poltergeist may be an exception and but hooper direction be steer by spielberg on that one ) . okay and the story represent a mini bus carry five teenager drive through texas . pre emptively they drive past a slaughterhouse a cow await their death . the tone and and their fate and be set and and it be only a matter of time before the teenager will become meat to a local cannibal family . their ordeal begin when they enter a sinister old house ( do not they always . ) and start to snoop around . before you know it one of the teen and who youre expect to be the lead and be strike over the head with a mallet by leatherface ( gunar hansen ) and an obese retard with a skin mask . a he fall to the floor and his body twitching and leatherface close a sliding metal door and finish the job where we can not see it . from here on in it basically a matter of pick off teen one by one with the use of the mallet and a meat hook and and of course and the chain saw . what be essentially a by the number plot be raise above par by the style and atmosphere of the film . from bizarre shot of solar flare to the hot and sun soak imagery of texas and chain saw seem to be sweat horror out of every pore . the location be macabre beyond belief and in particular a room with hang animal bone and bone construct furniture and and the whole film have a hot and musty orange glow about it that almost make you smell the dead human meat in the cannibal house . the performance be relatively functionary from the cast and although marilyn burn put in a good turn a the tortured final girl and make u feel that her life be truly at risk . even though all she do be scream and plead for her life and she do so with such energy and realism that it be difficult to watch her . most disturbing of all be a scene where the grandfather of the family and a man so old he can barely move and be give a hammer to deliver a deathblow to her head . the family hold her over a bucket a the old man raise the hammer to strike her and but he be barely able to hold it and let alone hit her with it . chain saw be full of image that will horrify and disturb and but unlike many other film that do the same and chain saw will leave you breathless with it unrelenting assault on the sens while from the image on display to the ear shattering sound design that allow leatherface saw to intrude your living room and slice at your nerve . texas chain saw massacre be one of those few horror film that will unnerve you to a degree of unrest because it hit home where it hurt . it savage and raw power and it total lack of reason give the impression you be watch something you shouldn not be . a bit like the traffic accident i mention earlier . in fact and you never really have time to think about what you be see until after the film have end and which leave an indelible image of a skin mask madman wave a chain saw around his head in anger . so and if you watch chain saw a good few year ago and remember it be a standard slasher flick with lot of gore and revisit it and see just how effective suggestion can be . if you have never see it what be you wait for . this be low budget film making at it best and a lot can be gain from repeat viewing . if you can watch it more than once that be .