Black + White Friday: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

I wonder if horror classic, and one of my favourite films - what does that say about me? - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would look like if it had been ten years prior in the 1960s when horror films and black and white went hand in hand (think the equally "backyard" Night of the Living Dead).

This entry has some heavy spoilers, but really it's been 30 years so I think spoilers are a bit silly now, don't you?


Charming.


I'm fairly certain nobody has picked up a hitchhiker in Texas for at least 30 years.


Aww, look at that. The gang's all here. Haha, NOT FOR MUCH LONGER!

*zing*
I definitely think these opening scenes in the van are the film's weakest. Having said that, this film's weakest is another film's never-gonna-reach, so...


Even in black and white Franklin is annoying. Man, how much do I hate Franklin? SO MUCH. At least he gets chainsawed in half later in the movie. Bless.


One of the things that is so scary about this movie is the sun. At least in the first half of the movie, Tobe Hooper constantly shoots the sun and it bleeds. Even in daylight these folks can't escape so heaven knows what's in store for them when it goes away. Even in black and white that's blatantly obvious.


What is it about Texas Chain Saw Massacre films that elicits such crazy facial acting? Both Marilyn Burns and Teri McMinn, pictured here, work overtime on churning out horrified looks one right after the other. One never looks exactly the same as the other, either.


Bye Franklin! I gotta say, the sight of Leatherface (Gunner Hansen) is actually perhaps scarier in black and white. As if it takes away the slight cartoonish nature of the character (clearly a deliberate thing if you've seen the sequels).


You can't see it very well here, but this is my favourite spot in the movie (it still seems so macabre to talk about having a "favourite" anything in relation to this movie, doesn't it?) It's of Sally (Marilyn Burns) running towards the camera closely followed by Leatherface. There is something just so simple and downright horrific about it. Add that to her screaming and it's like she's doing anything she can to escape including (*insert wanky film pretension here*) trying to jump right out of the screen. Just screencapping this movie is giving me the heeby jeebies.


I really don't think I've ever seen anybody's eyes get so wide as Marilyn Burns' in the dinner table sequence of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Honestly.


Seriously one of the best endings of all time.