Texas Chainsaw Massacre

In the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, director Tobe Hopper presents a twisted version of rural America. Many scholars view this film as apocalyptic, meaning that the events of this film were unprovoked and unpreventable, and it could only end in death. While this film has a very apocalyptic feel, Tony Williams believes that there are “veiled material forces” that manifest themselves in the carnage that unfolds.

The main reason why films of an apocalyptic nature exploded in popularity during the 70s and 80s was because many old American institutions and values, that were deemed to be just and unbreakable during the postwar period, began to unravel. This gave birth to a new outbreak of nihilism, also known as post-modernism, which was brought to the screen through horror films. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre feels apocalyptic because in the film, 5 young adults are stranded in a somewhat otherworldly part of Texas and are picked off one by one for what seems like no apparent reason.

Williams believes that there are many reasons behind the events that take place in this film. He describes Leatherface and the slaughterhouse family as “losers within the American ideology”, who very much correspond with the Puritan feelings towards the savages on the outskirts of society. They are basically the embodiment of the “other”, and they are meant to represent everything American society views as abject.

The contrast between the family and status quo society is made painfully clear by the scene in which they pick up the Hitchhiker (Figure 1). Franklin immediately labels him as “other” by saying “I reckon we just picked up Dracula”. The Hitchhiker carries an animal pelt bag, has long unkept hair, and a red streak across his face, made to symbolize his similarity to the savages of american folklore (Figure 2). Williams says that the hitchhiker “appears in answer to Franklin’s gory fantasies”, which hints that society created this monster just to hate it.

Williams tries to make clear that while the practices of the family are horrid, they are a result of society, not just evil to the core. It is clear that they have been rendered useless by advancing technology, and their abandonment in the wilderness has forced them to repress their violent tendencies. They succumb to these tendencies when their opposites, white teenagers who come from the society that shunned them, arrive. As Leatherface carves through these kids like the meat he used to work with, his purpose is to “take revenge on those who have made him obsolete”.

Tony Williams, in his article “Chainsaw Massacres: The Apocalyptic Dimension”, argues that while films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are seemingly apocalyptic, they actually have wider social issues at play. He talks about how the christian, capitalist American society has shunned all those on the outskirts, basically turning them into repressed savages, and this is very much the case for the slaughterhouse family. Their existence has been made obsolete by new technology and they are forced to kill to survive. The victims in the film represent those who have prospered in this society, and their vanity, laziness, and ignorance allows for them to be easily hunted. Williams shows how the slaughterhouse family inverts all traditional values held sacred by society, and propagates only violence and destruction.