A group of young people comes across a chainsaw-wielding cannibal on a trip to a family home in Texas. A disclaimer of some kind begins the movie, explaining the movie follows the tragic events that happened to five young people, especially Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her paraplegic brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain). After some news reports talking about mutilated bodies the police found, we see Sally and Franklin in a van with their friends Jerry (Allen Danziger), Kirk (William Vail), and Pam (Teri McMinn), with Pam explaining her astrological beliefs about Saturn being in retrograde and what it could mean for them. They stop to ask for directions to the graveyard where Sally and Franklin's grandfather is buried, as the heard reports of desecrations. Back on the road, they come across a slaughterhouse that Franklin says their grandpa sold cattle to. He excitedly explains, to the others' disgust, how cows would be bashed over the head with a sledgehammer. Trying to make the others feel better, he says they now do it more humanely, by shooting a giant nail into and out of the cows' heads with a kind of air gun. They pick up a Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), despite Franklin's complaints, and the man talks about how he slaughters cows, saying the sledge is the better method and showing them pictures of cow corpses. Though the Hitchhiker is excited while speaking, the others become more uncomfortable and end the conversation. Franklin busies himself doing something with his pocket knife, but the Hitchhiker takes interest in it and swipes it, unnerving the others. He suddenly digs into his hand with it, horrifying the others, then hands it back, giggling. He shows them his own knife, a straight razor, and when they're too disturbed to be interested, he readies a camera around his neck and snaps a photo of Franklin. He tells them he leaves just up the road, but they want him to get out and walk at some point. Franklin looks at the photo, and the Hitchhiker asks for $2 payment, stating that it's a good picture. Kirk tells Franklin to give the photo back, which upsets the man enough to burn it and dig into Franklin's arm with the razor. They kick him out and the man runs along side the van kicking it before smearing a pattern on the side in blood. Once calmed down, they go to a gas station to fill up, only for the owner (Jim Siedow) says he doesn't have any, and won't for a while. Franklin asks for directions to a house of his father's, and the man seems nervous about the idea, suggesting that they stay away from old houses and that some people not like them looking around. Suggesting they stay, he offers them some BBQ, and while Jerry goes inside, Franklin finds notices the Hitchhiker's blood on his knife. He wonders if he made the man mad, and Kirk simply laughs. Sally notices the mark the man smeared on their van in blood, but the group moves on, ignoring Franklin's fears about the man. Once at the house, everyone inspects the mark, leaving Franklin behind when he wants to look closer. Franklin struggles to get into the house, then becomes frustrated when he realizes everyone is upstairs. He gets angry at the group, obnoxiously blowing raspberries, then hurts himself going through a doorway. Kirk and Pam head to a swimming hole Franklin told them about, but they find it dry. Kirk hears a generator running, and noticing a house, realizes they could get gas. The house appears empty, and Pam walks off in disgust when Kirk finds a tooth on the porch. Kirk walks inside, hearing strange squealing noises, which turn out to be the grotesque Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who hits him in the head with a hammer. Pam investigates, only to stumble into a gruesome room filled with bones. She cries out, alerting Leatherface, who grabs her as she tries to run and takes her downstairs, where he puts her on a meathook. Leatherface then picks up a chainsaw, and starts carving up what appears to be Kirk's body on a table. Back at the van, Jerry mocks Franklin for continuing to be afraid of the Hitchhiker's blood mark, then leaves to find the others. Sally gets frustrated looking for Franklin's knife, which he pointed out she last had, and though he assumes she's mad at him, she says she's just tired. Jerry arrives at the house, and while searching downstairs, he discovers Pam, still alive in a freezer, but Leatherface bashes him over the head and puts Pam back. As it gets dark, Sally and Franklin decide they can't wait any longer. Franklin wants to leave, but Sally decides to go looking for Jerry. Franklin causes an obnoxious argument wanting to keep the flashlight, before agreeing to go with her on the condition he keep it. Sally grudgingly brings her annoying brother along, and as they search, Leatherface suddenly appears, killing Franklin with his chainsaw. Sally manages to run to Leatherface's house, where she finds two decrepit bodies in upstairs. She runs back down just as Leatherface breaks down the door, so she goes up again where she jumps out a window. The chase begins again, and Sally manages to get all the way back to the gas station, where the Owner lets her in and Leatherface disappears. While calming down Sally, he reveals there is no phone at the gas station, and suggests they drive elsewhere. Sally likely feels safe, but soon realizes that her horrific ordeal with the chainsaw-wielding maniac is far from over. This movie I feel is different from the typical slasher of its day in that we don't see the true main antagonist for much of the film.
While movies like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street give us information early on about who the characters are facing, here we are just as confused as them. The ominous reports at the start of the movie get the tension up right from the start, making us wonder what could have happened to the five teens that would draw such attention. We do get some strange action early on with the Hitchhiker, who is confusing in both appearance and actions. It seems that, in the end, Franklin was right in that the man did something to them by drawing a blood symbol on the van. Considering the crazy things he said and did, it's possible he did some sort of ceremony while in the van when he burned Franklin's picture, then marked the van after both he and Franklin had been cut. For the rest of the movie, Franklin continues to worry that the Hitchhiker will somehow follow them, so perhaps the others should have listened to the whiny man. Thinking about it, none of the main group really interested me much in this movie, nor did I find them enjoyable. Most of them constantly pick on Franklin for being in a wheelchair, and Franklin constantly whines about everything and does things like blowing raspberries at them. He's obviously the odd one out, as along with his condition, he was the only one fascinated with the slaughterhouse, like the crazed Hitchhiker, who also did odd things like blowing raspberries. Perhaps the reason for singling out Franky and Sally in the intro is because they're the only ones who really do much in this movie. Franklin always seems to be talking, and his knife, which we never see again, was important in the Hitchhiker scene and seemed like it would make a return. Sally interacted with others much of the time, and, as the typical horror long female survivor, was the only one who lasted for any time against Leatherface, despite him constantly getting close to her. Kirk does interact with characters most of the time, and is the one who stands the firmest against the Hitchhiker. Despite that, he doesn't really do much else and Pam and Jerry added practically just them being there whenever they were involved. Honestly, after a first viewing I didn't even remember too many names, and there's only a few characters. The Hitchhiker actually makes a more memorable impression than some of the main characters with just that van scene, with his odd and horrific beliefs and actions. Leatherface definitely adds an interesting personality to the story, due to how twisted he is with his grotesque mask and the strange pig-like sounds he makes. It's pretty funny to see the childish way he acts, and his large stature allows him to easily take down the teens with both hammer and chainsaw. Some of the cutting feels weird in this movie, especially later at Leatherface's house with Kirk and then Sally. One of the weirder moments comes from when Kirk hands the tooth to Pam; there are rapid cuts that just make the part somewhat confusing. Moments later there is a strange moment where, at Leatherface's introduction, we briefly cut from the wider shot of both him and Kirk to just him, then cut again. One that isn't necessarily bad, but I found rather funny, comes from the part where Sally is running from Leatherface, and he cuts down the front door to the house. As Sally looks around upstairs, we randomly jump back to the door for a moment, where the chainsaw is cutting through the wood. Of course, the reason here is to make the moment more tense, showing us that Leatherface is progressing and could catch Sally. To me, however, it also made the scene funnier, because we would just briefly see the chainsaw buzzing away at the door, and my immediate reaction to the suddenly louder chainsaw was to laugh. Because of the actions of both Leatherface and the Hitchhiker, both characters are comical and terrifying, because they're so strange you might find yourself laughing at them, but you know they're capable of terrible things and willing to do them. With us as the audience actually getting to see all of the things Leatherface does, we also find ourselves in a dramatic irony situation that helps the tension. We're just as confused as the characters as we go into the strange situation, but we get a third-person view and see every attack, while each of the characters goes in blind, causing their deaths. Even prior to Kirk's death, we know something tragic is going to happen to the characters, and a seemingly abandoned house with a working generator and a tooth on the doorstep is not a good sign. Once Kirk has been killed, viewers know for for what kind of stuff will happen to everyone, but they are none the wiser. Even Pam, who is outside, doesn't know what happened, but as she apparently heard something, she goes to investigate. Because of this, we know it's only a matter of time before Leatherface finds her, and because he's currently busy with Kirk's body, there's time for Pam to stumble upon the room full of bones. This movie can feel slow in a way, with stretches of very little happening as the characters mess around, but this contrasts with later moments full of terror. It's an enjoyable watch, both for the horror involved as well as the dark humor, with Leatherface a great grotesque character for Halloween scares.
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