The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) MOVIE REACTION!! 

Watch the Full Length Reaction HERE: blindwavellc.com/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre-movie-full

"He shot this movie for a PG rating." "Yeah?" "Did he get it?" "No."

This is how we used to roll in Texas, but then after this documentary we had to dial it back a notch.

The actual plot is fiction, but Leatherface himself is based in part on real life killer Ed Gein, just like Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs) and Norman Bates (Psycho) were. He's creepy enough to inspire so many different types of stories.

I love how they are voicing Leatherface's thoughts like "Where are all this kids coming from?" and "She locked me out of my own house!" :')

The gas station is a BBQ restaurant now, looks exactly like it does in the movie. It has a horror gift shop with props from the movie.

This film technically has little gore, but with the subject matter, the grungy look, the intense way it was shot, it feels less like a Hollywood movie and more like a snuff film made by some psycho.

Fun fact Gunnar Hansen, the guy who plays Leatherface is not only a big guy but a fast one too, those moments in the movie where he's chasing Sally he constantly had to slow himself down because she's a slow runner. If you watch the movie knowing that fact you can see it yourself several times

The hammer kill really messed me up as a kid, it's just how suddenly it happens and how graphic the death spasms are before he's violently dragged away and the door slams, and that's all there was to his death

"I'd say it holds up." "Yeah, I would say too, I mean, some truly disturbing shit." Thank you, guys. So many people dismiss this film for being "dated", but it's so well made for the budget, and the psychological torture of Sally is relentless. It has its flaws as you pointed out, but I can't think of another film with such a macabre atmosphere.

The part where Leatherface cuts Sally's finger was a real cut. They had a protective sleeve over the knife for the shot but forgot to put it back on during the cut. Also when Leatherface saws his own leg, the actor Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) had a metal plate covering his flesh under the pants to protect from the saw, but when the saw hit the plate it heated it up very rapidly and Gunnar got a bad burn on his leg. So when you hear Leatherface scream in pain it was for real and he limped for real because of the burn.

15:34 22:27 RICK: he shot this movie for a PG rating. CALVIN moments:...... AARON: did he get it. RICK: NO. LMAO

*Girl is hanging on a sharp metal hook by her back* Eric: “Well that’s a big ol’ bummer.”

Poor Leatherface, just tryin to protect his house from all those damn people!!

‘Leatherface.. I think I’ve heard of that before’ Woah, wasn’t expecting this reaction to be THIS blind, Awesome!

The scene at the dinner table is just so brutal. I've learned a lot about this series from watching the Dead Meat kill counts.

"I can't get any phone reception out here." - every horror movie for the last 20 years

13:05 *Kurt gets hammertimed *Calvin clearly puts a line through something he's written, presumably Kurt's name. For some reason this was hilarious to me lmao

I remember watching this as a kid, the whole movie gave me a new look on life, that some people out there are actually monsters and they're pure evil. This film was based off of the murderer Ed Gein.who's house furniture was made out of human skin, fragments, skulls, bones and fingernails from his victims. Sally in this film was def living a nightmare but she escaped these cannibalistic freaks, with a few battle scars and a mentally screwed mind. The reason why Leatherface dresses up as a woman is because he's taking up the roles of the family members that are not there like wife and mother being very domestic and housewife-like. The most horrifying scene that will always stick with me is the dinner party scene, Sally being tormented and tortured by the ghoulish clan and her being tied to the arms of a corpse.

you all need to watch Tucker & Dale vs Evil

Franklin's actor was in character 24/7 and literally everyone hated him! It wasn't until like 10-20 years later everyone found out what a nice guy he was! Also, when Leatherface cut Sally's finger, that was the actress's actual blood! It was supposed to be fake but the tube that was supposed to shoot out the blood kept clogging and with all the dead animals in the house, it was not a good place to do multiple takes! Between takes Gunner, the actor who played Leatherface, took of a small piece of plastic that was supposed to dull the blade off and cut her for real and for years the actress who played Sally didn't know it was on purpose! If you couldn't guess, this film was hell to make!

It looks like Calvin has no neck because of his sweater and his beard blending perfectly together and his shoulders are high lmao

I'm pretty sure leatherface is based on Ed Gein, a murderer who dug up graves to use human remains for masks and suits. He also used skulls for bowls

Yo I did not expect everyone outside of Rick to not know about the Texas Chainsaw Film Series or even know who Leatherface is.

The reason that Leatherface catches up with Sally was that the actress was so slow and Gunner Hansen (Leatherface) had to stop to cut tree branches just to give her some distance

This movie makes me wanna take a shower after i watch it...just feels dirty and grimey

I remember watching a documentary about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies and I remember the director saying that Leatherface is really stressed out and confused as to why a bunch of people keep showing up to his house, which is kind of funny.

John carpenters the thing is a masterpiece, should consider watching that

I remember seeing this movie on awful VHS transfers, and only after a couple of remasters and format upgrades did I realize how great the cinematography really is. It's a very arthouse style of horror film.

This is why I like living in the city, I'm terrified of crazy hillbillies

If you grew up in Texas, you definitely believed this was real.

"I'd just be running away from the left side of my body the entire time" - Deaf Eric lmaooo

They shot it to be PG, but to be fair PG back then meant something a little different. I mean, Jaws was PG.

Oh my God!! Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my favourite series of horror movies... I was not expecting this! Thank you so much!

I love this movie and one reason is it shows you don't need a lot of money to make something that has memorable imagery. Two examples that are my favorites are that door slam after Leatherface gets the first guy and the ending shot with him dancing around with the chainsaw. That door slam is such a chilling moment and all he's doing is closing a door. That last shot looks more artistic and cinematic than a movie like this has any right to have in it. There are movies with hundred million dollar budgets that leave no impression, talent makes that big a difference.

RIP Gunnar Hansen, dude was absolutely damn terrifying as Leatherface

Man, I think Leatherface is such a cool horror movie villain. I was just playing him in Mortal Kombat X so this is perfect timing

My dad was 13 when this came out. He said they only showed it at the drive in theater, where he snuck in threw a gap in the fence with his friend, and he said it was the scariest thing he’d seen and to this day thinks it’s the best horror movie ever made

25:47 Apparently the dinner scene was hell to shoot. The food rotted under the hot lights and it made the actors delirious to the point Gunnar Hansen who played Leatherface thought he actually was his character for a bit and thought that he had to actually kill Marilyn Burns who played Sally.

I love the movie for the fact people think this is so bloody, but it is one of the least bloody horror films, it takes place in your mind. One of the points this was made during a gas shortage, this family has generators and chainsaw use, no rationing. This is based loosely on Ed Geins who lived out in nowhere, and when he killed people and used their skin and bones around the house.

This is one of my favourite horror movies, so gritty, so real and paved the way for indie horror filmmaking

I saw this back in ‘74 when it first came out. My brother and I were the only ones in the theatre at the time. This film has held up really well over the years - a true classic; setting the benchmark for horror that hasn’t been duplicated. Tobe Hooper, great job man!

Interesting was how they tried to cut her finger and finally Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) pulled the tape off the blade and cut her for real. Also as he was chasing her in the woods, he complained that she ran so slowly that he had to stop and cut branches with the chainsaw so she could pull ahead and he could chase her again. One other thing was the saw was live with the chain on it real.

This movie is so scary and it doesn't even have that much gore

Going to be watching this horror classic at the drive-in tonight.

"Keep repeating 'It's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only a movie'" was actually the tagline to Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, released two years before Texas Chain Saw Massacre, so I dunno about that trivia. I can't see him sitting there, repeating the tagline from his own movie. 😆

Even though this movie is dated in a lot of ways, the gore and violence in it is still incredible. And Aaron and Eric's reaction were exactly what you'd expect for someone watching this for the first time

That's a real chainsaw not a fake one

Ah, TCM, the movie where not too much *graphic* stuff happens and you still walk away feeling like you just watched the most graphic and disturbing thing you ever watched. Like, I can watch the most grindhouse moveis ever. Saw, Terrifier, Hostle without getting too squicked out. I've watched this movie twice, and each time I spent the entire time sitting there wondering *why* I was watching this. It feels so wrong.

Aaron and Eric during that jump scare...hilarious.

"No it's not based off anything" - Rick Yes it is! It's based on Ed Gein. The guy who possibly killed his younger brother, then two people in his town. Would dig up graves and make furniture using the corpses, including a bowl that was just the top of a human skull. He also would sometimes apparently dress like his mother. Leatherface and pretty much the whole Sawyer family, Norman Bates from Psycho, and Buffalo Bill and somewhat Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb were written from the concept of the Ed Gein murders.

These guys would have a blast reacting to the Evil Dead Trilogy

Crazy. I can finally say I just saw the Texas chainsaw massacre last night. And I must admit. This film still holds up today. Love how you guys mentioned how films today don’t linger anymore. Always quick to cut to the next scene . Just let the scene play out. Wish more films did this more. Masterpiece for me

I love these guys I’ve been watching them for 6 years almost half my life

That very last scene with Leatherface seemingly dancing with his chainsaw as the sunsets behind him is a cinematic masterpiece.

You guys were actually right about what Leatherface was thinking and growing through when everyone kept showing up at the house. in the commentary and interviews, Toby Hooper said that Leatherface was scared, he thinks like a child, and freaking out and wondering where everyone was coming from. he was basically protecting his house and himself. what happened to the truck driver who ran off in the end? a joke says he's still running down that road. but in the movie Texas Chainsaw 3D, he's the guy laying across the counter cut up. So they caught him. But in the original part 2, it's never explained. but it does have Dennis Hopper and you should watch that movie just for him and his insanity. Part 2 has a lot of more of the dark humor that is rare through part 1. It was terrible working in that house filming due to the 100+ degree heat. Leatherface takes the personality of whoever's face he puts on. Also the Cook, or Drayton Sawyer as he's called in part 2, is their older brother. you guys really need to watch part 2 and see how different it is and how tobe hooper put a lot of dark humor in it. who was the window washer? no one knows. but it's said he might have been put their to contrast against Drayton Sawyer, the cook. Drayton as the gas station ownder presented himself as being nice and somewhat normal. but the window washer was off in some way. just not right. Also in reality, the window washer was the owner of the gas station and asked to be in a small roll if they wanted to use the place. The movie does have a memorable sound to it....it's the sound heard in the intro to the movie when the camera flashes. the narrator at the start was John Larroquette. He played Dan Fielding on Night Court. Yes the movie was based off of someone......Ed Gein. A serial killer known for digging up the bodies of dead women, also killing women and wearing their skins. the movie Psycho was also based on Ed Gein, mainly in the relationship to the mother. In the scene where leatherface is chasing Sally through the woods, Gunner Hanson (LF), kept catching up to her. so the director told him to stop every once in a while to cut branches in order to allow Sally to get ahead. It's funny you mention crazy Eddy aka Hitchhiker (Nubbins) as a dummy. Cuz that's basically what he becomes in part 2. He's carried around by his twin brother and his nickname is revealed as Nubbins.

The hitchhiker scene in the car is so damn tense

Thanks guys! Really enjoyed this reaction. Like Rick, I saw this when I was young (probably too young) and it messed me up for life. If you liked this you should check out "Last House of the Left", "The Cell", "The Descent", or Rob Zombie's "House of 1,000 Corpses" (my favorite). Why do I keep doing this to myself?!?

Ah yes wonderful October! The screaming at the end of the movie is deafening... I definitely see RE7 being heavily inspired by this movie, among a few others, like Aaron brought up

You guys should watch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2. Its the only sequel worth watching, and the only one that doesn't retcon the original film. Its more of a dark comedy, but its still disturbing. Its got one of the best comic relief characters in horror, Chop Top the crazy vietnam war veteran brother of Leatherface.

35:33 The marking of the van is arguably the beginning of the kids being treated like meat for slaughter. The Hitchhiker brands them, the Cook inspects them (notice the gas station didn't clean off the bloody marks on the van), and eventually the Butcher kills them. The picture and the gun powder just emphasizes the Hitchhiker loves both art and destruction, which makes sense for a grave robber who likes making art out of corpses and bones. Marilyn Burns did a great job, though I can't help but wonder how much of it was enforced method acting. They actually cut her finger in the dinner scene because they couldn't get the special effect to work and they'd already been filming for almost 24 hours at that point and just wanted to get the shot done. Then, they messed up filming the last scene, so she burst into laughter during the reshoots when she realized she was finally done with this movie. Though she didn't get a lot of money for this (apparently the Mob-fronted film distribution company actually stole most of the profits for TCM), she cameod in two later movies and has done lots of interviews over the years. The "Mom" (or more accurately Grandma) was the corpse next to Grandpa, and it's implied that Leatherface crossdresses to fill the void in the family left by her presence. Buffalo Bill and TCM (and Psycho) were actually all based on the same serial killer, Ed Gein, who mostly grave robbed and dissected corpses into skin suits (he only confirmed killed two people).

It's weird how not gruesome this film mostly is, because it feels like it's a lot worse than it is in terms of gore and gruesome imagery. It just FEELS grimy and dirty and grubby. Like it's something that that family made themselves.

Also....sorry to double dip here....the opening crawl narration was done by John Laroquette who is commonly known as playing Dan Fielding on the 80s sitcom Night Court. And he was paid one single joint for his work...

In the beginning, when they are knocked over by the side of the road, it is supposed to be the draft of the truck moving at speed that launches both debris and the characters down the hill.

Sally / Marilyn Burns was amazing and a trooper. She deserves a spot in the Horror Hall of Fame..

You guys were cracking me up this entire reaction! LOL "Where are all these damn kids coming from?!" Erik always making me laugh

That Calvin comment about tying people up and the reaction to it was sooo funny.

The scene where Pam gets impaled on the meat hook, just after that when Leatherface is cutting up Kirk, Tobe Hooper had to tell William Vail who played Kirk to remain completely still so that we don't really accidentally kill you. Gunner Hansen's (Leatherface) chainsaw which was real and running came 3 inches from Vail's face.

You know this franchise has a crazy cast. In the following films you can see Rene Zellweger, Mathew McConaughey, and Viggo Mortensen.

There was an audible “huh?” when I saw this on my feed

Evil Dead movie trilogy reaction would be so awesome!

What the hitchhiker wrote on the van was the log for the BBQ/Gas Station. She finally put two and two together when she was sitting in the office of the gas station and she looked at the BBQ oven. The same logo was on the glass. Leatherface was wearing Kurt's face at the end.

The movie's about animal rights imo. I didn't notice until someone mentioned it to me, but the killer mentions working in the slaughterhouse at the start, which presumably accustomed them to killing, and in the rest of the movie they basically treat the human characters as though they were a pig or cow.

This movie is SUCH an original. So glad y'all watched it!

This is probably my fav horror film ever made.

Edwin Neal (The hitchhiker) real did cut Marilyn Burns (Sally) finger, reading the trivia during filming the weather was 110 degree Texas heat, plus the filming lights meant all the food on the table quickly rotted, and the room's poor ventilation and body odor made the reek even worse, raising it to genuinely health threatening levels and they were filming that seen for 27 hours!

God i love these movie reactions, no matter what film it is the video is always hilarious

My favourite theory is that from the Sawyer family's POV, this is a home invasion movie.

Great review of a classic. I agree that this movie has held up well over the years. It doesn't have the slick CGI effects of today's movies, but it's stark, raw look reminds me of Burt Reynold's 1972 movie "Deliverance".

This is amazing!! This is in my top 3 favorite horror movies, right along side The Shining and The Thing!

completely addicted to you guys! Hi from Brazil!

Haven't watched the reaction yet but this is my favourite horror movie of all time and I'm so glad you did this.

The narrator was John Larroquette from Night Court/Blind Date.

Respect to the gentleman in the middle. Just enjoying how “horror” and suspense was made in the ‘70’s. Before fake CGI. Just good ole fashion suspense. Thx.

Love when you guys watch classics

18:22 Every time I get to this part of the movie, I always think..... “Theeeeeeere goes Franklin!” 😂😂😂

The guy who played Grandpa was 18 years old. About 30 years later, he served me mozzarella sticks at a TGIFriday's in Indiana.

You know you have a great horror film when you can remove most if not all the gore and still have it be suspenseful, it’s what made Alien such a great film there’s hardly any blood in the whole film yet it’s terrifying, you could remove the gore from the Thing and it would still be a claustrophobic tense chiller.

Great pick guys love everything you do

Subscribed. Excellent review and reactions! You guys hit on so many points that made this movie so disturbing and terrifying.

18:22 Leatherface was thinking "I've had enough of you two shouting "JERRRRRRRRRRYYYYYY."

My teacher in English Literature used the hook scene from this as an example of effective horror. Leatherface is basically a territorial animal, he just wants to be left alone but these kids keep entering his territory forcing him to eventually go on the defensive, plus the actor playing him spent time in mental wards studying the behavior of patients to enhance his performance, which I still think is one of the scariest in all of cinema as despite his giant size he makes noises like a scared animal which clashes with his appearance adding to his unnerving nature. Toby Hooper also said he wanted to have some underlining dark comedy in this film, which he played up a lot in the sequel, but I'm glad to see you guys pick up on it here. Plus, the corpse in the attic was a real corpse shipped from another country.

When Eric said he would just be running away from his left side, i couldnt help but envision Eric running in circles around Leatherface and Leather just feeling pity and letting him live. XD

I love the original Texas chainsaw massacre and I’m actually a fan of the sequel, cause it’s a bit like Evil Dead 2, a horror comedy that you guys should definitely watch.

Y'all made this reaction hilarious 😂

That sounds like an awesome premise for a film Eric, and you should film it. Blind Wave's first full film project. And ten years later, you guys are the new Blumhouse

I hope you guys react to more horror movies.

32:16 Kinda funny considering a few years after the movie came out they uprooted that house and moved it to an entirely new plot of land somewhere else.

The The Texas Chainsaw Massacre started the slasher genre in October of 1974 along with the Canadian film Black Christmas also released the same month and starring Margot Kidder who would later go on to play Lois Lane in the original Richard Donner Superman movies. You guys should watch that next start at the beginning ya know?

There is a message to the movie. Tobe Hooper, the director, was equating humans being butchered like animals for food. The bbq at the gas station is not made from pork or beef. Also, it's never been confirmed as for as I know but it makes sense that Leatherface is the guy compulsively washing the truck. Makes sense to me since obviously there are no outsiders working at that gas station/bbq joint.