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Texas Chain Saw Massacre (The) aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The)
R0 - Australia - Force Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (11th May 2004). |
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The Film
 If you read my review of the remake of Texas Chainsaw you'll already know that I'm a fan of this film. There are many forgettable horrors and then there are few iconic horror classics, films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Texas Chainsaw. Back in 1974 filmmaker Tobe Hooper didn't realise he was creating a cult masterpiece, what he was doing was making a film that would literally scare the flesh right off your bones. And he succeeded, so much that the film was banned in the UK for quite some time until recently where it was finally released on DVD. The film centres around a group of teenagers who are recruited by Sally (Marilyn Burns) who upon hearing that vandals have desecrated their grandfather's grave, travel across Texas to investigate. As they travel across the wasteland they pick up a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) who isn't exactly normal. He takes a picture of the group and suddenly expects to be paid for it, when the group refuse he goes psycho on them and starts slashing himself with a razor. Freaked out by the incident they kick the hitchhiker out him out of the van. Strung out by the incident they stop at a gas station for a breather and suddenly find themselves at an old family home... where they come face to face with Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his family of cannibals. From that point on the nightmare begins and Leatherface won't stop until they are all dead! For many years this film has been given a bad rap, people have called it vile, offensive, violent, disgusting and sick. Audiences, critics and even public officials have called this film a shocking and sick film that has no redeeming value what so ever. If this film made you afraid to open your eyes, if it made you sick and repulsed then I think it did what it was supposed to do, after all it is a horror film. If you don't want to be subjected to it then don't see it, simple as that. But let's not get into a critic bashing censorship issue as this will certainly lead in that direction. Let's talk about the impact this film has had over the 30 years since it's release. After 30 years this little no-budget film is still considered by most horror fans to be one of the scariest films of all time, why? Because Hooper managed to tap some of our very primal of fears by introducing the film as a true story. That something this vile actually happened. When in fact the film and most notably it's villain Leatherface was loosely based on the mass-murderer and cannibal Ed Gein. Mixed with stark images, gritty documentary-like camera work, real life locations in a small Texas town, and a brilliant sound mix came together to deliver a truly memorable horror flick. What added to the overall scare factor was that Hooper managed to let the viewer use their own imagination instead of show direct on-screen violence, for a horror flick there is very little gore. Perhaps this was either deliberate or was a result of having hardly any money to make the film, either way it was effective. Also for what is essentially a B-movie the performances aren't bad at all, while certainly not Oscar worthy they are at least not as cheesy as some B-grade horrors. This film is not for everyone, If you're a horror fan than you'll already know what I'm talking about, if you're new to horror genre then I suggest you don't see anymore contemporary horrors until you take this film for a test drive. If you don't like films of this genre and are easily scared then perhaps it's a good idea you stay away.
Video
Presented in its near original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is anamorphic, the packaging states 1.85:1, but after measuring the image it's in fact 1.78:1. Now before we look at the transfer, Force Video have included some booklet notes about the transfer, it reads: Fully re-mastered and restored from the original ECO negatives this special edition allows you top view The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as it was intended. Director Tobe Hooper supervised this high-definition Superscan transfer, which minimises film grain and allows for a sharpness and detail unattainable with standard film-to-tape transfers. The results are phenomenal and reflect Hooper's original vision of higher contrast images and colour. More than ever, this version has accentuated the feeling of the dry Texas landscape and intensified the nightmarish atmosphere of both the indoor and night sequences. It also quotes Hooper in saying "The last time the film looked this good...I was looking through the viewfinder" I don't know about the liner notes but I don't think I was watching the same version they saw, because what I saw was not benchmark material folks. The problems with this transfer seemed endless, first of all it lacks definition as its not at all sharp which results in an overall lack of detail. Shadow detail is poor, especially scenes that aren't well lit. Other problems include a continuous flow of grain, colour definition is all over the place mainly dealing with over saturation and skin tones rendered with strong and sometimes overpowering red hues at times. Further problems include serious MPEG compression artefacts and NTSC to PAL conversion interlace blurring is also evident. I wish I could take Force Video's word according to the liner notes, but I can't. This is not the best transfer of the film and if the original ECO negatives still exist according to the notes then a better transfer could have been produced.
Audio
This DVD comes with only one sound option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround mix. The booklet liner notes also comment on the sound: From the original audio elements, under the supervision of Tobe Hooper, this release is presented with a digitally re-mastered stereo surround soundtrack giving the already terrifying sounds and music new depth and atmosphere as well as great directional effects. Again, I don't know what version they where listening to because I didn't get depth or the great directional effects that the liner notes promised. What I got was a below average sound track where dialogue clarity varies from can be clearly heard to sometimes hard to make out. Main reason for this can be attributed to the limited frequency response. The track also suffers from occasional distortion. There are some positives though, there is hardly any hiss, the syncing is spot on and the music is presented well.
Extras
Although the transfer and sound aspects leave a lot to be desired, Force Video have provided us with a very nice selection of extras. This Special Edition is a 2-disc set, which includes a commentary, a feature-length documentary, deleted scenes, alternative footage, two featurettes, blooper reel, stills galleries and a booklet. The first disc boasts the audio commentary, which includes director Tobe Hooper, director of photography Daniel Pearl and Leatherface himself Gunnar Hansen. This is a great commentary with the three sharing background information, stories, and memories from the set as well as a wealth of technical info about the making of the film. Disc two is where the majority of the extras are stored. Staring off with the feature-length documentary entitled "Texas Chain Saw Massacre - The Shocking Truth" running in at just over 70 minutes, This is a great documentary that interviews just about all of the cast and some crew members and delves into the background of the film, it's influence from Ed Gain's life, the shooting of the film and details such as the importance of the art direction from the locations to the Leatherface mask and of course covers the controversy the film generated when it was released. More DVD documentaries need to be made like this. Following that are six deleted scenes, which include: - "The Van" - "The Campsite" - "Make-Up Scene" - "Death Of A Hitchhiker" - "Sally's Escape" - "Tantrum Outside The Service Station" All these scenes have text screens that explain the context of these in terms of where in the film they should have been. The deleted scenes are directly followed by three alternative footage clips which include: - "Corpse In The Graveyard" - "Original Opening" - "Sally In The Service Station" And also have the same text screen info as the deleted scenes. We also get a short "Killing Kirk" featurette that shows additional footage for this sequence. And a "Props And Set" featurette, which consists of silent footage of the props and sets, although it's nice to have these two as extras they offer limited value. These two could have benefited greatly if a commentary was included over the footage. Rounding out the extras are some outtakes, two photo galleries, one of film and production stills and one of posters and lobby cards and finally Force Video have also included a booklet with notes on the transfer and sound, plus the chapter listings of both the film and the documentary. The quality of some of these extras is quite poor, such as the deleted scenes for example where some have no audio. The video quality also varies for these extras, overall the content is great but the presentation is not very good.
Overall
Texas Chainsaw is a masterpiece of horror and one of my all time favourite films. Tobe Hooper has made a genuinely scary film that delivers on every scare factor, it's a shame we can't get a decent transfer (Maybe one day the Criterion Collection can pick this up and give it the treatment it sorely deserves). This Special Edition may not have the best image or sound but the extras add some decent value so it's not all at a loss. Recommended for horror fans, but those whom are squeamish beware as this film is an all out assault.
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