Review of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) by Thequietgamer — 17 Feb 2015

It kind of pains me to have to criticize this movie for not aging well. I mean it was made it 1974 for crying out loud and it's not hard to imagine how terrifying it must have been to people back then. Today however it's not scary in the least and can be rather boring. Sometimes it's even annoying.

The excellent portrayal of the crazy, backwoods family is still kind of creepy and absurd in a black-humor sort of way. However outside of that and the influence it had on the genre there's nothing else that stands out about it. At least not in a good way.

The pacing has aged mostly well, but some scenes just drag on for too long. Was it really necessary to have a prolonged section where Marilyn Burns is just screaming non-stop for several minutes? It's old-school filmmaking decisions like that which make the film kind of hard to watch today.

It's definitely a classic of the horror genre. However it's just not one that's aged well at all. Due to it's legacy it's one I can say I'm glad I watched. I just can't say that I enjoyed it. It's a piece of horror history that any hardcore genre aficionado should check out. However doing so means putting up with a lot of issues brought on by age. Because of that it really is only for the most hardcore of horror fans.