By Jackson Littlewood
Tobe Hooper’s classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic in more ways than it is credited for. Beyond the visceral, unrelenting atmosphere of terror that the film creates through its gritty 16mm videography, it taps into the psyche of 1970’s America. Implicating a culture both exhausted by deindustrialisation and desensitised to the violence of the Vietnam War; the film tries to make the audience understand its role in violence. While rough around the edges in production value, its terrifying grip on the audience and lasting cultural significance cements it, in my mind, as one of the most important American films ever made.
