The 70s spawned horror franchises that have proved as enduring as they are terrifying: Halloween, Alien, and The Hills Have Eyes, to name a few. Many of these kept their monsters in the dark and out of sight, terrorizing audiences with their own imagination.

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Tope Hooper's 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre took a different route to its nightmare destination. Rather than silence its villains, TCM let them speak. Rather than rely on darkness, this 1974 film showed how terrifying broad daylight could be. Thanks to the unique path it carved through the genre, Hooper's film remains as popular a classic as ever. Here are some of the reasons why.

10 Practical Effects

Nubbins hitchhiking in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Movie magic is a difficult art. Since many of the worlds depicted in cinema are unlike our own — featuring alien locations, stupefying magic, or impossible monsters — movie makers must use special effects to make the impossible possible.

It's no secret that CGI and other digital techniques tend to age poorly, and one of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's greatest strengths is its reliance on practical effects instead. Its handmade masks, decor, and violent set pieces have stood the test of time, creating a film as haunting to watch today as it was in 1974.

9 Family Dynamic

Grandpa from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre sitting outside

Horror is no stranger to clans, cults, or alien clowns. As popular as the solitary slasher is, there are plenty of horror films that depend on more than one villain to ruin their protagonists' day and threaten the life of the Final Girl.

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The more villains a film adds, the more difficult it becomes to balance the chemistry of actors, the distribution of dialogue, and the pacing of the story. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre introduced the world to Leatherface and the rest of the Sawyer clan, and despite there having been a dozen different ways it could've misplayed its cast, TCM capitalized on their sinister energy perfectly.

8 The Beginning

Sally, Franklin, and two other characters from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

"The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths...." These are the words with which Hooper's film opens, scrolling up the screen like a goose bump-raising version of the famous Star Wars crawl.

Though the film is only loosely based on the crimes of several, unrelated killers, the opening narration imbues the entire film with a feeling of gritty reality. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has the air of a sickening documentary throughout, and that feeling hasn't weakened in the decades since the movie's premiere.

7 Sparing Violence

Character struggling on a meat hook in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiered, a number of critics spoke out against its graphic violence. In the years since, the critical assessment of the film has changed, with many now arguing that the film — despite its unquestionably grim and traumatic content — is comparatively restrained.

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In the hands of another director, Leatherface putting someone on a meat hook or chainsawing a body would've been played for maximum carnage. Instead, the film only implies its worst atrocities, letting the camera linger instead of the faces of victims and perpetrators. The effect is unquestionably disturbing, and holds up far better than cheap gore and jump scares.

6 Drayton Sawyer's Character

Drayton Sawyer from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Leatherface may be the poster child of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but Jim Siedow's portrayal of Drayton "The Cook" Sawyer is in its own just as memorable. Siedow's powerful, unflinching performance earned him a spot in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and years later remains a highlight of the film.

Every member of the Sawyer family is deranged in their own way. Cannibal chef Drayton is meticulously crafted by Hooper and Siedow, both more and less monstrous than his brothers in his own way. Every member of the cast held their own, but Siedow's apathetic butcher continues to stand out to this day.

5 Cinematography

Luda May from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre standing at the table

Films with similar themes have a tendency to fall into a visual rut, repeating images established years ago by predecessors in the genre. It's for this reason that films about zombies, slashers, and ghosts so often look the same, though there are of course memorable exceptions.

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Cinematographer Daniel Pearl made sure The Texas Chain Saw Massacre looked nothing like other horror films of its time, and years later, there are still few that capture its same visuals. Hooper's film looks and feels as sweaty and begrimed as the psychopaths within, and the house they inhabit is shot in equally nightmarish fashion.

4 The Ending

Leatherface raising his chainsaw at the end of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Horror is a film genre particularly associated with memorable imagery. Freddy's blood-spewing bed, Jason snatching the Final Girl from her canoe, and Michael watching Laurie from across the street have all been immortalized in the horror canon. The end of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ranks as high as any of these moments, if not higher.

The image of Gunnar Hansen's Leatherface, twirling with his chainsaw in the early morning light as his bloody victim escapes in the back of a passing truck, is masterfully composed and shot. It's an image that will be just as impactful in another 50 years.

3 The Dinner Scene

The dinner scene featuring Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

A scene just as iconic as the film's ending is the dinner scene. Throughout the film, the protagonists have seen more and more of the Sawyer house, but it's in the dinner scene that viewers are treated to a truly spine-chilling sight.

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The Hitchhiker, Drayton, and Leatherface sitting around the dinner table, tormenting Sally by mimicking her screams, is pure nightmare fuel. The addition of blood-drinking Grandpa makes it even worse. These horrors occur within a room decorated with the flesh and bones of the Sawyer family's victims, making the scene a masterpiece of surrealist horror and black comedy.

2 Hooper's Direction

Closeup of Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper

It's hard to summarize the myriad ways in which a director's vision affects a film. Some evoke a feeling. Some express a philosophy. Some capture an image. Still others keep massive, complicated projects from running over budget, falling apart, and getting destroyed by critics and commercial consumers.

Tobe Hooper is the talent behind Poltergeist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and dozens of other films. His vision for TCM was singular and he executed it to perfection, taking a stripped-down feature and transforming it into one of the best horror stories of all time.

1 Leatherface's Portrayal

Leatherface running with his saw in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Putting a mask on a killer is often a way of removing their personality, of making them a blank canvas upon which violence can be painted, as is the case with famous slashers like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. Leatherface is defined by his masks, yet those masks enhance his personality rather than destroy it.

​​​​​​​This film's killer is deeper and more mercurial than almost any villain in cinema, and his original portrayal is as nuanced and upsetting as any that came after. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a celebration of many things, but it will always be a celebration of Leatherface first.

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