PRESS

1974

Hollywood Reporter vol.233 no.35 (29 October 1974) pp.3, 4 (USA)
"(T)horoughly professional, compelling, and gruesome. Squarely within the traditions of the Psycho genre, it is a fresh and extreme interpretation that should do for meat-eating what Hitchcock did for shower-taking (...) Hooper shoots very directly and simply, letting the excess of his tour-de-force staking speak for itself. Actually, there is not so much gory detail shown - a girl being chased by a maniac with a chainsaw needs no amplification." - John H. Dorr

1975

Photon no.26 (1975) pp.47-48 (USA)
"Grim? Unquestionably. But whatever one's opinion of the film may be Chain Saw is quite possibly the most terrifyingly brutal example of a horror film yet produced (...) (T)here was definitely something more to Chain Saw that easily set it apart above Last House on the Left in every respect; qualities which had impressed me in spite of the stomach-churning sequences and which made it essential that I see the film again. Somewhat happily, I came away from the second viewing convinced that the film was an above average thriller... a film which, in spite of its grisliness, does place restraints upon itself and which borrows liberally from cliches utilized in dozens of previous horror films (...) (W)hile The Texas Chain Saw Massacre may be revolting in more ways than one, it is a frightening film, and isn’t that basically what horror films have always strived for, from James Whale to Roman Polanski?" - Ronald V. Borst

Cinefantastique vol.4 no.3 (Autumn 1975) p.36 (USA)
"There is no denying that this blatantly amateurish effort delivers some very professional shocks (...) (It has) a story-line that is full of absurd contrivances and unbelievable action (...) What director Tobe Hooper was concerned with, however, was the creation of a grotesque environment of unparalleled monstrousness, and in that he succeeded 100%The house these poor young tourists wander into is a chamber of horror and sickness that makes the Bates house look positively pleasant by comparison." - John McCarty

Time Out no.299 (5-11 December 1975) p.27 (UK)
"Under the very correct assumption that there's a market for scaring audiences witless, Tobe Hooper has concocted some sort of ultimate in exploitation horror (...) The result is cheap, nasty and very effective." - Chris Petit

1976

Sight and Sound vol.45 no.2 (Spring 1976) pp.84-5 (UK)
"(E)ssentially an effective exploitation piece; grand guignol horror with few pretensions. Analysis of the film too quickly throws up contradictions and confusions. In the grand tradition of many such exercises in the macabre, the film is ultimately neither disturbing nor provoking (...) If the film cannot be singled out for its artistic brilliance or the subtlety of its social message, it remains a phenomenon of some interest - a 16mm quickie that was made for £75,000 and has grossed millions." - Guy Phelps

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.43 no.515 (December 1976) p.258 (UK)
"(L)ittle more than a cheaply executed and in some respects remarkably old-fashioned piece of Grand Guignol (...), a tongue in cheek commercial shocker constructed on the principle that the viewer should be given the odd frisson but never allowed to forget that he is watching a fiction (...) (A) contrived piece of nonsense studiously avoiding a point of view (we sympathise with no one) and content to pad out the action before the final capture-and-rescue sequence with derivative or repetitive devices (the mummies are straight out of Psycho and the interminable chases seem forever on the point of ending with Sally's death). It is a sign of the hard times that Tobe Hooper should have been awarded a handsome Hollywood contract on the strength of a picture so reassuringly predictable that it successfully dissipates all apprehension." - John Pym

1977

Films and Filming vol.23 no.4 (January 1977) pp.43-44; 45 (UK)
"This is enough to bring on instant schizophrenia. On the one hand, the subject matter of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is meretricious tosh. On the other, its judgement of how long the suspense can be sustained in each of its numerous passages of apprehension, and its impeccably effective trompe-l'oeil flourishes that convince you the horrors are actually happening, cannot be eschewed as the incidentals of sensationalist rivia, since in themselves they are filmic to a degree: the very stuff of the medium, the illusion that bespeaks the specific quality of cinema (...) (A) film that proves empahtically that cinema as a vital craft is able to coexist with the reprehensible of storylines." - Gordon Gow

1998

The Austin Chronicle 2 November 1998 (USA)
"The violence is outdated by today's standards, but the original Chainsaw still packs a punch with its rough look and disturbing overtones (...) By the Seventies, moviegoers had seen their share of monsters and even a few Norman Bates-type characters. But nothing could prepare them for Tobe Hooper's twisted foray into the heart of the Lone Star State. Here, what was perceived as the most stable of institutions, the American family, is the beast. With that, it's no coincidence that the scariest scene in the film takes place at a dinner table. Hooper's vision is horrid yet engrossing. His subtle touches (background radio bulletins repeating gory crimes throughout the state) and grotesque characterizations make rural Texas seem like a hellish place where only the strong survive. But the worst part about this vision is that despite its sensational aspects, it never seems too far from what could be the truth." - Mike Emery

Evening Standard 11 November 1998 (UK)
"Tobe Hooper's seminal horror movie ripped apart the screen and rewrote the rules of what was apparently permissible on screen. A bona fide deranged cult movie this grunge 'n' gore masterpiece inspired a genre of chain saw movies that lasted through the next two decades (...)The weirdest and most disturbing aspect of the film is that in spite of the human detritus depicted on screen and a succession of meathooks, freezers, chain saws, ball-peen hammers and other agents of destruction, there is very little graphic bloodshed. It is the unrelenting atmosphere of nastiness, the cannibalistic, abattoir horror that lies within the primal regions beyond rationality that really chills the blood." - Neil Norman

The Evening Standard 10 December 1998 p.31 (UK)
"It holds up well, after 20 years, the purest of all horror films. It offers no explanation for the nightmare assault on a vanload of kids in the Texas backwoods, and ends abruptly, almost as if the final shots were missing – thus denying us even relief (...)The first shock is shocking precisely because it's like the life it takes – over and done before we've had time to register properly the apparition in the butcher's apron and leather mask. Christ what was that! It works the way Hitchcock's Psycho works: a glimpse is more grisly than a feast (...) (U)nlike today's corrupt and calculated violence, eager to make the violent extinction of life into watchable entertainment, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre retains its grassroots primitivism and unflinching integrity. It comes out of a particular place and time, warning of the world's unnatural horrors, rather than desensitising us to them." - Alexander Walker

The Guardian Section 2 11 December 1998 p.7 (UK)
"Why (…) does this bargain-basement still rank as one of the genre's most terrifying creatures? Perhaps it's because the evil is oddly intangible, incubated within the guts of its story. (…) Initially conceived as drive-in exploitation (loosely based on the Ed Gein serial-killer case that inspired Psycho), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre differs markedly from the copycats that followed. It's rhythm for a start. Hooper shoots his film like a snuff movie, with none of the measured 'shock, fake, bigger shock' routine now de rigeur for the genre. His violence erupts without warning, seemingly springing out of nowhere. The sex angle is also absent. For while lissom Sally (Marilyn Burns) and Pam (Teri McMinn) shimmy about in hotpants, their tormentors could hardly be less interested. At one point, the captive Sally bats her eyelids and promises 'I'll do anything you want', only to be met with blank looks from Leatherface and crew. To them, their hostage is not sexy, not human even. Just meat and bone." - Ian Brooks

The Independent (Review) 10 December 1998 p.10 (UK)
"It's a simple but crudely effective tale (...) The drama is never in any danger of being sophisticated, though the sight of a terrified girl being chased through the night by a masked pursuer is one of the purest representations of nightmare you’re ever likely to see. All told, Hooper's film must have done more damage to the rural Texas holiday industry than anything aside from an actual visit to Texas. – Anthony Quinn

Independent on Sunday (Culture) 13 December 1998 p.4 (UK)
"I thought I might laugh at The Texas Chainsaw (sic) Massacre (…) But Tobe Hooper's 1974 gloob flick is too adroit ever to be a giggle. (…) The scariest thing about Hooper's murderer is that he trudges. His behaviour is metronomic. Hooper's Texas is a melancholy place. It's just dust and space ripped through by a few twentysomethings with progressive ideas and optimistic bodies. They are dealt with accordingly. The film has more to say about innocence than you care to remember." - Antonia Quirke

1999

Empire no.115 (January 1999) p.25 (UK)
"The most purely horrifying horror movie ever made. A quarter of a century on, power-tools may have been overused blunting the sheer gall of using a title as up-front as this, but Tobe Hooper's sick, inventive little film remains as disturbing, suspenseful and shattering as the day it first saw the light of a drive-in screen (...) From the first images - a corpse wired to a grave, sunspots, a dead armadillo in the road - the film goes all out to show you the uncomfortable. The horror scenes are staged with unforgettable force, using the soundtrack as much as the (oddly restrained) visuals to batter you senseless, but Hooper and his collaborators, especially art director Bob Burns, fill the film with unsettling details that register on the corner of the eye. The horrror house, where human and animal bones are used in the furniture and a fat chicken is cooped in a canary cage, is a truly nightmarish locale, and the four maniacs each have unpleasant but credible tics. Unlike The Exorcist, which tries to make horror play with a mass audience, this is a picture for the hardcore crowd. It has an almost absurdist lack of meaning which is as horrific as any 'message' could be, and is never less than totally committed to scaring you witless. Usually, when they say 'Not for those of a nervous disposition', it's shameless hype; this time, they mean it." - Kim Newman

Empire no.126 (December 1999) p.146
"Hooper's film, shot on a miniscule budget by a group of mostly first-timers, remains a uniquely nerve-shredding piece of exploitation cinema, delivering masterfully built atmosphere and suspense as well as juxtaposing brief moments of harrowing violence with a wry sense of humour (...) (It) may sound like the kind of first-base slasher worthy of weary contempt, but like that other recently released horror classic The Exorcist, Chain Saw is much more than the sum of its parts. From it's haunting opening sequence (...) Hooper invests his film with a uniquely disturbing atmosphere, playing on American city-dwellers' fear of the secrets the sprawling heartlands of their country may hold (...) and the coleslaw brained inbreds that might dwell there (...) In the final, utterly surreal image - Leatherface engaged in a lunatic dance, swinging a buzzing chainsaw silhouetted against the sunrise - Hooper delivers one of the truly iconic images in horror movies. Essential." - Adam Smith

Film Ireland no.69 (February / March 1999) pp.42-43
illustrated review (by Donald Clarke)
"(O)ne is blown away by the visual and aural invention. Large swathes of it look like an 'Art Film', the sound design is also smashing - a nervy collection of clicks and rustling cymbals (...) (It's) still pretty damn scary, although not as grisly as we have been led to believe - it is the degradation of humanity that is really frightening. The comically absurd behaviour of the cannibal family could be straight out of the Theatre of Cruelty. In particular, the scene where they encourage their decrepit Grandfather to bash one of their victims over the head whilst they hold her over a bucket, would have done Antonin Artaud proud. Of course all of this was done on a miniscule budget and it is every bit as impressive as the contemporaneous work of Cassavetes, more so because it was competing directly with other films in its genre made for ten times the amount." - Donald Clarke

Film Review no.562 (January 1999) p.36
"For those who never saw Tobe Hooper's original nightmare, it's good to be able to report that you can still be afraid, be very afraid, as time has not dimmed the shock value of Chainsaw's razor sharp edges (...) Hooper's trump card was his reliance on a documentary-style realism coupled with the true horror of anticipation and suggestion (...) Despite being filled with quirky humour and bizarre characters (...), it is the numbingly brutal accumulative effect of Hooper's disturbingly matter-of-fact direction which sears the brain. The very low budget only adds to the film's harshly gritty, creepy tone. A directional masterpiece that fully deserves The Exorcist-style reissue treatment." - Alan Jones