The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hit movie theatres in 1974, it quickly supplanted the previous year's top horror flick, The Exorcist, as “the most terrifying movie ever made.” Unlike The Exorcist, however, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre eschewed standard production values and modern special effects in favour of a grainy documentary-like approach with visceral, low-tech, in-your-face visual effects.

The tale of five young students who unwittingly meet up with a sinister hitchhiker, the mask-wearing maniac Leatherface (whose mask is actually made from dried human skin), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre turned a lumberjack's tool into the stuff of nightmares and the blood-curdling scream into an art form.

Critic Reviews:

• " This movie is nothing but an exercise in tension. Grotesque, looming, filthy tension – and on that count, the film works extremely well. " – Chris Stuckmann

• " As disgusting, harrowing, and ugly as the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is, the film has moments of eerie beauty. " – Noel Murray

• " Chainsaw-wielding Leatherface remains one of the most disturbing characters in horror. " – Sophie Morris