The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) follows five friends traveling the back roads of rural Texas to check on a possibly desecrated family grave. After picking up and then dropping a disturbing hitchhiker, the group stops at an isolated farmhouse where they encounter Leatherface and his deranged, cannibalistic family. One by one the young travelers are hunted, captured and terrorized by a household that replaces social graces with sledgehammers, knives and a roaring chainsaw, while one survivor fights to escape the escalating nightmare. Watching the film is an immersive, brutal experience: gritty, documentary-like cinematography and ragged performances create a sense of immediacy and isolation rather than polished spectacle. Expect mounting, relentless dread more than conventional jump scares—sudden flashes of violence, a buzzing chainsaw, claustrophobic interiors, and grotesque, macabre set-pieces (masks, butchered props, and unsettling sound design) that linger after the credits. Low-budget realism and raw editing make the horror feel disturbingly possible; it’s iconic, influential, and deeply unsettling—definitely not for the faint of heart.

Actors: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger

Director: Tobe Hooper

Runtime: 83 min

Genre: Horror

91 /100 7.4 /10 8.2 /10