MOTM Jan 10 TCM (1973)

[Leatherface]

Five friends visiting their grandpa's old house are hunted down and terrorized by a chainsaw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals

My all time favorite film what do you guys think of this film? rate 1 being it sucked 5 being classic

[The Walking Dude]

Classic.

I was lucky enough to see at a cinema last year.It was such a fantastic experience I actually don't see the need to watch it anytime soon.Because the next viewing will be a let down.

[Leatherface]

This is an all time classic film IMO. It's actually legendary i still hear adults who saw the film back in 73 who are still terrified of this film. Not a whole lot of films can do that. Those same adults still believe it happened. I find that funny since Tobe Hooper said numerous times that the main killer leatherface came from Ed Gein. And has anyone ever notice that only 1 person is killed with the chain-saw?

[FireStar]

Yeah and most of the actual killing and everything takes place out of sight behind Leatherface's steel door.

That's true about adults watching this decades ago who are still terrified by it. My mom's one of them, now believe me she's definetly seen more than her share of horror and she's actually the one who introduced me to horror as a kid. But this is the only movie that freaked her out, it got her so bad that she's only seen it once and hasn't watched it again and flatly refuses to watch anything else in the series.

[Leatherface]

That is understandable due to the film's documentary like filming and it's surreal atmosphere. Is she aware that it never happened?

[FireStar]

Yeah she knows its not real, but what I think bothers her is knowing they filmed it only about 15 or 20 miles from where she was living at the time.

[Leatherface]

wow. ya know the house that it was filmed at is now a reasturaunt and at the time there was a family living there at the time rumour has it that a child who saw gunnar hanse in the Leatherface costume for the first time was so terrified he bolted out of the house.

[fridayfan1979]

TCM is without a doubt one of the most influential horror films of all-time. Ranks right up there with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Plus, it gave us one of the great modern horror characters in Leatherface. 5/5

[abraxas]

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't consider this a horror classic, but I must admit that over the years, after seeing it so many times it has lost much, if not most of its scare potential.

With the exception of when I watched it after many years of not seeing it, it did scare the hell out of me, but then again it was 3 in the morning and I was in my car on a long stretch of deserted road, in almost total darkness.

I give it 5 chainsaws

[HNT]

I hated it.

LOL, no seriously is anyone gonna give this less than a perfect score? It is scary as he'll and pretty smart in terms of what it means in terms of the evolution of the horror genre. Prior to this, horror films, especially B-movies and genre films, were about a supernatural force (vampire, zombies, etc.) terrorizing small town middle American people. Here, it is the small town folks themselves that have become so warped and twisted that they turn on the teens. It was an allegory for Vietnam then (adults inexplicably all to happy to kill of the kids) and sadly it would seem like that message us every bit as relevant today.

Since we've no doubt all seen this a bunch if times, I'm gonna go ahead out on a limb and ask whether you guys have seen the documentary TCM: the Shocking Truth? I can tell Leatherface has as he quoted facts from it earlier. The rest of you should too if you get a chance

[abraxas]

Yeah Ive seen it, its on the 2 disc ultimate edition, Iv also seen the original documentary that came out in the early-mid 80s I believe, rented it from the video store years ago.

[CT]

I own the Ultimate Edition on DVD but haven't watched the special features yet so I'll do that in honor of this month.

[GL]

Terribly overrated on my end. Outside of maybe the chase through the forest where the chainsaw is just blaring through the entire scene, I don't think I would've found anything worthwhile with it. Not all that scary, and it's lowered value on revists doesn't mean a lot, nor does the fact that it's reputation has been the main reason for it's lasting appeal, something I don't agree with.

This almost turned me off of watching horror films on first viewing, so I don't really have a lot of positive stuff to say here.

But I'll go 3 just because it's the lowest one anyway.

[Leatherface]

Really Gl you hated it? well your entitled to your opinioin and HNT i actually learned of Ed Gein through an A&E Biography special about him. But prior to that i knew it didn't happen because there wasn't any sort of news reports about it lol

[abraxas]

Of course GL doesnt like most things

Of course he loves Metal so he cant be too bad.