#brief imagery involving elements of gore and blood

[lasagnaboxlesbian]

Ronancetober Day 4: Historical

i missed your skin when you were east

Rated [T]

Oh, what a pain it had been to cut the threads between them. Ripping themselves apart until all that was left of her was threadbare and unwoven. Until the city had swallowed her whole, and the country had turned the other way. OR: Nancy receives an unexpected letter. She decides to write one back.

[reposted to ao3 if you prefer so here's the link!]

The letter sat there, mocking her. 

Crisp, pointed edges. Dark ink disturbing yellowed paper, a flag amongst the crumpled piles of words cluttering the floor.

Nancy’s fingers scratch at the wood on her table, splintered nails crackling like the fireplace under the depressive night.

Weary eyes find themselves staring blankly at the envelope, leaning against the wall.

She swallows down the lump in her throat, and it aches with all that she can’t say.

It’s been months, and yet she can’t open it.

Robin must think the worst. Waiting at her doorstep like the girls they used to be, giddily latching onto the fresh round of mail, pretending that the queen of some faraway kingdom had beckoned them for a quest.

It seems so long ago, yet the scent of the grass they used to lay upon had been tattooed upon her memories, the ink freshening every spring.

The dusted over inkwell caught her eye, and her hand trembled at the thought of picking up her pen.

She couldn’t escape the scratch of her pen or the rough paper pulling at her fingertips. Splots of ink dotting her skin, for which she wore like medals of a war hard fought.

Years. What a silly thing to think. Of course time has passed the way it has… so why does it feel like the moon from a decade ago has yet to sink behind me?

Lips, chapped little things pressed squarely on her cheek. Eyes, the corners curled in the way that Nancy wished she could rest her head upon when the days got hard. Freckles, stars across the galaxy she could only dream of exploring.

Instead, the stars had led her far, far away from her home. Following the dreams she’d envisioned within the reach of the girl she’d grown around.

‘Grown Around’,  is what Robin had called it. Being around one another so long that they became enmeshed in the fabric of who they were destined to be.

Oh, what a pain it had been to cut the threads between them. Ripping themselves apart until all that was left of her was threadbare and unwoven. Until the city had swallowed her whole, and the country had turned the other way.

Nancy worked, writing on the same desk that she can’t get up from. Creating her own newsletter and sending an uproar amongst those keen enough to read between the lines of prose she carved from broken memories.

She thread herself back together, forgot about dewy grass and long nights spent with her back against a fireplace, shoulder pressed against another spitfire.

The letter sat there, just like it had last spring. Arriving when the flowers had bloomed, untouched as all of the petals had fallen to the ground.

Nancy bit her lip, trying to muster up the words she wished to scream when she was younger. The ones that burned so deeply, that even if she were to write them in their entirety, the burns would still tug in her gut.

Her first attempt, free of the pressure from failure, had been the best so far. But, it too had been killed before the insincerity had killed her first. 

Another night, another day. 

She couldn’t bear to think about what Robin thought of her. Nancy was the girl that left their world behind to explore stars beyond their imagination. 

That last day, of being able to feel her heart tug her impossibly closer, had hurt the most.

A simple press of lips against the flat of Nancy’s face, tear brimmed eyes, and crumbling words that fell apart the second they left cracked lips.

It ate away at her bones, the way Robin had looked at her. Like she was losing someone more than her childhood neighbour.

Nancy hadn’t noticed it then. Only when lying upon the small cot that first night, staring out the window and wondering if Robin were looking up at the same moon. How she wished her slumber away, eyes trained on that everlasting rock, her only connection to home. And with that, she starts.

---

Dearest Moon,

You join me tonight, and on every night that I am blessed to stare up at you. I imagine you staring down at me, waiting like you always do for me to fall asleep first.

I feel your light through the windows, reaching across the stars to place a palm over my own.

Hours pass in a sleepless fit, and I sacrifice my sanity just to feel your memory for a moment longer. And when I have nothing left to give, I weep for you. I weep, and I pray that cool fingertips will wipe my tears away.

In the times you have hid from me, tucked away from my window, I wait for God to bless the altar for which I stand.

And here I am. 

I write to you under your light, waiting for you to strike the pen from my hands. 

An ever present spector, waiting until I’m left by my lonesome to haunt me.

My flesh is still raw from where we last were, the blood dripping from my hands and seeping into everything I write. 

I am enamoured with that agony.

I press on my wounds and howl at you. 

Mix the ink with my own, and write about how I can not live without you.

I feel your phantoms at the base of my skull, easing me from pressing too close to the edge.

Burn me, when you see me. Deepen my bruises and trace my scars. Taste where you and I become the same and I will rip what is left of me.

I stare up at you, and I feel my hands aching. They long for anything but the cold sheets of my own bed. The lukewarm tea I can never finish, mourning the lost nights.

My mind imagines what your letter might tell me, and I fear all of the possibilities of where the last few months have disappeared.

I fall to my knees for you, open my mind and soul to what we could never say and hope what I can sacrifice is enough for you to come to me again.

My lungs fill with words that I refuse to say without you in my arms again, and I sincerely wish to fulfill the prayer alight in my mind.

Forever Yours,

Sun

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #148 - Sleepy Hollow

Spoilers below.

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: No.

Format: Blu-ray

Disclaimer: I will not be commenting on the accusations, controversies, or public opinion which surrounds actor Johnny Depp in this analytical piece. This is strictly an analysis of the film Sleepy Hollow and those involved, and whatever my feelings on the actor are they do not change the film or its quality. So I am avoiding the topic altogether.

1) In his time as a filmmaker, director Tim Burton has only worked on three films which have received R-ratings: Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, and Sweeney Todd. The R-rating here allows the director to play with some fun gore which is definitely fighting of his personality but rarely seen in his PG and PG-13 fare.

2) Martin Landau - who won an Oscar under Burton’s direction in Ed Wood - has a cameo as early murder victim Van Garrett in the film’s prologue.

3) It says on IMDb that this is the same scarecrow from The Nightmare Before Christmas but I question the legitimacy of that claim.

4) The prologue is a very nice way to kick off the film. It showcases the visual style perfectly, as well as the fantasy-horror which will come to define the picture. Not to mention Burton’s well crafted decapitation mania.

5) Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane.

Depp based on his performance on a number of actors who have portrayed heroes before, but not your typical stunning heroes. Depp based his performance on Angela Lansbury, Roddy McDowall, and Basil Rathbone. Ichabod Crane is a character noted for not being the most stunning of leading men in the original text (in fact he’s pretty ugly), and Depp asked Burton if he could portray this. Burton opted to have Depp show off Crane’s more unattractive personal qualities though, primarily his squeamishness and his superiority.

This was the 90s. Marked with action movies like Speed, Con Air, and The Matrix. I think having a more nerdy hero works for the film. And Depp is primarily a character actor who gets more leading roles than most characters actors, so having Ichabod Crane not being your standard leading man works very well for the film. It’s one of my favorite Depp performances. A little more reserved than - say - the Mad Hatter, but still filled with the quirky oddball-ness and extravagance the actor is known for.

6) The scariest thing about this is that it’s actually how police work used to be done.

Police Officer [after Crane says he wishes to examine the body for cause of death]: “When they find him in the river the cause of death is drowning.”

7) Crane’s devotion to science/reason is his defining character trait and is established early on in the film. It is not only his defining quality but his key character conflict as he’s thrust into a world of magic and monsters. But more than that, it is very telling of who he is as a person and - as we latter learn on - comes from a place of deep sorrow and pain. The origin behind this devotion makes Crane all the more human and sympathetic, something which I think works great.

8) Christopher Lee cameo!

9) The marks on Crane’s hands are a nice little detail which ties both into his history & motivations as a character.

10) According to IMDb:

The town Sleepy Hollow was created from the ground up in three months. At the time of filming, it was the largest set built in England and was put up in record time. The last set that held this record was built for Billy Elliot (2000).

The cast and crew often said "The feeling one had walking around Sleepy Hollow's sets, and in particular the town at Lime Tree, was almost as if you were walking around the inside of Tim Burton's head."

In a film where the title is derived from a place, that place must be memorable. It has to have a character of it’s own. Through the visual style and community, the town of Sleepy Hollow is as much a character in this film as the Headless Horseman is.

11) There are so many tiny details in this film which become wildly relevant later on. The first of these is the makeout session between two anonymous people that Crane witnesses upon arriving to town (later revealed to be Dr. Lancaster, who’s affair was leverage the villain of the film had over him to commit conspiracy).

12) Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel.

If you’re weirded out by the age difference between Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, don’t worry. So was Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp initially found the idea of Christina Ricci being his love interest in the film to be rather odd, seeing as he's known her since she was nine years old.

Winona Ryder was offered the part, but turned it down. I have to say Ricci does a very fine job in this film. You don’t feel like you’re watching Ricci, she immerses herself so totally as Katrina. This isn’t Wednesday Addams or Zelda Fitzgerald, Katrina is a character all on her own. Ricci does the job justice but I’m afraid she isn’t nearly as developed as Crane is. She’s hardly a one note damsel in distress. We get a peak into her relationship with her mother, her belief in nature over science, the love she has for her family...actually, that all sounds really good. I think I just realized we do learn a bit more about Katrina than I initially thought. Okay, disregard the earlier note. She’s developed pretty well.

13) I gotta use this line someday.

Brom Bones: “And who are you friend? We have not heard your name yet.”

Crane: “I have not said it. Excuse me.”

14) The council of townsmen.

Made up of fine performances from Michael Gambon, Ian McDiarmid, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, and Michael Gough, it is when we meet this council that we not only get a clear sense of what this town is like but also when the mystery sets in (something I’ll discuss more later).

Reverend Steenwyck [after Crane observes that the victims’ heads were found severed from the body]: “Their heads were not found severed. Their heads were not found at all.”

15) Christopher Walken has a small but memorable role in this film as a pre-headless Headless Horseman.

Walken and Burton worked together on Batman Returns and he does a job in his flashback scene of showing just how BRUTAL the Horseman was back when he was a hessian. He delights in the carnage, the murder. He feels less like a man and more like a demon, a trait which gives us our initial fear of the monster and will come to define his character as the film continues. Walken plays a brief but important part in the film.

16) Another tiny detail in the film: the twin girls who get the hessian caught and killed.

17) According to IMDb:

Burton is a major fan of Mario Bava's Gothic horror films, and, as an homage to Bava's Kill Baby, Kill (1966), Burton adopted the basic plot of Bava picture: a skeptical investigator who places his faith in science and reason treks to an out-of-the-way hamlet plagued by a murderous ghost, only to have his skepticism of the supernatural forcibly broken down by the experience.

This film is first and foremost a murder mystery with supernatural elements. There is conspiracy in Sleepy Hollow, the horseman does not kill at random, it has a human master, and then you have this line from Richard Griffiths:

Magistarte Philipse: “Five victims, four graves.”

As the film starts to progress you see the motivations and mystery become clear, you start to understand what is going on in a very detective like way. I think that is why this film succeeds so well. It is more than horror, it is more than a slasher film, it is a mystery which elevates those two genres. I really enjoy that.

18) According to IMDb:

Star Johnny Depp adopted Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder, Ichabod Crane's horse in the film, when he heard it was going to be put down.

19) This line has always made me laugh.

Crane [upon arriving at the scene of a murder]: “You have moved the body?”

Dr. Lancaster: “I did.”

Crane: “You must NEVER move the body.”

Dr. Lancaster: “Why not?”

Crane: “Because.”

It gives us a nice moment of comedy, reminds us of Crane’s scientific methods in a superstitious world, AND shows off one of Crane’s less attractive qualities (his ego).

20) Young Masbeth.

I love Young Masbeth. I’m a fan of found family relationships and the relationship Young Masbeth forms with Crane is very familial. It’s not exactly father/son, more like concerned uncle and his nephew. Young Masbeth avoids the pitfall of being an annoying pain. He’s honest, enduring, has incredible devotion towards not only his father but also (later) Crane and Katrina. He’s a nice, surprising addition to the film and I think it’s better for it.

21) Crane has a lot of sass that I love.

Dr. Lancaster [as Crane brings in a body for an autopsy]: “This is most irregular, constable.”

Crane: “I would hope so...”

22) There is such nice blood spurts in the autopsy scene! Burton really revels in the R-rating.

(GIF originally posted by @deppster)

23) Tim Burton is a Disney fan, and included a number of references to their film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Most notably, the scene in which Ichabod Crane crosses the covered bridge and hears the frogs underneath croaking "Ichabod". Not only that, but the scene where Brom Bones (disguised as the Horseman) chases down Ichabod is also very similar to the climactic chase from the Disney film.

24) Crane’s recurring dreams of his mother use some stylish imagery which conveys that it’s a dream while still fitting with the fantasy tone of the film.

25) The scariest thing about this is that it’s actually how some people used to think.

Katrina: “My father believes romance stories caused the brain fever which killed my mother.”

Because god forbid women read.

26) If you want further proof that Burton DELIGHTS in this film’s gore and gruesomeness.

27) There are quite a few chilling lines in this moment.

Young Masbeth [while riding in the woods]: “Listen.”

Crane: “I hear nothing.”

Young Masbeth: “Nor I. No birds. No crickets. It’s all gone so quiet.”

28) Miranda Richardson is delightful in this scene with the witch, even though you don’t know it’s her right now. Through her voice and physicality she creates such a creepy and fun character it’s hard NOT to enjoy the scene.

29) The Tree of the Dead is an incredible piece of design. It both fits perfectly in the real world of Sleepy Hollow while seeming out of place. The visual and the thematic choices of having its roots be veins filled with blood make it just so memorable. It can be gross but in a fun way.

30) This is the saddest, scariest, and hardest scene to watch in the entire film. It is such powerful drama and conflict but damn if it isn’t just hard to stomach. And not because it’s gory, but because of the victims and the pacing and the point of view and...gah! Watch at your own discretion. This is heartbreaking:

31) Ray Park brings a lot of presence to his role as the Horseman. Park is probably best known for his role as Darth Maul, but he is one of the best stunt-actors in Hollywood. He is able to carry the character of the Horseman established by Walken’s flashback in an honest, consistent, and memorable way.

32) This scene is very telling.

Crane [after Brom picks up an axe]: “Wait, he’s not after you!”

Brom: “I’ll get him.”

Brom may be a bully but at least he’s got guts. Crane has intellect and tenderness but he lack courage. If he can avoid fighting he will; he’s largely looking out for himself and his ways.

33) The second hardest scene to watch in this film is Ichabod’s full memory of his mother’s demise, the explanation of how he lost his faith, and the reason his hands are marked. This is the scene which ties in DIRECTLY with his devotion to logic and reason and it just makes it all so match sadder.

Ichabod [about who murdered his mother]: “...by a bible black tyrant behind a mask of righteousness. I was seven when I lost my faith.”

His father - a reverend - killed his father because he believed she was doing witchcraft. He locked her in an iron maiden and Ichabod found her. And he pushes away anything he can’t prove with logic and reason because of it. It was his mother’s faith was got her killed, and it was his father’s faith which led him to kill her. So he forget faith.

34) This would melt my heart if I weren’t distracted by the age difference.

Crane: “Perhaps there is a bit of witch in you, Katrina.”

Katrina: “Why do you say that?”

Crane: “Because you’ve bewitched me.”

35) Young Masbeth is great, but why does he just assume the symbol under Crane’s bed (and later that Katrina is learned to have drawn) is the evil eye? Like any weird looking eye is evil to you? Because guess what Young Masbeth, while I love you, you are wrong! Quite assuming so much.

36) This random sex scene also becomes weirdly (and yes, I meant to type weirdly) relevant later on.

(GIF originally posted by @rocktheholygrail)

37) The church scene is when things sort of take a twist. As the audience we are totally expecting Michael Gambon to be the master behind the conspiracy, but we soon learn that this is not really the case.

38) According to IMDb:

Michael Gambon wanted to keep his severed head and send it via proxy to interviews and dinner parties as a joke.

39) These two lines are very key to Crane’s internal conflict.

Young Masbeth [after Crane accuses Katrina of being the horseman’s master]: “Then you are bewitched by reason!”

Crane: “I am beaten down by it.”

Crane: “Villainy wears many masks. None so dangerous as the mask of virtue.”

His father wore a mask of virtue. Crane has lost all ability to put his faith in anyone, and that destroys him sometimes. How much better would his life be if he could just ignore reason and trust? That is his key transformation in the film. It’s not that he accepts witchcraft is real. It’s that he accepts people. He learns to trust and put his faith in people again (albeit not many, but still).

40) Miranda Richardon as Katrina’s Step-Mom is the murderer!

All those random little moments in the film become relevant!

She was able to blackmail the doctor because of his affair.

She was sleeping with the reverend.

She was one of the twins who got the horseman killed, and her other twin was the witch who freaked out Crane!

Now that the veil is lifted everything becomes clear and Richardson is able to delight in her villainy. She even gets cheesy one liners!

Lady Van Tassel [as the group runs through the windmill door, pursued by the Horseman]: “Watch your head!”

Nothing like a good crazy villain, and Miranda Richardson is great at it!

41) Tim Burton included the windmill scene as an homage to 1931′s Frankenstein, which he paid homage to in both his 1984 short film Frankenweenie and it’s 2012 feature film successor.

42) Finally, a film character who gets that you can’t kill a ghost!

Katrina [after the windmill is burned down]: “Is he dead?”

Crane: “That’s the problem: he was dead to begin with.”

43) The scene where the Horseman reattaches his head is...sorta gross.

You don’t see it in this GIF, but we get to watch as all the muscles grow back which is...not exactly fun but definitely memorable.

44) Christopher Walken likes to say that this was his first kissing scene in a movie (warning, violent content):

It wasn’t (he had kissing scenes in The Deer Hunter, The Dead Zone, and A View to a Kill), but I can understand why he claims it was. It would be a memorable first on screen kiss.

45) I’m a sucker for found families, so the fact that this film ends with Crane, Katrina, and Young Masbeth - all orphans who had no one - end up living in New York together gets me every time.

I think Sleepy Hollow is one of Burton’s more under sung films, which sucks because it’s great. He REVELS in the fun blood and gore an R-rating gives him, his visual style is on full display, the murder mystery is incredibly interesting, and it has a number of great performances. It’s just a wildly entertaining horror film. If you like horror, mystery, Burton, or any of the actors involved, you should give this film a watch.

[moviesihaveseenbeforeiamdea-blog]

#609 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Source

Released: October 1, 1974

Director: Tobe Hooper

Written by: Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen

Had I Seen it Before? No

American Humane Society-approved: Not really, literal animal corpses are scattered throughout this movie, but! Tobe Hooper became a vegetarian as a result of this movie, and this movie is positioned (credibly) as pro-animal rights.  

There are a lot of movies that have behind-the-scenes featurettes which detail stressful, complicated, but ultimately ordinary film shoots that are interesting for those already invested in the movie but aren’t, ultimately, necessary. There are movies like Apocalypse Now where the accompanying making-of documentary, in this case, Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, are as interesting as the movie that made them possible. And then there are movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre where the stories behind the process of filming are as legendary as the film itself, and the lack of footage of that shooting is a tragedy.  It was amateur hour on the set of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the sadism of the movie’s themes run a nice parallel to the near-total disregard director Tobe Hooper (R.I.P.) had for his cast and crew.

But goddamn if this movie isn’t a vision, even a vile, inhumane one. Horror movies tend to be a reflection of whatever the most topical cultural anxieties are, and Hooper has claimed that this movie’s faux-authentic style, claiming to be based on a true event and filming in a deliberately lo-fi way, was Hooper’s commentary on a post-Watergate, post-Vietnam American society where bold proclamations of authenticity and authority are red herrings to a deeply sadistic story. 

Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen as the brothers Leatherface (Source)

Bequeathing the title of “Scariest Movie Ever” is always going to doom a movie in the long-term. More than most genres, what makes a horror movie successful is a moving target, and what was shocking and taboo forty years ago is going to seem quaint now. The reports of walkouts and total disgust during viewings for a movie that debuted only six years after The Night of the Living Dead, and Chain Saw’s level of intensity is certainly upping the ante, but in a world where the Saw franchise has become laughable, this movie probably didn’t have a chance of shocking in 2017. 

It is so easy for a scary movie to tip over into being a funny one, and everyone has seen the consequences of a movie that attempts to be scary falling flat on its face and only making the audience laugh. As someone who has seen all nine Hellraiser movies, I can attest to the wealth of comedy in movies that don’t find themselves to be funny. Chain Saw has its funny elements---the final dinner scene is chockful of them---but it never lets the humor get away from itself, instead those moments of levity only provide a brief moment of respite to continually remind the viewer that what they’re seeing is disturbing. (The Texas Monthly article I’ve linked to below has more on this.)

But even if Chain Saw isn’t king of the mountain anymore, there’s still a lot to appreciate for its technical ability and dedication to an aesthetic. By all accounts, Hooper was green when he came up with directing this movie (an idea that came to him, apparently, when he was stuck in a mall during the Christmas shopping season and envisioned ways he could speed up the process), and everything in this movie is built around that amateur approach.

The editing, for one, is probably the saving grace in this movie, cutting between shots rapidly and with abandon, attempting to stuff as much imagery as possible in the movie’s below-average runtime. A much-less aware director might have butchered the movie’s intensity by keeping the movement on screen too trackable and coherent, but the frantic pace that Hooper jumps from shot to shot is disorienting and ramshackle in its vision. The cinematography is also rough, the film quality is shit, and the actors overworked and exhausted. The soundtrack lacks any recognizable melodies are even instruments, being a collection of aggressive ambient noises and industrial themes. There’s a Sunn O))) remix somewhere in all the atonal sounds used in making this movie as offensive to every sense that it can be. 

And there are moments of truly inspired design in this movie. The mansion where the bulk of the killing takes place is disgusting, littered with dead animals and bones and all kinds of macabre knick-knacks which were reportedly real. Hansen’s masks are gross, and his behavior unintelligible. Hansen was reportedly pissed when all of his speaking lines were taken away, but the movie is better for it with Leatherface as a hulking oaf incapable of forming complete sentences, squealing and muttering to himself. Hansen apparently studied the behavior of mentally disabled children for the role, which is, you know, not good, but he gives an inspired performance in a one-note role. His final chainsaw dance at the end of the film is almost beautiful as Hansen swings his saw around in frustration in the sunrise, flailing around without any agenda or ideology. He is only a mass of white-hot rage and an insatiable urge to maim and hurt. 

The final chain saw dance (Source)

If nothing else, the people involved in the production of this movie, cast, and crew, can rest easy knowing they made one of the most profitable horror movies of all time, making $30 million on a budget somewhere between $60,000 - $300,000. Just kidding! Due to the complicated funding structure of the movie and Henkel and Hooper’s habit of giving away shares of the movie as collateral for an investment, most of the actors made next to nothing from the movie, and Henkel and Hooper’s career never reached any greater heights.

This movie’s legacy is mostly in the inspiration it holds for would-be filmmakers who have nothing but the balls and the brains to get a movie done, damn the consequences. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and Chain Saw is evidence of that. 

Final thoughts: 

For a very brief moment, Sally seems concerned about her disabled brother being chainsawed to death right in front of her before abandoning him completely.

And while I’m on the point, this movie seems to exist explicitly to fuck with Franklin. 

The very last scene of this movie is such a clusterfuck. Sally escapes the house, chased by Leatherface and his brother. The brother catches up to Sally and hacks away at her with a knife as a big rig approaches and runs him over (he mostly stands in the way). The truck driver tries to help Sally before Leatherface shows up. The driver throws a wrench at Leatherface’s head, causing him to chain saw his own leg. The truck driver then runs away and disappears as another truck shows up and whisks Sally away.

And you know what? Speaking of, no one in this movie seems to understand how to drive in a tense situation. Jerry drives *maybe* 5 mph after they kick out the hitchhiker, as said hitchhiker attacks the vehicle with a knife. The first truck driver who helps Sally climbs into his cab and shuts the door on Leatherface, but hops out the other side of the truck instead of, you know, driving away. The third truck driver does an impressive 180-degree drift and picks up Sally, but at first only manages to drive slightly slower than Leatherface can run, leaving Sally to fend him off for another moment. Does no one understand that, relative to a human being, cars can go really, really fast?

Hansen nearly killed himself with that chain saw, which was real and operating throughout the movie. The guy couldn’t see out of the mask he had to wear, and at one point slipped on a pool of fake blood and sent the saw way up into the air, where it fell inches away from his body. He was not the only one to be endangered by Hooper’s directorial extremes throughout production, and a lengthy article in Texas Monthly does a great job of showing that, given his low budget, Hooper figured the best he could do was make it as real as possible in lieu of state-of-the-art effects. If Burns is planning a trip to dance on Hooper’s grave, this article will explain why.

For how outright violent and offensive this movie is, it is oddly restrained in its blood and gore. I think this was probably a technical necessity due to the infinitesimal budget, but it works in the movie’s favor for the most part. The kills are mostly implied, and so it’s easy to imagine a lot more disturbing action that Hooper could have realistically depicted. There’s always more horror in imagination.