Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), who uses a wheelchair, travel with three friends to check on their grandfather's grave. Their trip goes wrong when they pick up a disturbing hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) and stop at a petrol station run by a strange old man (Jim Siedow).
Tobe Hooper's film looks and feels like real footage. Its grainy images, harsh sunlight and constant noise make it almost unbearable to watch. When Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) appears, it is sudden, brutal and shocking.
Surprisingly, there is very little blood. The horror comes from the atmosphere: rooms full of bones, the screaming, and the sense that there is no escape. The dinner scene is one of the most disturbing sequences ever filmed.
It is ugly and exhausting, and the first act is slow. But The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a raw, terrifying masterpiece that still feels dangerous decades later.
