- Year
- 1974
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 83 min
- Director
- Tobe Hooper
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (4/100)
- Also known as
- Headcheese · Leatherface · Stalking Leatherface · Saturn in Retrograde · The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Banned in
- UK · Australia · West Germany · Finland · Norway · Ireland · Singapore
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
On the UK Section 3 list and refused a BBFC certificate until 1999, and banned for years in Australia, West Germany, Finland, Norway, Ireland and Singapore.
Almost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.
There is far less on screen than its reputation implies. The gore is nearly all suggested, and the film would probably pass a modern certificate on content alone.
What it has instead is texture. Shot in genuine 110°F Texas heat on a schedule that broke the cast, on 16mm that makes everything look like evidence. The house is full of real animal remains that the art department collected and let cook. Everyone involved has described the production as miserable, and the misery is the film's entire aesthetic.
The last twenty minutes, the dinner scene and then the chase into the dawn, are the most sustained stretch of pure duress in horror. Hooper shoots it like a documentary crew who can't intervene.
Free of any redeeming feature and completely essential.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Written about
- Banned, cut and confiscated
A Fulci print flown out of the country, an Australian rating that just means no, and a German court that filed The Evil Dead under criminal violence. Three states, three machines for making a film disappear.
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