The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:37
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema.
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is, without a doubt, the granddaddy of all splatter films. Inspired by 1950s mass murderer Ed Gein, Tobe Hooper's debut feature opens with five unsuspecting teenagers... [More]
Starring: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal
Director: Tobe Hooper
Reviews for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 3/5 |
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre loses none of its intensity as the years go by. Full Review |
||
|
4/5 |
No review available.
|
||
|
|
It is not that the movie is particularly graphic, with very little blood actually being spilled on screen. Rather, it's a very disturbing film. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
The most purely horrifying horror movie ever made. Full Review |
||
|
|
Artfully documentarylike and shot under conditions that produced genuinely traumatized performances, the original Massacre eschews cheap thrills and attacks the psyche. Full Review |
||
|
|
All these elements set the stage for some of the most prolonged scenes of sustained panic ever captured by cinema, as Hooper infects characters and viewers alike with the thrill of a madness from which there can be no real escape. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
A cutthroat, unendingly bleak masterpiece of horror cinema. Full Review |
||
|
10/10 |
It's a masterpiece, pure and simple..a smart young director summing up the basest instincts of his species. Full Review |
||
|
|
Seeing this again recently has convinced me that it's quite a bit better than I initially judged. Full Review |
||
|
|
The violence is outdated by today's standards, but the original Chainsaw still packs a punch with its rough look and disturbing overtones. Full Review |
||
|
|
The picture gets to you more through its intensity than its craft, but Hooper does have a talent. Full Review |
||
|
|
Despite the heavy doses of gore in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tobe Hooper's pic is well-made for an exploiter of its type. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
The Great American Horror Movie. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
The film's intense final half achieves its unshakable effect through a combination of things aside from graphic gore. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
A profoundly sensitive look at social prejudices and the toll said prejudices take on the human social organism. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
An intelligent, absorbing, and deeply disturbing horror film that is nearly bloodless in its depiction of violence. Full Review |
||
 2/4 |
The movie is some kind of weird, off-the-wall achievement. I can't imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this, and yet it's well-made, well-acted, and all too effective. Full Review |
||
|
3.5/4 |
In his laughing-outlaw way, Hooper pointed a new direction for horror cinema. [2-Disc Ultimate Edition Reviewed] Full Review |
||
|
1/5 |
Cultish trash set new low standards for brutality.
|
||
|
4/5 |
No review available.
|
CommentLatest News for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
October 15, 2009:
Producer Talks New Texas Chainsaw Massacre 
Wondering how Twisted Pictures plans to add anything new -- besides 3-D, of course -- to the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchise? Producer Mark Burg shared some of his thoughts... More...
October 09, 2009:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Going 3-D
Twisted Pictures, home of the "Saw" film franchise, is closing in on a deal that would give it the rights to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" -- and "contemporize the storyline for... More...
June 12, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Wes Craven
No director in recent history has made their particular genre as much their own as Wes Craven. The legendary helmer virtually redefined the horror movies with the likes of The... More...
June 08, 2007:
The Weekly Ketchup: Prospective "Wolverine" Director, "Shreks" Four And Five Set, New Site And Poster For "Halloween," And More!
In this week's Ketchup, the director's job for "Wolverine" is a two-person race, Dreamworks has plans to reap more cash in the coming years with the next two... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds