NZIFF 2025 Craccum Coverage | The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Review by Madeline Smith

There are many horror films that are more explicit in content, but to this day, I think Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic is the most upsetting and disturbing horror film I’ve ever seen. It feels strange to me that it’s a canonised film that everyone knows, and that I was able to go see it at The Civic in a 4K restoration. It’s notoriously light in terms of on-screen violence, but the grotesque atmosphere and sense of realism have never been fully recreated. Given the unethical filming conditions (involving the use of real chainsaws and real hammers that got dangerously close to the actors), it probably shouldn’t be. Part of what makes Hooper’s film so effective is that it blends very deliberate formal decisions with ones that appear sloppy and amateurish. I feared that a 4K restoration would lead to the film being ‘cleaned up’, but thankfully, this was avoided. The film looks and sounds about as good as it could be without having its raw power diminished. The sound mix stands out in this regard. The most abrasive parts of the sound design are heightened - for instance, the bass tones on the soundtrack made the floor rumble - but much of the dialogue remains muddled, at times borderline inaudible. If it were made on a higher budget and if it more closely obeyed the ‘rules’ of visual language, it would be a more polished film, but a far less effective one (as we can see from its many remakes, sequels and imitators).