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The Rewatchables ·

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

year 1974decade 70sdirector Tobe Hoopergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryan
All 39 categories

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:05:08

This is the scariest movie ever made

One take is that this is the scariest movie ever made: the participant first saw it at 18 or 19 on VHS after moving into a run-down house in Mission Hill, was up the rest of the night, and, as with Blair Witch, wondered whether it was real; no movie has disturbed them like it.

Another calls it about as unsettling as it gets because it is not supernatural like The Exorcist or Jason, Freddy and Michael Myers; these people could really exist.

The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson · 1:32:37

Don't pick up hitchhikers

The gas station guy's line that there are things you do even if you don't have to like it is cited, but the real lesson is not to pick up hitchhikers and to always have a full tank.

The film

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Directed by Tobe Hooper · Drama

83 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Marilyn Burns Sally Hardesty
Paul A. Partain Franklin Hardesty
Edwin Neal The Hitchhiker
Jim Siedow Drayton Sawyer
Gunnar Hansen Leatherface
John Dugan Grandpa Sawyer
Robert Courtin window washer
William Creamer bearded man
John Henry Faulk storyteller
Jerry Green cowboy
Ed Guinn cattle truck driver
Perry Lorenz pick up driver
John Larroquette narrator

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

34:13

Most Rewatchable Scene

Kirk's death and the lead-up to it

Kirk's death and the lead-up to it

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:13Read transcript
  • The opening is admired though not offered as the pick: the August 18th, 1973 date, the opening crawl, the credits and the graveyard shot make one of the great tone-setting openings, especially since the next 35 to 40 minutes bring little.
  • Picking up the hitchhiker is compared to Antonio Brown joining the Patriots: a bad idea that went worse than expected and ended with people bleeding.
  • Getting stuck with someone fully gone is likened to the corner of a bar; one participant recalls a man in a Philly bar insisting they check out his knife, and the scariest part is that such people call the shots and you have to play along.
  • Kirk and his girlfriend go to a watering hole with no water and walk toward a house that might have gas; finding a rotten tooth and giving it to his girlfriend as a joke is where the hosts would have left.
  • Kirk goes in after hearing an animal squealing and Leatherface kills him with no music, the hammer sounding like a walnut cracking, then slams the sliding metal door; hammers are called underexplored in horror because they knock someone unconscious immediately.
  • Pam goes into the house after Kirk and ends up in the room of feathers and bones, assembled by an art director who collected decomposing animal parts around Texas; Leatherface carries her to another room, puts her on a hook, and she watches Kirk get chainsawed.
  • Jerry goes into the creepy house looking for both; the interaction between Franklin and Sally, brother and sister, is singled out as a riff on Hansel and Gretel: she cannot leave him, which saves her life but costs his.
  • The girl in the freezer, called the igloo, Jerry getting smoked and Leatherface killing Franklin follow, and Sally runs to the gas station guy, who is not really helping her.
  • The gas station guy turning out to be bad, the person you run to for help, became a horror trope; she sees the organs roasting and wonders whether to run before he pulls up with the bag and rope, and Friday the 13th repeats the moment with Jason's mom.
  • The grandfather sucking Sally's bloody finger is super disturbing and her passing out is called the correct response; they reportedly cut her finger for real.
  • The dinner is called the worst dinner invite of all time, tied up while three psychopaths mock her, and the grandfather trying and failing to hit her with the hammer is compared to an aging quarterback trying one last season.
  • She escapes by jumping out the window a second time; the hosts are unsure why she and the truck driver leave the truck, and call the ending, her bloody face screaming while Leatherface waves the chainsaw in the dawn sun, the most haunting ending and an all-time last shot, better even than Halloween's.
  • The pick is Kirk getting killed and the lead-up to it, which another participant agrees with without question; it is the stretch they would watch if the movie came on cable.
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47:17

The most 1974 thing

Hitchhikers

Hitchhikers

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:17Read transcript
  • Candidates include the hitchhiker's Polaroid camera with its flashbulb attachment, the title spelling chain saw as two words, and Franklin's old wheelchair.
  • Calling someone's girlfriend your old lady is also offered and liked; the girls' outfits have somewhat come back, but hitchhikers have not, and hitchhikers is called the winner.
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50:29

What’s Aged the Best?

Slaughterhouses as a horror setting; grave robbing as a premise; the graveyard scene; seatless 70s vans; the We Slaug...

Slaughterhouses as a horror setting; grave robbing as a premise; the graveyard scene; seatless 70s vans; the We Slaughter BBQ sign; chainsaws; the dad and his hitchhiker son; fear of the wrong hitchhiker; the poster; the one-chainsaw budget and 868 edits; its influence on Alien and other filmmakers; Daniel Pearl's cinematography; Marilyn Burns' screams; the helper who turns on you; Leatherface's masks; the film as a rich text

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:29Read transcript
  • Slaughterhouses make a great horror location, tying human violence to a murderous bent of society, and grave robbing creates dread through the radio report and the opening shot of the statue of bones in the graveyard.
  • The graveyard scene, with the old drunk and the people leering at the women, is low-key creepy; every stop is meant to be small-town America backbone, a gas station or a graveyard, shown in its most demonic version.
  • Seventies vans with no seats or seatbelts and everyone piled in the back, and the We Slaughter BBQ sign, which promises the freshest possible barbecue.
  • Chainsaws are still underrated, Scarface has a great one, and seeing one makes you want to grab it and do the Leatherface.
  • The dad and his hitchhiker son, with lines like 'come here, you nap-haired idiot'; the fear of picking up the wrong hitchhiker; and the poster.
  • They had only one chainsaw and one Leatherface outfit for the whole movie, there are 868 edits in an 83-minute movie, and the film inspired Ridley Scott to make Alien.
  • It was hugely influential, loved by Scorsese, Spielberg, Tarantino and Friedkin; Daniel Pearl's cinematography is called easily the best aspect, a precursor to Paris, Texas vistas mixed with handheld documentary style, looking far better than the shoestring budget allows.
  • Marilyn Burns' screaming, the trope of the person you think will help turning on you, and the masks: Gunnar Hansen described a killing mask, an old lady mask and a pretty woman mask, the last worn at dinner with a wig and black suit because in Texas you dress up for dinner.
  • The film is a rich text, with countless books and analysis from gender studies to anthropology about its relevance to Texas and American history in the Nixon era; the best horror says something about its time.
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55:38

The Great Shot Gordo Award for Most Cinematic Shot

The last shot; the shot under the swing of Pam walking toward the house

The last shot; the shot under the swing of Pam walking toward the house

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:38Read transcript
  • The last shot was already covered; a different pick is the shot under the swing of Pam walking toward the house, defended with a joke about her figure, and the film has a couple of random, very long shots.
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57:16

Is There a Better Title for This Movie?

No better title

No better title

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:16Read transcript
  • They worked on Saturn's Return and also considered Leatherface and Headcheese; Headcheese is not a bad title, though under it the movie makes a dollar.
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre is called one of the better titles of the last 55 years because it tells you what the movie is going to do.
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59:20

The Butch’s Girlfriend Award for the Weakest Link in the Film

Franklin

Franklin

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:20Read transcript
  • Franklin is the pick, with full understanding that he is supposed to be the weak link; there is no worse hang, and you want him to die.
  • Texas Monthly is quoted on his constant demand for attention, high-pitched cries of Sally and anger at everyone, making him one of the most despicable handicapped people in film history and the only one who almost seems to deserve his death, which is the point.
  • His key moment is when everybody pairs off at the first house and he is the fifth wheel, which explains why he engages the hitchhiker: lonely, longing for connection, he finds the worst possible one.
  • Jokes imagine him today with a lot of Reddit posts and 82,000 Letterboxd reviews.
  • Paul Partee (as transcribed) was reportedly a pain-in-the-ass method actor, and the hosts cannot imagine being a method actor on a $60,000 movie.
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1:01:18

What’s Aged the Worst?

No nude scene despite horror expectations; Sally's 'I'll do whatever you want' plea; only one chainsaw death; the bea...

No nude scene despite horror expectations; Sally's 'I'll do whatever you want' plea; only one chainsaw death; the beating the actors took; the sound of the hammer on Kirk's skull

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:18Read transcript
  • A participant's wife was surprised there was no nude scene shoehorned in as in every horror movie; at the watering hole the hosts expected one, and the family shows no interest in Sally as a pretty young woman, in it for the love of the game.
  • The victims are not killed because they are having sex but because they go looking for gasoline.
  • Sally's plea at the dinner table that she will do whatever they want is flagged, though one host counters that she is trying to live.
  • There is only one chainsaw death, Franklin's, with more hammer than chainsaw, and the actors got beaten up, Marilyn Burns above all, hit in the head with a rubber hammer, landing from windows and running through branches; according to Hooper, everyone hated his guts by the wrap party.
  • The sound of the hammer hitting Kirk's skull returns whenever the participant cracks a shoulder.
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1:02:58

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

The hitchhiker; the gas station guy at dinner

The hitchhiker; the gas station guy at dinner

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:58Read transcript
  • There are a lot of possibilities; the hitchhiker is the probable choice, with the gas station guy at dinner also named, and one of them was apparently the only SAG actor, whom the production needed.
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1:05:08

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

This is the scariest movie ever made; film shoots should go back to being nightmare shoots; Leatherface was the victi...

This is the scariest movie ever made; film shoots should go back to being nightmare shoots; Leatherface was the victim; the hitchhiker is scarier than Leatherface

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:08Read transcript
  • One take is that this is the scariest movie ever made: the participant first saw it at 18 or 19 on VHS after moving into a run-down house in Mission Hill, was up the rest of the night, and, as with Blair Witch, wondered whether it was real; no movie has disturbed them like it.
  • Another calls it about as unsettling as it gets because it is not supernatural like The Exorcist or Jason, Freddy and Michael Myers; these people could really exist.
  • Asked for a hottest take, a participant argues movie shoots should go back to being nightmare shoots, 100 degrees and the same outfit, with a waiver like climbing Everest, because it gets the best performance.
  • None of the actors participated in the profits after the film became a hit, which recalls complaints from the Obsession set; today people on set would post stories about inhumane working conditions.
  • The take is that Leatherface was the victim. — Bill Simmons
  • The take is called a really good one, with the defense that multiple people came into his house, he was defending his property, and taxidermy is his hobby.
  • During the scene discussion, offered as one of a participant's hottest takes, the hitchhiker is called scarier than Leatherface because everybody has had an interaction with someone fully gone.
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1:09:48

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

None

None

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:48Read transcript
  • The Joey Pants Award for best that guy gets no nominee.
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1:10:34

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

The gas station windshield washer

The gas station windshield washer

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:34Read transcript
  • Offered the grandfather or the gas station windshield washer, the windshield washer is the choice; the hosts wonder whether he is part of the family, decide he was not invited to dinner, and imagine him as a part-timer going home after another weird day cleaning up bones.
  • During the scene discussion, the redhead washing the windows at the first gas station stop is called one of the funniest parts of the movie and flagged for the Dion Waiters Award.
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1:16:46

Apex Mountain

Indie horror movies; chainsaws; cinematic rural Texas; head cheese; the 1972 Ford Club Wagon

Indie horror movies; chainsaws; cinematic rural Texas; head cheese; the 1972 Ford Club Wagon

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:46Read transcript
  • For indie horror movies, this and Blair Witch are at the apex.
  • For final girls, Laurie is called more iconic, with Ripley from Alien also raised; Sally is named the most underrated final girl, while another picks the girl in Friday the 13th Part 2.
  • A tangent weighs which Friday the 13th the show should do, Part 2 or the final chapter, with a listener vote floated.
  • Chainsaws are a yes; Texas is a no but cinematic rural, scary Texas is a yes; hot 70s blondes named Marilyn is a no, with Maryland Chambers (as transcribed) instead; Toby Hooper's apex is Poltergeist, which he did direct.
  • Head cheese is a yes for sure.
  • For movie murderers, Norman Bates and Lecter are considered and Myers is probably the answer because of his body of work; Leatherface is called a schedule merchant whose victims walk into his house, and grave robbing is something anybody can do.
  • Hitchhiking is probably not at its apex, but the 1972 Ford Club Wagon they used as the van gets an apex call.
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1:19:12

Cruise or Hanks?

Hanks as one of the men in the van; Cruise as the hitchhiker

Hanks as one of the men in the van; Cruise as the hitchhiker

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:12Read transcript
  • Hanks would be one of the dudes in the van, while Cruz (as transcribed) could have done the hitchhiker, especially the Cruz of today's red carpets.
  • The hosts riff on Cruz in the van saying $2 is a fair price for the picture and praising Franklin; the hitchhiker's demand for $2 is called the moment you know this is all wrong, and a video of Cruz coming back for a third handshake with an amputee is recalled.
  • The idea, attributed to Craig, of having Cruz on the show is rejected: the hosts say he has lost his mind and is gone.
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1:25:33

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Eight follow-ups exist, including Two, The Next Generation, the Jessica Biel reboot, the Netflix film and the 2017 pr...

Eight follow-ups exist, including Two, The Next Generation, the Jessica Biel reboot, the Netflix film and the 2017 prequel Leatherface; a Curry Barker reboot is rumored

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:25:33Read transcript
  • Eight films followed as sequels, prequels or remakes, including The Next Generation with Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, seen once and called entertaining; Two, also directed by Toby Hooper, is liked a lot, and Kim Henkel, who wrote the original, was involved with The Next Generation.
  • There was a Jessica Biel reboot, a Netflix film about influencers killed by Leatherface that one participant enjoyed, and the 2017 DirecTV prequel Leatherface starring Stephen Dorff; Curry Barker is rumored to be rebooting it with Glenn Powell possibly involved, coming to Skydance.
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1:26:47

Is This Movie Better With…?

Doug McRae (as transcribed); Stephen A. Smith

Doug McRae (as transcribed); Stephen A. Smith

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:47Read transcript
  • After watching a lot of Affleck that week, a participant performs a character, Doug McRae (as transcribed), taunting Leatherface as the only guy in Texas with a chainsaw who will not make head cheese out of him, and living in a van by the old Franklin place.
  • As new blood, Stephen A. Smith does a somber Straight Shooter the day after the murders: he does not care about the five young people, only that Leatherface, his brother and the best slaughterhouse chef in the country, may not be able to do his thing.
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1:28:43

Just One Oscar

Editing; Tobe Hooper; Daniel Pearl's cinematography

Editing; Tobe Hooper; Daniel Pearl's cinematography

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:28:43Read transcript
  • Three options are floated without a choice: editing, Toby Hooper, or the cinematographer Daniel Perle (as transcribed).
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1:32:37

The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson

Don't pick up hitchhikers; keep a full tank

Don't pick up hitchhikers; keep a full tank

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:32:37Read transcript
  • The gas station guy's line that there are things you do even if you don't have to like it is cited, but the real lesson is not to pick up hitchhikers and to always have a full tank.
  • Earlier, the big ultimate lesson is to get gas when you need it, stop at the right station and never drop below a half tank, called the Miyagi.
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1:32:37

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

The original chainsaw; the hitchhiker's pouch; the We Slaughter Barbecue sign; the Polaroid photo

The original chainsaw; the hitchhiker's pouch; the We Slaughter Barbecue sign; the Polaroid photo

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:32:37Read transcript
  • Definitely not the mask or the clothes; the original chainsaw would be amazing at auction, and the hitchhiker's little pouch with the pictures, the We Slaughter Barbecue sign and the Polaroid photo are also wanted.
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1:34:06

Who Won the Movie?

Tobe Hooper

Tobe Hooper

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:34:06Read transcript
  • Hooper is proposed and affirmed because he had the most career afterwards, a Hollywood hotshot for a while on the Universal lot with Spielberg, directing Poltergeist.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Tobe Hooper
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