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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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For the 40th Anniversary of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the rights-holders have returned to the original 16mm elements, and scanned them in 4k, which means that not only can one see grain, one can see amoeba slowly nibbling on said grain.  This is digital overkill to the nth degree.

But what matters is the final product.

And it looks generally superb.  Color, densities, shadow detail (which is restricted in 16mm) are all within proper ranges.  Blacks look appropriately dark. The overall image has been cleaned up nicely, with only slight blemishes in attendance.

Audio has, likewise, been nicely harvested, and is offered in four flavors.  Original mono, 2 track, 5.1 and 7.1.  I searched in setup for a Dolby Atmos track, but was unable to find one.

For those who love classic slasher films, this is one of the granddaddies, and it looks and sounds superb.

For those who have not yet seen Chainsaw, there is a simple lesson to be learned, much like dealing with a vampire, and inviting said immortal into one's home, it is best, especially when traveling through some of the more backwoods areas of this county (and others), not to enter a home, no matter how lived in it may appear...

without an invitation.

A beautiful Blu-ray.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

Recommended

RAH

 

moviebuff75

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I'm presenting this with the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" at SkyDome Cinema (my backyard theater.) Here are a couple of pics of "The Exorcist" and "Carrie." I showed them to an enthusiastic audience last weekend.
exorsky.jpg

carriesky.jpg
 

JoshZ

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Technically, the original is "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." The sequels and remakes change the spelling to "Chainsaw."
 

bgart13

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I saw the 4k DCP at a drive-in near me (NW of Chicago), looked excellent even in that venue. I recently put on the original Pioneer dvd -- hoo boy, I didn't recall it looking at bad as it does. The compression is terrible! Oof. I was good with the last bd, but seeing the new 4k version and now (gulp) caps, I'm all in for it. Again.
 

John Sparks

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I'll stick with my DVD Elite Entertainment edition of this movie. It's a beautiful print and it's really cool to see it start off with an older print and then show you want they did to make this the best showing possible!
 

FoxyMulder

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TravisR said:
Got my copy today. Once again, I'm amazed and pleased to see a low budget movie get this kind of treatment.
A little bit worried about the amoeba nibbling on the grain, couldn't they have fed it some algae prior to the scan.

This shames Paramount who have made a fortune from the Star Trek films but keep re-releasing the same substandard product, it also shames Universal who refuse to redo Spartacus, some of these smaller labels go the extra mile.
Bob Cashill said:
And for the third or fourth time! :)
 

Vincent_P

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John Sparks said:
I'll stick with my DVD Elite Entertainment edition of this movie. It's a beautiful print and it's really cool to see it start off with an older print and then show you want they did to make this the best showing possible!
Elite never released THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE on DVD, only LaserDisc. The Elite title you're thinking of with that opening is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Vincent
 

haineshisway

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Certainly one of the most vile films ever made. Ugly and disgusting. I'm sure it's not as potent now as it was back then, but I have no need to ever see it again. When Paramount bought my film The First Nudie Musical, I was on the lot quite often in meetings with the man who ran the studio and his second in command. One day, the second in command said, "I want you to watch a movie that we're thinking about buying and give me your opinion." I said, "Sure." We went into a screening room and he literally locked the door. We sat down and on came this movie - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I sat there, knowing I couldn't leave, hating every minute of it - I literally thought it was made by insane people who'd been given film and a camera, not that they really knew how to use it. At the end of it, the second in command laughed and said, "Sorry about the locked door but I knew you'd leave if I didn't." He asked what I thought and I gave him an earful of what I thought and he agreed with me. And they passed on the film. :)
 

Oblivion138

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haineshisway said:
Certainly one of the most vile films ever made. Ugly and disgusting. I'm sure it's not as potent now as it was back then, but I have no need to ever see it again. When Paramount bought my film The First Nudie Musical, I was on the lot quite often in meetings with the man who ran the studio and his second in command. One day, the second in command said, "I want you to watch a movie that we're thinking about buying and give me your opinion." I said, "Sure." We went into a screening room and he literally locked the door. We sat down and on came this movie - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I sat there, knowing I couldn't leave, hating every minute of it - I literally thought it was made by insane people who'd been given film and a camera, not that they really knew how to use it. At the end of it, the second in command laughed and said, "Sorry about the locked door but I knew you'd leave if I didn't." He asked what I thought and I gave him an earful of what I thought and he agreed with me. And they passed on the film. :)
...and in doing so, lost a lot of money. ;)

That bit about not really knowing how to use a camera is bollocks, though. Now, the Friday the 13th movies...coincidentally, made by Paramount...those were movies made by people with zero artistic sense. Texas Chain Saw Massacre has a very arthouse feel to the cinematography, and the use of strong implied violence, rather than straight gore, shows an artist's sensibility. It is easily one of the best pictures of its kind. Made by crazy people, yes. But crazy people who knew exactly what they were doing, and did it very well.

At any rate, I was very pleased with the initial BD release of this film, and wasn't sure how much it could be improved upon. There was some filtering here and there, but overall, it was so much better than I'd ever seen TCSM look, that I couldn't imagine it ever looking much better. Well, this is it. If the original BD was a revelation, this transfer is definitive. I agree that scanning in 4K was overkill, but I also agree that it's the end result that matters. And the end result here is stunning. As a connosieur of 16mm on BD, I have rarely seen a 1080p presentation of a 16mm film that looks better than this. And I certainly never thought TCSM would look as good as this. I didn't think there was really much room for improvement after the 2007 BD. Sometimes, it's really nice to be wrong.
 

schan1269

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Throwing a movie under the bus for not being your taste is...BS.

Like we discussed in another thread...Synapse is doing fine things with film of this ilk.

Thankfully there are those with the sense to say something is worthwhile...even when not their taste.

This is going on my shelf next to Preaching to The Perverted, The Image, The Devil's Rejects...just down from 8 1/2, The Godfather and 2001.
 

John Sparks

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Elite never released THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE on DVD, only LaserDisc. The Elite title you're thinking of with that opening is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Vincent
My head was in the clouds, again...
 

McCrutchy

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haineshisway said:
Certainly one of the most vile films ever made. Ugly and disgusting. I'm sure it's not as potent now as it was back then, but I have no need to ever see it again. When Paramount bought my film The First Nudie Musical, I was on the lot quite often in meetings with the man who ran the studio and his second in command. One day, the second in command said, "I want you to watch a movie that we're thinking about buying and give me your opinion." I said, "Sure." We went into a screening room and he literally locked the door. We sat down and on came this movie - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I sat there, knowing I couldn't leave, hating every minute of it - I literally thought it was made by insane people who'd been given film and a camera, not that they really knew how to use it. At the end of it, the second in command laughed and said, "Sorry about the locked door but I knew you'd leave if I didn't." He asked what I thought and I gave him an earful of what I thought and he agreed with me. And they passed on the film. :)
It is worth pointing out that, while that may have been true in the early 70s, the film has since been surpassed by some truly disturbing and otherwise utterly pointless genre fare, many of which were and are made independently.

For the record, the most disturbing film I ever saw was a documentary made in 2001, Orozco the Embalmer, The title subject lived and worked in Colombia, and granted the Japanese director unprecedented access to the work of a mortician who was very jaded, and very, very busy. The scene that I always recall is the one where Orozco uses his arms, hands and a hammer to jam a prosthetic into the skull cavity of a dead woman, in order to give her corpse the proper form for the casket. As I recall, at one point, the film crew returned to Colombia, unable to find Orozco. Eventually they found out he had been murdered. The worst part is that the footage is purely for shock, and there is absolutely no attempt to contextualize Orozco's work within the state of living in Colombia, nor does their seem to be any argument or position the filmmaker makes or takes.

Until recently, it seems, the film was only released in Japan and in Austria, by Camera Obscura, as their first release. As with all Camera Obscura releases, it was entirely English-friendly, and I promptly re-sold their DVD to someone years ago.

But searching now, I can see it came out here as well. I would advise never watching it. In comparison, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre looks like a Disney Princess film.
 

haineshisway

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Oblivion138 said:
...and in doing so, lost a lot of money. ;)

That bit about not really knowing how to use a camera is bollocks, though. Now, the Friday the 13th movies...coincidentally, made by Paramount...those were movies made by people with zero artistic sense. Texas Chain Saw Massacre has a very arthouse feel to the cinematography, and the use of strong implied violence, rather than straight gore, shows an artist's sensibility. It is easily one of the best pictures of its kind. Made by crazy people, yes. But crazy people who knew exactly what they were doing, and did it very well.

At any rate, I was very pleased with the initial BD release of this film, and wasn't sure how much it could be improved upon. There was some filtering here and there, but overall, it was so much better than I'd ever seen TCSM look, that I couldn't imagine it ever looking much better. Well, this is it. If the original BD was a revelation, this transfer is definitive. I agree that scanning in 4K was overkill, but I also agree that it's the end result that matters. And the end result here is stunning. As a connosieur of 16mm on BD, I have rarely seen a 1080p presentation of a 16mm film that looks better than this. And I certainly never thought TCSM would look as good as this. I didn't think there was really much room for improvement after the 2007 BD. Sometimes, it's really nice to be wrong.
I didn't lose money and had Paramount released the film they most likely would have lost money. It was their decision - I merely offered my opinion and he happened to agree with it. As to artistic sense, that is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure the film, if I bothered to watch it again, would seem tame by today's standards, just as Psycho, when shown to young people, seems tame - they have no idea what it was like to see that film in 1960. So, you may love the film for whatever reasons (did you see it when it was released?) and that is your OPINION. I was relating what I feel is an amusing story and the story contains my OPINION of the film - not yours, not anyone else's.
 

haineshisway

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McCrutchy said:
It is worth pointing out that, while that may have been true in the early 70s, the film has since been surpassed by some truly disturbing and otherwise utterly pointless genre fare, many of which were and are made independently.

For the record, the most disturbing film I ever saw was a documentary made in 2001, Orozco the Embalmer, The title subject lived and worked in Colombia, and granted the Japanese director unprecedented access to the work of a mortician who was very jaded, and very, very busy. The scene that I always recall is the one where Orozco uses his arms, hands and a hammer to jam a prosthetic into the skull cavity of a dead woman, in order to give her corpse the proper form for the casket. As I recall, at one point, the film crew returned to Colombia, unable to find Orozco. Eventually they found out he had been murdered. The worst part is that the footage is purely for shock, and there is absolutely no attempt to contextualize Orozco's work within the state of living in Colombia, nor does their seem to be any argument or position the filmmaker makes or takes.

Until recently, it seems, the film was only released in Japan and in Austria, by Camera Obscura, as their first release. As with all Camera Obscura releases, it was entirely English-friendly, and I promptly re-sold their DVD to someone years ago.

But searching now, I can see it came out here as well. I would advise never watching it. In comparison, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre looks like a Disney Princess film.
As I say in the post above, I'm sure that TODAY the film seems positively quaint in its impact, because of course it's been so surpassed by people pushing the vile envelope it's not even funny.
 

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haineshisway said:
As I say in the post above, I'm sure that TODAY the film seems positively quaint in its impact, because of course it's been so surpassed by people pushing the vile envelope it's not even funny.
This is why I bolded the part of your post that I responded to. You say that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the most vile films ever made.

It sounds like you could do with seeing it again, if you haven't done so since your screening at Paramount. To be sure, I am not suggesting that the film is "tame", because taken on its own, it is not. However, as many people have pointed out about other films, there is worse stuff on the news today, and as for films, we all know that the major studios (Paramount included) are singing a different tune about horror films today. If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had been lost before release and was recently found, I wouldn't bet against Paramount putting in a bid to release it theatrically and/or on home video.
 

Ruz-El

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haineshisway said:
Certainly one of the most vile films ever made. Ugly and disgusting. I'm sure it's not as potent now as it was back then, but I have no need to ever see it again. When Paramount bought my film The First Nudie Musical, I was on the lot quite often in meetings with the man who ran the studio and his second in command. One day, the second in command said, "I want you to watch a movie that we're thinking about buying and give me your opinion." I said, "Sure." We went into a screening room and he literally locked the door. We sat down and on came this movie - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I sat there, knowing I couldn't leave, hating every minute of it - I literally thought it was made by insane people who'd been given film and a camera, not that they really knew how to use it. At the end of it, the second in command laughed and said, "Sorry about the locked door but I knew you'd leave if I didn't." He asked what I thought and I gave him an earful of what I thought and he agreed with me. And they passed on the film. :)
Funny, I just watched THE PURGE, and argued that it was one of the most nihilistic and hopeless (not to mention boring, tedious and terrible in every regard) films I've seen, surpassing the reputations of TEXAS CHAINSAW and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST which are actually artistic achievements that in their own way actually have a positive point despite being able to disturb one to their very bone. I'll take vile and disgusting over boring and dull anytime.
haineshisway said:
I didn't lose money and had Paramount released the film they most likely would have lost money. It was their decision - I merely offered my opinion and he happened to agree with it. As to artistic sense, that is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure the film, if I bothered to watch it again, would seem tame by today's standards, just as Psycho, when shown to young people, seems tame - they have no idea what it was like to see that film in 1960. So, you may love the film for whatever reasons (did you see it when it was released?) and that is your OPINION. I was relating what I feel is an amusing story and the story contains my OPINION of the film - not yours, not anyone else's.
I'd argue that films like Texas Chainsaw and Psycho have lost none of their power. It's not gore that is disturbing in TCM, there isn't really any gore in it. It's the intensity and the relentlessness of the pacing that disturbs you. There are no jokes, no way out, no pauses to make things easy on the audience. Things just keep getting worse and worse. The remake tried to compensate the "attack" like quality of the original by using gore, and while it wasn't the worst remake, it was far from being as good as the original.

As far as Psycho, my last viewing was in a theater full of twenty somethings. For the first twenty minutes or so there was a lot of snickering, but once things started to ramp up they got dead quiet until the end, the silence being broken by one of them moaning "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck" as the last shot of Perkins faded out. I'm yet to see that reaction at any modern horror film. Screams from jump scares, yes, but not dead quiet intensity.

Good films by good filmmakers hold up or we wouldn't be buying them. I don't think it has anything to do with some snooty belief that one film is inherently better than the other. If the end product is good, it will stand.
 

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