Inspector Hammer!
Senior HTF Member
First off, I have never really been a fan of the film. I realize it's highly regarded by horror fans as a classic and I can understand that, but I just never found it to be any good.
Well, I decided to give it another shot today in a last ditch effort to like the film, it had been at least 10 years since I saw it last.
Something quite unexpected happened.
I still disliked the film, but not for the reasons I previously thought. Originally, I didn't care for it because I didn't care for the acting and it just wasn't as good or gory as most made it out to be. Purely superficial reasons, I didn't think hard enough about what I saw in this film the last time.
But today, I had an attack of morals during the film and it made for a very uncomforatable and disturbing experience...and not in a good way. The film is so grotesque in it's depiction of human depravity that it offended me really. Seeing what is done to these poor kids in the film made me think of people that are important to me in my life, and how i'd feel if these terrible things were done to them.
For instance, there is a girl that I really like, one that I care about, it hurt's me to the very core of my soul to think how i'd feel if some maniac with a chainsaw did something like that to her. Do you know what i'm saying here? Think real hard about your wife or your girlfriend and how it would effect you. To have someone you love murdered and ripped from your life. The film touches on the true meaning and impact of murder, at least for me.
Getting too intense over this film? Perhaps I am, but these are the thing's I thought about while watching it today. Why am I getting this itense over this film? Maybe it's the fact that my mother is going in for lung cancer surgery this coming Friday, and this fact combined with this film at this particular moment in time has had a strange psychological effect on my psyche.
It's because of this that I most certainly do not find this movie to be fun escapism, it's just plain amoral, sick and inspires bad feelings in me. It'll be days until I get the image of that wheelchair bound kid's demise out of my head! :frowning:
If everything i've said was Tobe Hooper's desired effect, he deserves all the praise he's garnered, the film finally worked on me. A horror film for me should contain at least a few elements of fantasy to de-fuse the violence, to allow my mind to focus on having fun with the story, film's like Halloween do this, this film does not. It's far too realistic to be fun.
I may be going soft, but seeing the sensless slaughter of another human being in the manner that's portrayed in TTCM is just something I cannot watch now. It's a shame too, if the film weren't so damned realistic and twisted, i'd actually like it now! The last time I saw it I didn't appreciate things like cinematography and style, this film has plenty of both.
Well, I decided to give it another shot today in a last ditch effort to like the film, it had been at least 10 years since I saw it last.
Something quite unexpected happened.
I still disliked the film, but not for the reasons I previously thought. Originally, I didn't care for it because I didn't care for the acting and it just wasn't as good or gory as most made it out to be. Purely superficial reasons, I didn't think hard enough about what I saw in this film the last time.
But today, I had an attack of morals during the film and it made for a very uncomforatable and disturbing experience...and not in a good way. The film is so grotesque in it's depiction of human depravity that it offended me really. Seeing what is done to these poor kids in the film made me think of people that are important to me in my life, and how i'd feel if these terrible things were done to them.
For instance, there is a girl that I really like, one that I care about, it hurt's me to the very core of my soul to think how i'd feel if some maniac with a chainsaw did something like that to her. Do you know what i'm saying here? Think real hard about your wife or your girlfriend and how it would effect you. To have someone you love murdered and ripped from your life. The film touches on the true meaning and impact of murder, at least for me.
Getting too intense over this film? Perhaps I am, but these are the thing's I thought about while watching it today. Why am I getting this itense over this film? Maybe it's the fact that my mother is going in for lung cancer surgery this coming Friday, and this fact combined with this film at this particular moment in time has had a strange psychological effect on my psyche.
It's because of this that I most certainly do not find this movie to be fun escapism, it's just plain amoral, sick and inspires bad feelings in me. It'll be days until I get the image of that wheelchair bound kid's demise out of my head! :frowning:
If everything i've said was Tobe Hooper's desired effect, he deserves all the praise he's garnered, the film finally worked on me. A horror film for me should contain at least a few elements of fantasy to de-fuse the violence, to allow my mind to focus on having fun with the story, film's like Halloween do this, this film does not. It's far too realistic to be fun.
I may be going soft, but seeing the sensless slaughter of another human being in the manner that's portrayed in TTCM is just something I cannot watch now. It's a shame too, if the film weren't so damned realistic and twisted, i'd actually like it now! The last time I saw it I didn't appreciate things like cinematography and style, this film has plenty of both.