MARCH 27, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By James Flynn (Staff Writer)
When you think of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” — yes, that’s how they spelled chainsaw — you probably picture blood and guts. It is a film infamous for its supposed brutality, often conjuring images of screaming victims and a roaring chainsaw. But the truth is, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is far less graphic than its reputation suggests. There is only one on-screen chainsaw death in the 1974 film, and much of the violence is left to the viewer’s imagination, making it more unsettling.
The film is layered with rich symbolism that often goes unnoticed. The film is almost a period piece of America in the 1970s, touching on themes including the downfall of rural America, the glorification of the past, the brutality of the meat industry, failing nuclear family structures and the general deep-seated anxieties of the ‘70s. To dismiss it as just another gore-fest ignores the depth that makes it a masterpiece of elevated horror. Taking a closer look, the many hidden layers and themes make this movie more than just a nightmare on film.
The downfall of rural America is the main theme of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The movie follows a group of teenagers traveling through rural Texas searching for their grandfather’s old house. Along the way, they come across the Sawyer family, a group of cannibals who trap and later kill them. Leatherface, the film’s leading killer, hangs victims on meat hooks, locks them in freezers and wields his signature chainsaw. The family then cooks and eats the bodies. As disturbing as it is, it’s important to note that most of the gore is implied rather than shown, making it more than effective in its minimalism.
The very premise of this film raises a simple question: Why is this family killing and eating these people? The answer is both simple and complex. By the 1970s, rural America was declining. The rise of corporate meatpacking plants and industrial agriculture put small farms out of business, leaving many farmers without work. Slaughterhouse jobs also dwindled as new innovations made the killing of animals more efficient and humane. At the same time, rapid urbanization was pulling the American youth towards cities, leaving rural communities dead and forgotten.
The Sawyer family epitomizes this reality. As a once-thriving farming family in a now-abandoned industry, they were forced to turn to cannibalism for survival. The sad and revolting nature of their life transports audiences into the underbelly of rural 1970s America. Not only does it play on tropes by portraying the ‘horror’ of rural Texas, but it is also a commentary on how society’s ignorance of working-class America has left a large portion of the country marginalized. While the film is exaggerated, its depiction of poverty is not as far from the truth as many might want to think. Even today, many people living in rural areas, especially in West Virginia, face debilitating food insecurity.
Another theme that stands out is the film’s commentary on 1970s slaughterhouses. Throughout the movie, humans are killed like livestock, hung on meat hooks, locked in freezers and bludgeoned with hammers. It forces the viewer to imagine what it would be like to be a happy animal frolicking in the fields that is suddenly grabbed and forcefully killed. Tobe Hooper, the film’s director, famously became a vegan for a short time after finishing the movie.
The theme that is perhaps the most relatable to modern-day America is the glorification of the past. Throughout the film, the Sawyer family raves about the “good old days,” portrays a clear fear of the modern-day, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. Life in the past was better for the Sawyer family in every way. It reflects how old Americans who can’t stop talking about the “good old days” aren’t that wrong altogether. For many elderly people, their lives were most likely better when they were young, free and able. The brutal reality of the good old days is stark and thought-provoking in this movie.
One notable example is near the movie’s beginning when the group of teenagers pick up a hitchhiker who is later revealed to be part of the Sawyer family. The hitchhiker shows the teenagers pictures of his bloody animal slaughters, and when asked about why he doesn’t use the modern and humane electronic air-gun, he proclaims, “Oh… that guns no good.” He then mentions that when animals were killed by the “sledge,” they “died better that way.”
Another illuminating scene occurs when the Sawyer family tries to have their nearly lifeless Grandpa kill his final victim, Sally Hardesty.. The family goes on and on about how Grandpa is the “best at killing,” yet he fails miserably to swing the hammer. This not only glorifies the past but also provides a heartbreaking view of the deterioration that comes with age..
This movie also creates a twisted version of the nuclear family structure. Leatherface is portrayed as the ‘woman’ of the household, particularly when he wears his iconic Pretty Woman mask. His brother, the hitchhiker, is the black sheep who ignores rules, constantly wandering off. Drayton Sawyer, also known as “The Cook,” takes on the role of the stressed-out father, trying to keep his boys in line while caring for Grandpa. Their family dynamic is hilariously familiar, with Leatherface and the hitchhiker bickering like siblings and Drayton yelling at them to stop fighting. They even have traditional family dinners, as seen in the infamous dinner torture scene. In many ways, the Sawyers are a grotesque reflection of the idealized American nuclear family.
Finally, this film serves as a viewpoint into the psyche of 1970s Americans. For many, the decade felt like an apocalyptic world. The government was revealed to be deceptive through the Pentagon Papers, serial killers were on the rise and the economy was going through a recession. This movie is a reaction to the angst and fear that was very prevalent in the time, as the American youth stumble upon a nightmarish reality and have their innocence literally and figuratively ripped out of them. Even though Hardesty gets away in the end, the last shot of her screaming and laughing at the same time as blood drips from her face tells you all you need to know about her mental state.
The movie’s tagline, ‘Who will survive, and what will be left of them?’ reflects the bleak future America seemed to face when the film was released. In the divided and antagonistic America we live in today, the fear this movie evokes doesn’t feel far from current-day reality.